I’ve Been Put On Notice

Its all lip service, its all about limiting liability. When we start on a new job these days, we are required to first attend a safety orientation. All the important points are covered, proper use of fall protection, the proper way of lifting heavy loads, the need to report even minor injuries, small cuts and scrapes, these days we are expected to report even the near misses. Funny thing, being turned loose, going to work, its clear that all of this is for the benefit of management, and the relationship they have with their insurance carrier. What happens in the field, more so on my present job, is that all this is thrown out the window. The reality of the situation is, watch your ass! As workers, we walk through a proverbial mine field, following instruction from the boss man, walking the tight rope, avoiding injury, ignoring direction given at the start of the job. If an injury occurs, and your found to be in violation of the rules of safety, your pretty much on your own, Workmans Comp will do whatever it takes, avoiding the liability. When I started in this trade, if you wore a safety belt, you were looked at funny, you climbed up to the work, wrapped your leg around something solid, and did your job. The boss man watched, and cared about his crew, he wouldn’t send you up, if he felt you were unable perform, one hand for the company, one hand for me, was the rule. I don’t remember a lot of falls, from time to time you’d hear of one, one is always too many. Mostly guys that went up, were sharp, comfortable in the enviorment. Safety harnesses are required these days, for any work where the exposure is over six feet. I’ll tell you, there are times when I’d rather not be on a leash, there are times, when if I need to run, I don’t want anything holding me back. In the mid eighties I worked the raising gang, skinning high rise exteriors in stone. We never tied off doing this work, OSHA was beginning to push hard about safety harnesses during this time, when they showed up on our job, we’d just shut down the crain, wait for them to leave. Like everything in life, tasks like these are best approached with a plan, another twelve step program, so to speak, don’t skip any steps. All along the way, you needed to evaluate the situation, to figure out, that if things went bad, you’d know which way to go, your choices were cut and dry, but best if planned ahead. There was a deal, an unspoken deal, that if an injury occurred, you would be made whole, there wasn’t any dance around the circumstance, it was understood, in the performance of the task the incident happened, it wasn’t intentional, that it was an unfortunate accident, that accidents can be avoided, but will happen. Today these insurance companies are so far up our butts, always looking for a way out, for a way not to pay. I was injured a few years back, the adjuster for the insurance company asked me if I had ever heard of chronic pain, when I said yes, she said to get used to it, this is what I should expect for the rest of my life. Needless to say, I became pretty pissed off. I remember calling Dad, and him offering some sound advise, that the adjusters statement, was only true from her side of the desk. I am happy that this is not how it went, I found a wonderful Doctor who protected me, who healed me, none of which would have happened without the sound advise from Dad. What these insurance companies try to do, is turn the screws, get you acting crazy, have you self- distruct, it is so important in these situations, that you stay on point, if all you care about is fixing what’s broke, not caught up in how much money you can wring out of it, things work out. At all costs avoid greed, I see in the world today there is lots of it, frankly, I don’t know how people are able to successfully forge ahead, when greed is what motivates them. With me, anytime I’ve been caught up in greed, failure was not far behind. What happens in this trade to ones body is accumulative, one day you might be working with a heavy piece, pull something, a shoulder, a knee, leaving you the next day, a little tender. You adjust, you protect the injury, your body starts to go out of whack. Over a short period of time, as a result of that initial pull, and subsequent attempts at protecting it, you break down. What I am so glad I learned, and want to share with my brothers, carpenters, labor, all trades men, is that Kinesio Tex is not just for the athletes. The way this stuff works, is that once you apply it, any movement of the taped area, is healing the area, it is amazing, it is immediate for me, muscles and tendons that hurt when moved, when taped, no longer are tender, the tape is water proof, when properly applied will stay stuck for three or four days. So what happens is, necessity to protect the injury is gone, the more you work it, the better it feels, your not throwing all your body mechanics out of whack. Kinesiology, I believe, translated loosely, is body motion, the study of. I’ve flipped around the web a little, looking at other uses of kinesio tex, one guy uses the product to ward off blisters, while hiking mountain trails. Yesterday I suggested, a six inch strip across the forehead, may work wonders for slow thinkers, a little humor, maybe not, I saw on the web, using kinesio tape on the forehead, I believe the benefit is in relieving tension. Who is to say, the possibility that slow thinking, at some level is an effect of tension, a cure is finley at hand