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My dad went up to the employee and identified himself as a health inspector and the employee nearly passed out. Place was closed shortly after.
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Health and safety officers are an important part of almost every workplace, even though many of us may not think about their role until something goes wrong. Their job is not just about checking boxes, enforcing rules, or pointing out mistakes—it is about making sure people can do their work safely and return home without unnecessary risks. These professionals are constantly looking for potential hazards, helping companies follow safety regulations, investigating incidents, and finding ways to prevent accidents before they happen. From making sure the right equipment is available to identifying unsafe practices, they play a behind-the-scenes role in protecting employees and creating a workplace where people feel supported.
Today, we were able to speak with a workplace safety inspector based in Germany who gave us a glimpse into what really happens during inspections. The inspector chose to remain anonymous but shared some honest insights about the situations they encounter, the safety mistakes people often make, and the misconceptions surrounding their job. We were curious to know what the most shocking thing they had ever discovered during an inspection was. While they explained that they had fortunately not come across too many extreme cases personally, one warehouse inspection was something they never forgot.
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The inspector shared, "I luckily didn't personally encounter many shocking or dangerous things during inspections, but one recent occurrence did leave an impression on me." They explained that they had visited a warehouse where storage units reached several meters high. The problem was that employees did not have the proper equipment or a ladder tall enough to safely reach items stored on the upper levels. Instead of finding a safer solution, workers had simply started climbing the storage units themselves.
What shocked the inspector was not only the dangerous behavior but how normal it had become. "The employees would regularly fall down from several meters up, and they just accepted it as their everyday routine," they explained. The situation was so concerning that even the warehouse manager admitted he had once fallen with such force that he broke through a side wall. Thankfully, nobody had suffered a serious injury at that point, but the inspector was surprised that a major accident had not already happened.
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Couple highlights:
- Washing russets in the dish machine before baking. A low-temp chlorine system, no less.
- An inch think layer of dull pink scum found at the bottom of an ancient ice machine.
- Storage of frozen foods outdoors on a rooftop during the winter. No shelter, covered in snow, ravens picking at various boxes of raw meat and seafood.
- A dish pit with a foot deep sinkhole just in front of the machine, covered with a pair of 2x6 planks to allow access.
- A line cook working the salad station with no pants.
- Quat sanitizer bottles filled with oven degreaser.
- A line cook breaking a plate on the flattop grill and attempting to continue cooking without proper cleaning.
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these guys were importing live fish from who knows where (customs was involved) and cooking it up like it’s no ones business. no coolers worked, no cooking was at the right temperature, everything was stored literally everywhere (food and live animals on floor, raw over ready to eat, etc). dish machine? sanitizing? what’s all that? the guy was tasting some soup and quite literally spitting it back into the pot. no one had on hairnets or gloves or shoes for that matter.
safe to say they got like a 20/100 the first time i was in there, we did 7 subsequent followups and their highest grade ended up being like a 40 something. they got their permit revoked (and we had to take them to court because they kept wanting to operate… and subsequently got some people sick).
"I was surprised that no one had been seriously hurt yet," the inspector said. After the inspection, the use of the upper levels of the storage units was officially prohibited until proper safety measures could be introduced. The incident was a reminder that sometimes dangerous habits become so common in a workplace that people stop seeing them as dangerous at all.
We also asked what safety mistake people often underestimate. According to the inspector, one of the biggest problems is not always a lack of knowledge—but overconfidence. "People with a lot of experience get overly confident and don't follow the basic rules anymore because they think they can do something dangerous carefully," they explained.
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The inspector added that some of the most serious workplace accidents happen to experienced workers who have spent years doing the same job. "We see some of the worst accidents, including serious injuries and even deaths, with people who have been doing the job for 20 or 30 years and have done the same thing countless times before," they said. Familiarity can sometimes create a false sense of security, causing people to underestimate risks they have become used to.
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- a local cake business operating from someone's home (which is fine, if it passes inspection and obeys regulations) where the owner let her six cats do whatever they wanted in the kitchen (which is not so fine.) Apparently they were just walking all over the ingredients and sniffing the cake batter and [going] in a litterbox beside the oven.
- an Indian restaurant whose butter for naan bread etc (to brush on top before baking) was just in an old plastic tub that had been sat out for six months and had mouse droppings in it.
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Another thing the inspector wanted people to understand was that safety officers are not the "bad guys" many imagine them to be. There is often a misconception that inspectors show up only to find problems, issue penalties, or get people in trouble. But according to the inspector, that could not be further from the truth. "We're not against the people we're inspecting, and we're not there to catch them doing something bad. We're there to tell people how to make sure they stay safe and don't hurt themselves," they explained. "We're not strict people with sunglasses as you see in movies. We have no motivation to punish you or give you a fine."
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One of the workers was wearing a glove on one hand. IT WAS FULL OF BLOOD. And he was still working. To his credit, it didn't look like he was getting blood everywhere, but there's only so much a glove can do.
I honestly felt bad for them. They were understaffed and couldn't really spare a worker, but this dude needed to get his hand checked out by a medical professional so I told the manager that I was going to call someone to come out RIGHT NOW if they didn't let him clock out and deal with his hand. And then I left because I did not want to eat there anymore.
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The inspector emphasized that most safety visits are about working together. "You don't have to be scared when you meet an inspector. Most inspectors are there to help you and work with you," they said. They also encouraged workers (especially those in industries like construction) to speak up when something does not feel safe. "Your life is the most valuable thing you have, and you have rights that deserve to be respected," they added.
However, the inspector admitted that not every workplace reacts positively to inspections. Sometimes people panic because they worry about what an inspector might discover. "Of course, sometimes people insist on us leaving because they're scared of us seeing something and they want to clean up first," they shared.
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