At my job, we occasionally have to lift stuff. Now, there are three 20-something guys who are supposed to take care of all of that, but they have a way of being mysteriously absent when you need them, which is another thread.
At any rate, sometimes we, the cashiers, have to lift stuff like cartons of plates, that can weigh as much as sixty pounds. This is generally okay, except in the case of two of my co-workers, who are men over 50. I don’t like to see them doing that, simply because of their age. A few nights ago, “Jack” took the aforementioned carton of plates to a customer’s car, in the absence of the carry-out guys, and he didn’t come back and didn’t come back, and finally I went out the parking garage, expecting to find him on the concrete clutching his arm. He was okay, but somewhat winded.
I haven’t made an issue of this at work, nor even mentioned it; I’m asking about it here to get an idea of whether I should mention anything. Thing is, lifting has been an issue before, in other jobs I’ve had. I once had a boss who refused to let me lift anything at all, even boxes that weighed ten pounds, on the grounds that it would “mess up your female parts and you won’t be able to have babies”. :smack: Another job…well, it’s a long story, but somehow my efforts to do the job I was hired for were interpreted as “feminist”.
When I get to something I can’t lift, I don’t think twice about letting a guy do it for me. Unless, of course, he’s old enough to be a heart-attack risk. Jack and Manny are not invalid by any means, but they’re not in exceptionally good shape for their age. Since I’m younger, I just think I should do the lifting in their stead. I’d rather see them take a blow to their pride than to their health.
I think you should drag out the 20 something guys and make them do it.
I’m a 20 something guy, and I know full well because of my age/gender I am going to be asked to do lots of reaching, pulling, lifting, crushing, and opening of pickle jars. I’m not that strong for my height/weight, but often in comparison to other people present, I am generally the tallest/strongest one in the group.
If they (the older guys) wanna lift it, don’t stop them. As long as they’re healthy, they can lift heavy stuff. Automatically deciding someone is “too old” and doing all their lifting for them leads to the elderly losing strength and becoming weak. I don’t think it’s up to you to decide for your adult coworkers what they should or shouldn’t do.
I’d just like to point out that it’s a violation of OSHA regs for one person to lift more than 40# by himself. If one of these old guys hurts himself carrying a 60# carton by himself, workman’s comp won’t pay for it. Hell, if one of these young guys hurts himself carrying that much weight, workman’s comp won’t pay for it. Anything that heavy is supposed to be a two-person lift.
I can’t say that I’ve ever asked a guy to carry/lift something for me. If it’s too heavy for me, I’ll yell for the nearest person to come give me a hand, but that’s about it.
This is incorrect. OSHA has set no absolute guidlines on how much one person can lift. They do have a complicated formula (see APPENDIX VII:1-2. EVALUATION OF LIFTING TASKS here) that analyzes such things as grip position and frequency to determine if the weight is excessive. Shoot, if workers were limited to 40 lbs, the construction industry would grind to a halt…
Perhaps you could suggest to your boss that you all get a refresher on manual handling? Here in the U.K. it’s a legal requirement. This also has the side effect of showing them in a non-confrontational manner that you can lift.
Well, my abilities haven’t been called into question on this particular job. I think the real issue is, where are the carryout guys when we need them? I think I’ll approach it from that angle: “Oh, BTW, Lila, the carryout guys sometimes take a long time to respond when we page them…maybe their pager needs batteries or something?”
Maybe your employer decided to make 40 lbs the limit and told the OSHA guy. Beyond the complicated formulas, remember when UPS went on strike about 10 years ago? The workers struck (surely that’s not the correct past tense) because UPS wanted to raise the maximum package weight from 70 lbs to 150 lbs. cite
