If you work an office job, chances are that the average OSHA violation you encounter is an overloaded extension cord or a screen that’s too bright. However, there are a lot of jobs out there that can get legitimately dangerous when someone decides to just ignore the rules.
Someone asked blue collar workers online to detail their scariest or sketchiest job experience and folks delivered. Be warned, some of these are graphic and might be disturbing. So settle in as you read through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments down below.
Image credits: bluecollarminer
#1
I was sent to do waterblasting in a remote area, the site was on aboriginal grounds (which was once taken over by catholics), and every night, I would have dreams of children crying and screaming to go home.
Image source: saintrutherun, Andrew Petrischev / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
Working the oil rigs and one of the rigging lines snapped and I was inches away from becoming diced meat. I didn’t quit but I will never forget that day even when I tried mentioning it at the safety meeting I was immediately silenced.
Image source: fourcereal, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#3
Not me, but my buddy fell off scaffolding and died. I quit the job and refuse to do it again.
Image source: dontyellatme01, Mathias Reding / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
Was an industrial first aid attendant and stayed with a guy that got sucked into large roller machine. All that was showing was his face.
Image source: kathryn3543, chris robert / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#5
European plumber here, i had to go do something in a basement for quite some time and i swear on everything i love there was something or someone watching me, i heard noises coming from different directions and caught head shaped figures peaking from around corners, i never went alone in that basement after since.
Image source: d.yl07, Andy Henderson / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
Was doing work inside a combine harvester and i heard the “beep”.
bluecollarminer:
Anytime you’re working on something and hear a start up alarm your heart drops😭.
Image source: saabigasaab, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#7
Worked in a copper refinery at a mine, every breath you took was burning your lungs. End of the shift was excessively vomiting and massive headaches.
Image source: user9471602583, Hermes Rivera / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
i once cleaned some river. in my second week on a blue day we take the boat to go clean and after 20min wee see a silouhaite. it was a dead body floating with 2 chain on his leg. call the boss and he call the police département. was my scariest found in my entire life.
Image source: _naskarr_, OCG Saving The Ocean / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
Woman in male dominated field here. Was not given proper safety training or safety gear and forced to use a chainsaw to cut up wood without any experience. Was told later that the boys were betting on which body part I’d lose and instead of helping me, were sitting around laughing and waiting for a scream.
Image source: sarah_and_bunji, Megan O’Hanlon / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#10
I was going inbetween jobs a while back, with a little previous roofing experience joined a new start business roof cleaning to get by. First day they had me on 3 different roofs with no harness or Saftey equipment I did 2 roofs and the 3rd was a 2-3story building I climbed to the top of the ladder and had to clean the gutters off the roof nearly fell off, and just climbed down called the boss and quit immediately. Drove past the building the operated from a couple months later and the company no longer operates / exists.
Image source: fearlessoulsz, Zohair Mirza / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#11
Not a blue collar worker, but my job deals with the aftermath of asbestos exposure. It is not fun…
Image source: jaylad_05, SELİM ARDA ERYILMAZ / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#12
Not me but my dad had told me one time in the early 2000s he was a truck driver in New Zealand one morning he was doing his runs as usual it was about 4 am when all of a sudden a lady had appeared in the middle of the road with her back faced towards him….she was wearing a black leather coat,black boots and long black hair, he then proceeded to swerve on to the other side of the road he then looks in his mirrors just to find the lady had vanished into thin air. He thinks to himself “has she gone under my wheels” but knew she couldn’t have so he carried on like nothing happened. About a week had gone by and he proceeded to do his runs as usual. He’s now talking to a local trucker over the CB radio and some how got onto the topic of the night he seen her and before my dad could describe her, the man over the CB says with a breathy low voice “did she have black hair and long black leather boots” dad had a cold sensation running through him with an expression like😳 he then says “yep that’s her” the man on the CB then says “yeah…. Some of the boys have seen her early in the mornings……she got run over by a truck a couple of years back……….She’s a ghost bro” my dad then cuts the conversation as he was so freaked out but from that day forward he never seen her again and he thinks it’s because he swerved out the way. But who knows it’s some really unexplained sh*t no one talks about and people seem to deny the fact stuff like this really happens. This all happened somewhere in the Waikato in between Taupiri and Huntley. To this day he still talks about it.
