Shit Disturber in Current Events

I wasn’t able to let it go. I called the aware line that my work provides for us to report unethical behaviour. I had the option of remaining anonymous but I gave them my name. I reported that our management team is producing propaganda with our workplace hazard reports. The ones I submitted in December were thrown out. Luckily I made receipts and took a picture of them before I submitted them. I also have witnesses. It is obvious that multiple people made the decision to discard them. The reason I am not convinced that it was an accident is that the report itself was brought up in our safety meeting multiple times. In my report that doesn’t exist, I didn’t write the name of the manager I submitted it to. That was brought up. It’s also true but that manager didn’t even want to touch the report, it was his responsibility to catch that and correct it. The content of the report was brought up in the meeting as well. They sent out an e-mail to the whole store to correct those issues. All from reports that don’t exist. It’s great that the safety issue was corrected but we are supposed to have a record of it. There was a third time that my reports were brought up in the meeting but I cannot, for the life of me, remember that one.

I moved on to compile a new list of shelves that still do not meet safety standards. I was asked to not report them but just fix them. That is also very wrong. They’re acting very invested in helping me with that but I know it is because they are love bombing me as part of the gaslight. I left that part out of my report to the aware line. I also brought up the slight retaliation I am experiencing. Nobody asked me to do this. I didn’t get a single thank you, no rewards and just received grievances instead. Attitude, silent treatments etc. Nobody wants to legitimize what I am doing. My boss had a meeting with them about the reports and I am still not offered an apology or explanation. We are now all committed to pretending that this didn’t happen either. I am accusing them of sweeping hazard reports that they don’t like under the rug to avoid a paper trail that could be used against them should someone try and charge them for criminal negligence. This is criminal negligence. Propaganda 101: absence of evidence is evidence of absence. No reported hazards mean the store is perfectly safe. I am airing their dirty laundry and they are not happy about it.

My intention with these lists is to show the systemic safety issues that the store has been neglecting. In November, the deaths of two associates that died while on the job were addressed to us all in a video. Those did not happen in our store, not even in our country but it still felt close to home. The address felt like propaganda. They were explaining to us all how the company is a victim of associates not paying attention to their surroundings. That is their cult phrase about safety. Pay attention to your surroundings. If you injure yourself then it is your fault because you did not obey orders and pay attention to your surroundings. I was coerced into what to say in a witness report when I did witness someone on my team injure herself. She did not pay attention to her surroundings was my report. The climate in my store after that announcement of those deaths was poor. Associates from all over felt that the store was playing the victim. They felt like their safety concerns are never addressed. Never taken seriously. They never want to bother. I think that climate was created on purpose. I have an ability to respond, a response-ability, so I am intentionally creating a paper trail so that someone can use it should they need it. Heaven forbid.

The safety issues I am reporting are huge. They are major. They did not want to have them on record. What I reported in December were dozens of beams that did not have safety bolts. A reach truck could have easily knocked the beams off of the frames with all of the products on it. We have skids and pallets with heavy loads. I’ve moved on to compile a list of shelves that are using wooden stringers without spacers. The spacers spread the wood stringers out so that water can flow through should a fire happen. I also made a list of shelves that are using wood stringers at a height that is not acceptable. They have to use wire decking. For weight-bearing, they must strictly use waterfall decking but they are using wood stringers throughout the store and without spacers. The list is four pages long and I am creating a spreadsheet of it all so that they can order the correct decking and so that we can track where it’s all going. My team will help execute it when the time comes even though it is not our responsibility. We work in the store but we are not of the store. Vendors pay us.

Someone on my team approached me to add some awareness. I am making my team look bad also. My workplace hazard reports have not gotten results so I started creating tasks on our service list. I discovered that they do get corrected this way. It looks like an epidemic of safety issues and it’s making some people on my team feel insecure because it is making them look bad. These are all issues they should have been reporting but never have. Then along comes this new guy and he is calling it all out. Not to mention that I just created a shit ton of work for everybody.

I was able to tell that it was a third party that I spoke with when I called that aware line. They read back to me what the report was and it was perfect and then they forwarded it to the company. In 5-6 business days I am to call them and they will give me a follow-up. If I’m not satisfied with that I will try and make a legal claim. Or something. I don’t have to make a stink but I will. I’m not afraid of doing the right thing. I do have some PTSD from the last time I did the right thing and was retaliated against. That saga was in 2019 and I wrote all about it on PB. I reported a predator and lost the job that I had for thirteen years. That company decided to protect the predator and fire me and everybody that they felt was loyal to me. Thus, I’m not feeling that I have job security after this. I already felt that way with current events but whatever. It’s not keeping me up at night though. Sure, I woke up at 3:33 am today but that’s because I fell asleep before 8 pm last night. I was tired. It was a long week.