From the “what not to do” school of safety, we have this amusing video tutorial by Mehdi Sadaghadar on Electrostatic Discharge. And once you’ve learned what not to do from the helpful Mr. Sadaghader, you can visit the Mr. Static page, which includes info on charging, ionization, explosions, and other ESD-related topics. You can also obtain very helpful information from the Electrostatic Discharge Association – including some ESD Compliance Posters. Most of the danger revolves around the potential for ignition or damage to expensive or sensitive technology equipment. An ESD ignition in an explosive environment could cause a fire or explosion, so the potential for injuries to humans does exist.
Posts Tagged ‘humor’
Don’t worry, it’s just ESD!
Friday, February 22nd, 2013Vintage Office Worker Perils
Friday, August 3rd, 2012This 1950s-era video clip on office safety can be filed under the “funny pratfalls” genre of safety. While the fashions and retro office technology are amusing, some of the lessons are real – often, the little things that are overlooked can cause injuries.
More vintage safety clips
When it Comes to Safety, This is Just Ducky…
Vintage safety clips – women in the workplace
When it Comes to Safety, This is Just Ducky…
Monday, May 14th, 2012We begin the week on a somewhat bizarre note, as Donald Duck does safety in this vintage 1959 cartoon clip entitled “How to Have an Accident at Work.” When it comes to safety, Donald is everyone’s nightmare worker. For those of us in the workers comp field, this may seem more horror film than cartoon, but Donald, unlike ordinary workers, is literally indestructible.
This clip was a sequel to “How to Have an Accident in the Home”
Have you protected your employees from this seasonal peril?
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011We’re looking for some OSHA safety guidelines, but to no avail. There’s a peril that is plaguing postal workers, police, EMTs and news producers alike, yet it’s a safety issue that remains largely unaddressed. We’re talking turkey here. Wild, urban turkeys are fast, aggressive and persistent. In honor of Thanksgiving, we bring you these videos of brave workers confronting this natural peril.
As yet, we aren’t aware of any turkey-related claims. Wait, that is not entirely true – there was the rather unusual situation where a claims investigator was mistaken as a turkey and shot, an unfortuante situation my colleague discussed a few years ago. But a claim resulting from an actual turkey attack? We’ve yet to hear of one.
Should you be confronted by a wild turkey – and we assure you, it can be an intimidating experience to be attacked by a 30-pound enraged male turkey that sees you as threat or a subordinate in the pecking order – the best advice we have is to try not to give ground. They are trying to establish dominance. Hold your ground, carry a big stick to shoo them, or better yet, carry an umbrella, which you can open and close to create your own display of dominance.
Or barring that, just stay in your vehicle, call state wildlife authorities, and wait until help arrives or the turkeys meander away.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers!
When your boss is a tiger
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011This may not be the most useful post you will read all week, but it is likely to be among the most amusing. If you haven’t yet stumbled on the infamous “Tiger Mike” memos, you are in for a treat.
Edward ‘Tiger Mike’ Davis was the erstwhile CEO of the now defunct Houston-based Tiger Oil Company. You might expect an oil company to be a bit rough and tumble, but Tiger Mike took things to a new level. He didn’t particularly like talking to his employees, he preferred typing memos. (“Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-b*tches.”) And fortunately, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, his memos have been preserved for the ages. We link to them in all their glory: The Tiger Oil Memos. Please be advised, the memos do include a few cuss words.
Now after marveling at his posts, you may be curious to learn more about the man and the company. E&P editor Rhonda Duey shared some readers reminiscing about Tiger Mike. And for those who want “the rest of the story,” see this fascinating post on Grifters, Oil Men, Tabloids, The Scrappy Ingenue, The Titans and the Hardass: An American Story – a few links in the post are broken but despite that, it tells a fascinating story, with Tiger Mike as an integral character.
OK, what does all this have to do with workers compensation? We would refer you to #3 and #8 in attorney Alan Pierce’s excellent Top Ten List as to Why Injured Workers Retain Attorneys. Actually, all ten points are worth thinking about. As a successful Massachusetts plaintiff attorney, Pierce should know. We would love to hear his cache of “bad boss” stories.
We have a category classification for posts on “best practices.” We can see that there is a need for a “worst practices” category, too.
Music for a Friday afternoon: The Hazcom Song
Friday, August 12th, 2011Since it’s a Friday afternoon in August , we are ending the week with a musical interlude, the ever popular Hazcom song. We even have a link to the lyrics in case you’d like to sing along. Learn them and you just might be the hit of your weekend barbecue. We commend the author for some creative rhyming!
Actuaries gone wild: a musical interlude
Friday, December 3rd, 2010OK, it’s Friday and we haven’t talked about actuaries in awhile. Did you know that there are people singing about actuaries now? It’s true. A few years ago, we brought you some mathematical musical hits, actuary style. Today, we are bringing you yet more actuarial ditties, including some love songs. Turn up your speakers and let down your hair.
