Until you experience or witness a situation in which a person could have been just a little bit more careful or could have followed the rules and avoided the tragedy they got themselves into, you don’t really understand that it’s truly better to be safe than sorry.
This woman didn’t want to witness anything when she saw her coworker in the trash compactor that was still plugged in and yelled at him, which annoyed the man. But she wasn’t upset at all that he wanted to see her manager and prepared herself for the show.
More info: Reddit
Woman was not playing around when it came to work safety and yelled at her coworker who ignored it
Image credits: Daniel Brody (not the actual photo)
The man didn't like that and thought he'd teach her a lesson by talking to her manager
Image credits: rawpixel (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Mike Goad (not the actual photo)
Image credits: AQuietBorderline
The manager found out the reason her subordinate yelled at the man and because she considered the same safety rules important, he was gone after 30 minutes
The Original Poster (OP) works at a company where safety regulations aren’t something that you just sign for and never hear about again. Actually, they have briefings regularly to freshen up their memory.
This time it was about safety when handling the compactor. The rule is that you never ever get inside a compactor unless it's unplugged and you are sure that a person passing by won’t think to plug it in again.
It seems logical as a compactor is a powerful mechanism that would leave no hope for a person to stay alive. But OP’s coworker wasn’t too worried about that and when his phone fell inside, he thought he would just quickly hop in and take it out.
Which is proof that these rules need reminding, because the consequences are fatal. That is why the OP was in shock to see the coworker inside and yelled at him out of anger. The man immediately wanted to talk with the OP’s manager despite it being him violating the rules.
The woman knew that the rules were on her side and her manager was as strict with rules as she was, so she didn’t argue one bit and went to bring the manager she called Miss Heroine in this story.
The coworker’s facial expression must have been priceless when the manager was told why her subordinate yelled at him. It only then dawned on him how serious the situation was. It was so serious that half an hour later, the man was packing up his things.
People in the comments applauded the woman for teaching the man a lesson and many of them noticed she was apologizing in the text by saying that she shouldn’t have yelled, which they thought was unnecessary because politeness doesn’t work in these situations, especially when timing is important.
Because it’s still better for a person to get angry with you instead of cleaning up their blood, and someone also said that a good manager and safety officer would rather fire everyone than bury at least one.
Image credits: rawpixel (not the actual photo)
It seems that the statement is true not only in the realm of Reddit that sometimes like to go to extremes. Leadership expert Morag Barrett pointed out some situations in which yelling is acceptable. Among them she mentions a noisy environment, so you yell to be heard; when the yelling is positive, like cheering someone on; or if you’re yelling at yourself and letting out your frustrations, though, you might want to do it alone.
But the situation with which the expert starts the list is “When it's a life and death situation - a warning of impending disaster.” You could say that the situation the OP described was a life and death one because an accident was just waiting to happen and the man needed to get out as soon as possible before anything happened.
The woman quotes Aristotle: “Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy.” Which means that you just have to read the room and adapt accordingly.
Also, not all yelling is the same. Liane Davey, an organizational consultant and author of The Good Fight distinguishes between yelling that is directed at people and harms them and yelling that is meant to release stress.
She says that directionality matters and the example would be her former coworker: “a lovely man who was prone to occasional shouting, but never in the form of a personal attack. Instead, he’d bang his head against the desk or bark at his computer.”
Davey claims she never felt uncomfortable or scared when he did that, rather she thought that her nice coworker was having a rough time at the moment.
While not all yelling is bad, when it becomes a habit, it can create a hostile work environment and various guides will advise to avoid it altogether. Do you think that in the OP’s situation it was necessary and the man overreacted as well and was stupid for digging his own grave?
People in the comments applauded the woman and her manager and believed the dangerous situation justified the yelling