Image source: thatone_kiwi_mn82, shahin khalaji / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#13
Watching my coworker get crushed by a 4500 pound frame that fell over off the crane because crane company didn’t rig it right.
Image source: nomad105damon, Mohamed hamdi / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#14
My dad’s story: he went to fix something at a slaughter house when he was starting the job, he could see all the sheep in the pen, scared. then once the job was done there was just a skip full of sheep heads :( he said the energy was horrible in that place.
Image source: aurora.rrmp
#15
I saw a man’s arm get flattened when I was building roof trusses. we built on a giant table. we’d set up the trusses, bang down a corner of the spike plate and a giant roller would come by to flatten them down after. a guy left his hammer on the table when the rollers were coming and it can really mess it up so he tried to reach and grab it quick. he was laying on the table with his and didn’t slide back in time, he was lucky it didn’t crush his whole body. his forearm and bicep eviscerated over the corner of the truss and I was told his elbow was the only thing left, laying between. I was certified in first aid and on health and safety so I ran over but passed out immediately. I never offered to be on health and safety ever again. I don’t want first aid anymore.
Image source: their.narrative_my.name, chandler denise / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#16
Boss had a PM to test the high level switches on two 100% liquid SO2 tanks. Told his crew to go past the standard max operating level (80% of max volume) Crew asked are you sure? Boss said yup. Both tanks are full to the top. Next morning a technician comes in the morning to take sample from the lowest elevation tank. Inadvertently equalizes the levels in the tanks and proceeds to put 20mt of liquid SO2 on the ground. Nearly k**led 20 people, if it wasn’t for the quick reaction of the operators to tell people it was coming seconds before they wouldn’t have had a chance. This boss is still employed by the company and was never punished for his actions.
Image source: terminate_dari, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#17
I was working as a fire tech in a paper recycling factory. I had a colleague with me. We where deep in a service tunnel when he said can you smell that it’s like really strong rotten eggs. Then he said never mind it’s gone. Later that day we where in the office when a guy came in waering a H2S gas meter. He said the level was 1400ppm. I said what does H2S gas do? The boss said you will smell really strong rotten eggs then you wont then you’ll pass out and die. 500ppm is enough to k**l you.
Image source: halfieeatstheworld, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#18
Had to build a full on appartement in a haunted basement worst month of my Life and let’s not Forget the girl who lived there went missing a couple months later.
Image source: shaynedesmarais011, Francesco Ungaro / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#19
Buddy of mine had a seizure on a 10ft ladder, fell off and passed away a few hours later, the noises he made will stick with me forever.
Image source: fakelectrian420
#20
Working in confined spaces with flammable liquids around a 75 pound jack hammer. used to clear the shot tanks under national steel car in Hamilton Ontario.
Image source: .billllllly, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#21
Worked on a home that had the second story caved in from a storm and was told before there was no asbestos… I was walking around looking at the damage (you could see dust particles floating around like snow) so I flipped over a piece of the walls from upstairs and it had ASBESTOS written on it 😐.
Image source: velocity_57, Jordan González / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
First week of apprentice mechanic: I took off a driveshaft on a decline and the park break didn’t hold the truck it nearly rolled over my head it missed me by millimetres.
Image source: willyfriesen8, Go to Jimmy Nilsson Masth’s profile Jimmy Nilsson Masth / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#23
Worked in a hospital – I worked in pharmacy and was on the late shift so I got out after midnight – I was cutting through the main area that went up about 14 plus floors- all the floors had the half walls so people could look out the massive windows … heard a yell and then had a lady hit the ground so hard after jumping from the mental ward. I was covered head to toe in gore, brains, teeth- had to stay for hours doing bloodwork, talking to the cops, head honchos you name it. You bet they made those walls full walls because the lady took a swan dive. Had to do bloodwork for 6 months.
