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Article — , 31 January 2011

Kill Switch

It Takes Two to Do the Electric Union Tango.

Toggle Switch I was working on a system for TVA. It had a watchdog connected to a power relay to make sure that it was always running. The fact that this was the solution implemented to it always crashing I found a bit alarming, but I was hired to fix just this problem so I was glad to be working.

The power relay had a cover, that was removed and sitting on a nearby folding table. It was also right next to the power switch behind the computer in a sealed environmental enclosure. So I had to reach back in the dark case and flip the power switch on the box to reboot it.

As inevitability would have it, one day I grabbed the relay contact instead of the power switch. I yelled, "OWWW!" and jumped back waving my throbbing hand. I was standing next to the Gomer Pyle of our group, and he ran off with arms flailing yelling "SAFETY OFFICER!"

So out comes the safety officer with the yellow tape and marks the area off limits and safety tags all the power outlets and switches in the area. They bring in the union safety team. I get to go see the staff nurse. I got to fill out the workman's comp paperwork, and then had to declare I was fit to work. I got to fill out my version for the official incident report.

A week later I was summoned to a meeting of the safety commission. It was a room full of humorless bureaucrats sitting on a table with a light shining down on a chair for me to sit in. I thought, well they can't come after me so I confidently sat down.

"Do you have any authority under union regulations to operate power equipment?" came the first question.

I said, "No, but we're talking about a power switch on a computer, which I am allowed to operate."

"But it is a power switch and therefore it is power equipment which falls under the electrical trades union agreement." came the curt retort.

I stared blankly and remembered that the fellow who left the cover off was in the electrical trade union. He called in a favor somehow and they were gaming the rules. Strategy and games, something I love.

"It is therefore the finding of this committee that you have violated your authority under union regulations and a safety violation will go down on your permanent record."

I wondered if it still had all those incidents from high school on it. I was provided with copies of the incident report.

I left and told my office mates about it . They talked about how it was just bullshit and stupid abuse of the system. I told them I thought it was a great time for some fun. To which I got blank looks. Then that afternoon, I filed a work order to have my computer turned off for the night with the electrical trade union.

The next morning, my whole office filed work orders to have their computers turned on for the day. The next day, several in the building followed suit and requests for plugging in fans and unplugging fans started going in and for light switches on the wall--since they all qualified as "power equipment". The paper work for the electrical union was piling up faster than they could sign the work orders.

I finally got called to the directors office. He said that my safety citation had been lost somewhere and wasn't in my file anymore, and could I please ask everyone to stop filing work orders with the electrical union for every power switch. :-P

Toggle Switch Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, used under share-alike Creative Commons License.

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