Taking safety down a peg

A long time ago in a workplace far far away...okay, not really, I am within 35 miles of the place as I write this, but what sounds better; "At my old job" or a riff on Star Wars? Work with me here, people...

A long time ago in a workplace far, far away (if you are walking), we had a guy who was extremely safety conscious. Sporktacularly so. He only worked with us during the summer as he taught school during the year. We shall call him Joe, though that wasn't his name. You see, when you either don't name someone or you change their name, that is a form of self-censorship. This is not always understood so for the sake of clarity I will state that.

Well, one day Joe was explaining to us the dangers of peghooks. He lectured us for about 20 minutes on how dangerous they were because of how far they stuck out from the shelves and how, since they are just a small round point, they can be hard to see.

Someone joked that maybe he should walk around the store in goggles. We all had a good laugh about it and went back to work. Having completed his lecture on the dangers of peghooks and how to safely interact with them, Joe went over to straighten some tarps that were on the bottom shelf. As he bent over to reach the tarps, with all of us still standing there, he managed to miss seeing a peghook. Yep, you guessed it...it hit him right between the eyes.



And yes, for those worried about health...Joe was fine and went on to a fine career...in the fire department. I bet that makes you feel safer...