Image source: wea.kimberly
#24
Loading containers of a ship , stepped off the side 4 storeys up. By pure luck I caught a rope. Been shot at , blown up , hit by lightning but that was the closest to death I’ve been. Apart from being electrocuted.
Image source: richardlionheart193, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#25
When I was 15 my dad got me a summer job as a general labourer for this heavy equipment rental yard. The owner had all kinds of old equipment, even a tracked snow-truck you’d see in Antarctica. He bought a property from a recently-deceased-old-guy who had a small farm that he hadn’t been taken care of in 10+ years. We were told to take a V8 engine upstairs from the flooded basement. The water was shin-deep, there were dead animals floating in it, mushrooms growing on the walls…good thing I was a strong kid, probably took 5 years off my life 🙃.
Image source: k_lub, Chris Gallagher / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#26
Getting electrocuted on a cell tower while installing an antenna almost a 150ft in the air.
Image source: t_yres_e, Alex Rybin / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#27
not me but my fiance. he nearly fell into a dust silo working at a limestone quarry, he injured his arm but stopped himself from drowning in dust. he did not have a harness or anything he needed to be doing the job safely.
Image source: shadeylayday, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#28
saw someone slipped inside a septic tank.
Image source: counterspell_tcg, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#29
Rolled a prawn trawler a 120km of the coast of Port Douglas qld. we lost a deckhand for 8 hours. he was in pitch black shark infested water and he washed up on the same sand island as us and the destroyed trawler 8 hours later.
Image source: crazyfishotez, Oliver Tsappis / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#30
Scaffolding without any safety because wearing the safety belt will slow us down, and we are still working the same way.
Image source: thamerhakiri16, ZHIDA LI / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#31
Working with high voltages, a person ceased to exist( literally no trace of him left ) because he switched a lever in the wrong direction.
Image source: kenjiglm
#32
Pulp and paper mill. was up round 500 ft on an elevator (a belt with a sq ft to stand on, strait drop to bottom) and bro above me starts yelling. I look up, and he is trying to throw on his gas mask as a cloud of green chlorine gas was just above us. 💀💀💀💀💀💀
Image source: user328258376
#33
Working in sewer. got lowered 75 meters down in a cage, radio signal cut out as they kept lowering us. they stopped it due to no response from us. the sewer water was sitting waist high.
Image source: nonickname2691, SELİM ARDA ERYILMAZ / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#34
The most dangerous job was working new construction in a skyscraper building on the rooftops without having the option to wear a safety harness there wasn’t any place to tie off and I had to throw off all garbage cut off material scrap into a bucket on a crane on the tallest buildings in Calgary Alberta Canada which they call sky scrapers . I tripped 3 times on the steel cable lines with debris. The closest the crane could safely get the bucket was 6-12 feet away from the building with high winds any closer and it could swing into us. I was the only man fearless enough to do the job of 4 men that wouldn’t dare come close to my level even the foreman was terrified. The interesting part was that if I refused I was getting fired if I fell off the 40 story building I was fired these conditions went on for 2 months in a row . The job agency didn’t realize how I was being bullied into such Dangerous work environments that later compensated me with $25 ,000 in cash on top of my wages at $5.25 per hour as temporary helper rates that was 30 years ago to this day I never met anyone alive in person face to face that was brave enough to work in those environments especially in dangerous conditions*….!!
Image source: dilligaff187
#35
Collecting crocodile eggs in the Northern Territory, not a bad gig , one afternoon we dropped by helicopter onto a nest and very soon a freak storm blew in from nowhere, grounded the helicopter and we were stuck on the nest for 2 hours the water in the swamp rising , lightning hitting trees close to us , not a good time to be standing in an aluminum cage. Good times.
