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kleinbl00  ·  2178 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ‘I had to guard an empty room’: the rise of the pointless job

What's the platitude? If both sides are unhappy with the contract it's a good one?

My jewelry lab has an oxy/propane torch at every bench. There must be 30 of them in the room. We've got concentrated peroxide and other chemicals to etch metal. We've got a 200-ton press, we've got a bandsaw, we've got all sorts of shit. But if you want to heat up your piece before you dip it in liver of sulfur you have to run it under hot water because OSHA deemed a blow dryer to be a fire hazard.

Know who governs those chemicals? The EPA. MSDS for everybody. Know who governs the torches and gasses? OSHA. Standards for all of it. Know who governs the use of a hair dryer in an industrial production environment?

Nobody.

Stupid on the face of it? Absolutely. The compromise necessary in order to make everything else work? Absolutely.