Clueless Cellular Company Tells Responsible Electrician To Shut Down Power To A Key Site. He Complies And Refuses To Turn It Back On Because It’s Unsafe.

If you’re an electrician, you can’t play around.

Things have to be in tip-top shape and by the numbers.

ALWAYS.

So you’ll be able to appreciate the story that this worker wrote on Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page.

Check it out!

I’d stand to be corrected, but having attended a couple of basic electrical safety courses with two different employers, I was left with the impression that the last person to have worked on an installation was in the legal cross hairs for any injuries caused by it if it were unsafe.

This is important for my decision making.

They had to make sure everything was on the up-and-up.

I worked as a field tech for a cellular operator and one of our by the by jobs was inspecting newly installed sites to make sure they complied with the companies rules and legal.

For this we had a tick sheet of things to check. Think of it as an MOT but for a radio site.

I turned up at this one site and straight away it was obvious that the earthing was missing.

Basically all electrical earths needed to be bonded, then the metal work of the site, the feeder and the aerial tower had to be bonded back to them too.

They knew it wasn’t safe.

I called the control, said cannot work on the site, nothing is earthed and it is potentially hazardous after a bit of argy bargy.

I was instructed to turn off the incoming mains supply and carry out the inspection noting the problems.

Okay I’ll do as you ask.

So power off and now there’s no service for the area.

I worked through my check list noted the problems including the lack of earthing.

Packed up, left site and down the road called in to say finished.

They knew whoever was there before them was to blame for this whole thing.

At which point they tell me something’s wrong the site is still down.

Yeah I know it’s powered off as instructed.

Told I need to turn it on and this is where I quoted the info I’d been given: the last person to work on an installation is responsible and since it is unsafe and beyond me to correct it is staying off.

This was of course partly bloody mindedness, partly covering my own back and mostly I knew that with the site down and losing money they’d make the ruddy contractors come back and correct their mess up.

Check out how folks reacted.

This reader said they have similar rules in IT.

Another Reddit user talked about their job.

This individual agreed with what they did.

And this person thinks they did the right thing.

Safety first, right?

You better believe it!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were travelling for business.