assholes!!

so yesterday I was reading NSM’s post about some odd radioactive rock they found at his job (a place where there’s no possible sane reason for radioactive rocks to be)

while I was reading his post I started thinking about Sam's job (he works for a moving and storage company) and how who the hell knows where he's working from one day to the next or what he'll be doing - and I was wondering how it would be handled if he came into contact with some sort of hazardous material on a job site

then when he comes home from work yesterday he starts telling me about his day and how they have him removing some sort of cabinets from a school - which are bolted in for some reason...

after working there all day ripping out these cabinets they found out that the reason the cabinets are being removed is that the school is preparing for next weeks ASBESTOS ABATEMENT!!!

they get back to the warehouse and say something to their boss who turns to them and says 'oh yeah we knew that... but it's just a little asbestos... no big deal'

HAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa

no big deal? then why isn't the maintenance staff at the school doing it instead of the school hiring someone else to come in??!!?!!

and you KNEW about this but didn’t think it was worth telling the people actually DOING THE JOB?!!!

it's one thing if nobody is aware of something like that... but to send people in when YOU know but you don't share the information with the people who are actually doing the work is fucking bullshit!!

p.s. if it was no big deal... the school wouldn't have bothered telling YOU!! but they obviously thought it was information you HAD A RIGHT TO KNOW!! – why do you suppose that is? maybe because they want you to know it could be hazardous? maybe because they want to know if your employees are equipped to handle potentially hazardous material? maybe they want you to at least have a heads up in case you want to maybe wear a mask of some sort while you’re there??
so if the school thought the company needed to be aware of the fact or had a right to know that there was asbestos in that part of the building - doesn't that mean that the people who are actually DOING THE JOB might need to be aware or at least have a right to know???

GAH!!!

and the worst part… they’re back there today!!

if I was thinking clearly last night I would have made a bigger stink about it and somehow gotten Sam to call in sick today – because if you ask me, that is just BULLSHIT!! he does NOT get paid well enough to deal with that… even if the risks are minimal (which who says they are? his boss… who the fuck are they and what do they know?) – besides, minimal is NOT nonexistent!! There’s a reason why they do asbestos abatement - if it wasn’t hazardous it wouldn’t need to be dealt with!! and there’s a reason why they hire qualified professionals with the proper safety equipment to do it!!

the question I’d like to know the answer to is WHY after all these years, is the asbestos being abated? is it because they plan to remodel? or because their was a water leak of some sort? (pretty much the only two reasons they do asbestos abatement) because a leak means that there is most likely already exposed asbestos down there!! I assume they would have sealed the area off if that were the case… but you never do know now do you? peoples IS stupid… and CHEAP!!

I’m hoping that since it’s not summer vacation that this is a job they were holding off on till now because they could and that it’s not just being done now because they HAVE to – although with all the flooding we’ve had recently who the hell knows?

either way I’m not happy!!