HACKER Q&A
📣 barking_biscuit

What do you consider unsafe working conditions in a tech company?


What do you consider unsafe working conditions in a tech company?


  👤 sn0w_crash Accepted Answer ✓
If you are at risk of physical harm. For example, working in a data center that’s not properly cooled.

If you are being coerced into doing something unethical or illegal, or something wrong that may follow you in your career.

If you are being verbally abused by a coworker, be it a manager or a subordinate.

Beyond that I’m not sure what else might cause you to feel “unsafe.” A tech company is one of the softest and least demanding jobs in all of human history.


👤 AnimalMuppet
So one day certain un-named co-workers brought up a box containing a disassembled metal desk and left it in the hallway. This box was maybe six feet long, two feet wide, and two inches thick. And for whatever reason, they left it standing on edge in the middle of the hall. This is not a gravitationally stable position in which to leave several hundred pounds of steel.

So innocent old moi comes down the hall, wonders what's up with the box, and fiddles with it, never dreaming it has that kind of weight in it. Once it started coming over, it was beyond my strength to stop. It landed on my foot.

By luck and/or the grace of God, they also left this low cart/dolly thing in the hallway. It caught the last inch of the box - enough to stop the cardboard, but not enough to catch any of the steel. The steel then slowly tore through the box. But it was enough that the weight slowly landed on my foot, rather than slamming it. It was the difference between a fair amount of pain, and crushing all the bones in the arch of my foot (or so I suspect - I haven't done the experiment).

So, yeah. Falling mass can cause crush damage, even in a cubicle farm.


👤 muttled
Installing heavy networking/battery equipment in a rack by yourself without extra help. Cheap furniture that leads to repetitive stress injuries. Being woken up repeatedly at night which isn't good for your heart or health. Exposed wiring or poor grounding. Sharp edges on equipment coupled with trip hazards from poor wiring practices without the maintenance windows to fix it because "everything has to stay up." Replacing components on live hardware with extremely fast spinning fans. "Server rooms" that double as toxic (cleaning) chemical storage. Prolonged working around equipment with cooling systems that exceed the noise level for hearing damage. Stress-induced issues from on-call. Crawling around potential asbestos when running wiring for things such as wireless access points.

👤 h2odragon
Redneck engineered battery bank on the UPS with 288VDC bus bars exposed enough to fry a couple snakes per year. Full rack SPARCs running flat out in a mobile home in the TN woods, in the summer (all summer), without air conditioning. Climbing poles not meant to be climbed to service or replace wireless networking equipment. Stringing 1,000ft of coax cable between buildings at 3am because the previous run was vaporized by a lightning strike and Teh Uptime Demands It.

Wasn't this an invitation to brag?


👤 LinuxBender
Physical: Anything that violates state/province labor laws, OSHA regulations, NEC handbook electrical regulations, building code violations.

Psychological leading to physical: Anything that pushes people over the edge causing them to act out in harm to themselves and/or others especially when they might not see the alternate options available to them and/or may already be suffering an unstable state of mind from external pressures.


👤 dubyabee2
My suggestion is to speak with those involved with health, human safety, and legal liabilities. Not a trivial question to answer because the definition of Safety, Harm, Trauma, and the specific conditions your questioning. Your HR is the primary point, or if you are at risk you can find your states employment rights department.

👤 slater
I'd say main one is unchecked sexual harassment, followed closely by other kinds of harassment, anything that goes unaddressed by HR/higher-ups. Then the usual OSHA stuff...?