The lighter side: medical people having fun
Friday, August 13th, 2010Friday afternoon in August – who wants to be too serious? We think it’s the perfect time to deploy the secret stash of medical-humor related videos we’ve been collecting,
The first is a feel-good clip performed by staff at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon to raise awareness for breast cancer.
The next clip is a Gilbert & Sullivan parody created by the Neuroscience Education Institute to be a little video played at the beginning of lectures presented by Dr. Stephen Stahl.
The Model of a Psychopharmacologist
The third clip is performed by the Laryngospasms, a group of practicing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists who create and perform medical parodies for audiences throughout the United States.
Other gems
The Colorectal Surgeon Song – OK, this is not performed by actual medical folk, but well worth a listen anyway!
UAB Emergency Room Tap – created by ER nurses for a National Nurses’ Week contest and celebration. UAB nurses and other staff members are featured in the video.
Breathe – another ditty by the Laryngospasms. More can be found at www.Laryngospasms.com
Footloose: Nursing School Style – Baylor Louis Herrington School of Nursing cuts footloose.
Cavalcade of Risk, Picnic Edition, seasoned with a dash of risk management humor
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Jaan Sidorov dishes up a summer smorgasbord of risk at the 109th Cavalcade of Risk Picnic edition over at Disease Care Management Blog.
Speaking of risk, yesterday Business Insurance twittered: Among the accomplishments of the legendary George Steinbrenner: making George Constanza learn about risk management. Risk management isn’t a topic that surfaces in TV sitcoms too often, so we thank them for the reminder – check out a You Tube clip of Seinfeld’s classic segment on risk management.
As long as we’re having a bit of fun with risk management, let’s up the ante a bit by throwing in some actuaries and accountants. A newly discovered blog that we are happy to recommend – Actuary Info – features many interesting and deliciously nerdy posts. For today’s purposes, we call your attention to these two:
Actuarial Risk Management Humor: During the pause of a Risk Management conference, a professional risk manager, an accountant and an actuary were in the gents room standing at the urinals …
Actuarial Risk Management Puzzle Joke: Three actuaries and three accountants are traveling by train to visit a ‘Risk Management Conference’. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three actuaries buy only a single ticket…
The risks of being Santa
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009In one final post before we check out for the holidays, we’d like to offer an update on Santa. Our friends at the Renaissance Group have looked at the various types of insurance it takes to cover Santa’s operations in their post Protecting the big guy. We thought we’d expand on this theme by highlighting some of the risks that Santa has faced this year as noted in recent headlines:
- Swine flu outbreak has Santa taking extra precautions. Here’s a tip for your investment portfolio: buy stock in companies that produce hand sanitizers.
- Someone is impersonating Santa to rob banks. At least, we think that’s not the real Santa. Times are tough, but we don’t think Santa has had to resort to theft to finance his operations yet.
- Santas debate whether it’s naughty for them to be obese: “This battle of the bulge has been raging quietly within the Santa community, which is made up of an estimated 4,000 professional Santas who congregate at annual conventions, chat year-round on Claus-centric online message boards, spend thousands on customized outfits and perform everywhere from shopping malls and military bases to homes and hospices. In some Santa circles — typically, the ones with the largest circumferences — the idea that Santa Claus should consider swapping sugar cookies for carrot sticks has been about as popular as vegan eggnog.”
- Santa’s “naughty-nice” database may have been hacked. This could cause untold mayhem. Perhaps the hackers are the same folks that messed up Congressional databases allowing the naughty to get financial bailouts while the nice folk are left high and dry?
- Claus in Crisis. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. There are rumors that some of his reindeer may be on steroids. Plus, Santa has OSHA examining him on one front and the anti-immigration people questioning the status of his workers on the other.
Bossman Santa
We know the job of being Santa is a tough one, but he still has obligations as an employer. We’ve been trying to keep an eye on Santa’s record as an employer over the years – we don’t want his workers to be forgotten up there in the North Pole. After all, they work long hours under arduous conditions.
Via David Letterman, we’ve learned about the Top 10 Elf Complaints:
10. Bells on clothing target for jeers at truck stop
9. Need two pieces of I.D. to buy beer
8. Santa’s union-busting goons killed a guy last spring
7. Black elves control weight room
6. R&R weekends in Aleutians spoiled by trigger-happy shore patrol
5. Incredible markup at North Pole 7-Eleven
4. Workmen’s compensation doesn’t cover “Mistletoe lung”
3. The Colonel practically runs my life (Sorry, that’s an Elvis complaint)
2. Dead elves just tossed out on tundra
1. Santa only invites his favorites to join him in the Jacuzzi
In a recent interview, Santa dispels most of these charges. He says that he pays the elves a living wage and “We give full benefits, pension, 401(k), and free shoe lifts for life. Plus, the uniform is free.” He offers an alternate viewpoint – apparently the elves aren’t always fine, upstanding employees. After firing some leves for lying on their application, all hell broke loose. Santa says they “…Got drunk on eggnog and ginger ale and had chicken fights all over the workshop. Nothing worse than an angry, drunk elf.”