Image source: big_m031
#36
My brother works for a food distribution warehouse like (Safeway) but not that specific store in the freezer at the top of the door big ice blocks formed on top of the door and once in awhile one specific employee climbed up a ladder to go cut them down (he did regularly) it was not work safe btw he ended up falling off the ladder 20-30 feet high and landing on the freezer floor he was alone my brother herd the ladder fall and went and looked and found him on the floor my brother took off all his jackets covered him called for help they brought him more blankets and covered him up ambulance took 1 hr to arrive (we live in Canada it’s a whole thing about ambulances prioritizing patients) he ended up being okay.
Image source: iamsooootired
#37
Construction Foreman here. It was one of the hottest days of the year and I had to roll down my drivers side window in my truck and i let some a/c out.. so I could hear what one of my guys was going on about having no water. Still remember it like it was yesterday.
Image source: swungdesert91, laura adai / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#38
Some random billionaire made us build some sort of underground armory under his mansion.
Image source: velqxyi, Fons Heijnsbroek / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#39
Went inside a combine harvester to clean it and it started closing. thank god the model i have closes slower than usual.
Image source: lb123._
#40
Was pouring a silo about 90ft off the ground and the scaffolding fell apart, luckily was still on top of the silo but 2 guys passed.
Image source: quast26
#41
Janitor at a crematorium……..
saturated with spirits……….
only worked that job 1 week…..due to the high strangeness at night.
Image source: rectombulas
#42
When I landed airplanes, the ear protection was so good I couldn’t hear the engines running. One day I put a pylon in front of an engine that was still running. I couldn’t have been more than a couple feet from getting sucked in.
Image source: kevmanx6
#43
Had a 72’ 18,000 lb beam come in head level and missed my head by a few inches. If I was one step to my left my head would’ve trapped in between the beam on the hook and the beam my partner was standing on and popped it like a watermelon.
Image source: slyk.c2
#44
Coworker calibrated a natural gas flow meter on a shutdown, followed the instructions that were laminated and zip tied to the meter. When we came back up, there was triple the gas going into the boiler than what the meter read. You could smell gas in the control room. We went to investigate and the walls on the boiler were flexing. Operators were too scared to make the call to do an emergency master fuel trip. o2 control was out of wack also. Closest to a 5 story bomb going off I’ve ever seen. Ripped that instruction set off the meter and googled the correct way.
Image source: bradynsled69
#45
Decided to stay out until midnight by myself doing fencing around a 18 acr property and starting hearing people srreaming my name.
Image source: thatclappedgrey5.3
#46
Our mine is located on indian grounds and theres and old cemetary and during night shift our shop is right near and you hear some crazy stuff coming from it.
Image source: slowobs7.3
#47
Coal mining we only do the minimum requirement for safety that every time we hear long cracking sounds we all at the same time stop and just hope for the best that it stops.
Image source: joemamakansas
#48
Not blue collar personally but my cousin was, he was crushed by a slab of metal because the crane line broke and on instinct he tried to catch it. Traumatized everyone there and his whole immediate family is forever scarred.
Image source: w0rld.eat3r
#49
Running conduit in a hospital basement. We were working down the hall from the morgue. Cargo elevator would randomly reach our floor with nobody on it, footsteps with nobody around, and doors would open and close. Don’t believe in ghosts but it was strange.
Image source: cartermorgan8
#50
I was taking down scaffolding and I had to carry a 80lbs platform in one hand and climb down the ladder with my other hand and u would have to let go of the step and grab the next one well I had the peice hanging down in my other hand “I had to do it with every peice”.
Image source: howlan420
#51
Doing all the power infrastructure and powering everything at space x , lots of rain , humidity and things went wrong all the time super sketchy and fun.
Image source: reyrey3000_
#52
ain’t a blue collar worker but I used work at a steel factory. There was metal particles in the air everywhere, no masks, latex gloves. After every shift you could feel your lungs burn and tiny metal particles in your skin bothering you in every slight movement of the fingers.
Image source: pe.pis
#53
Girl idk, I accidentally cut my clients cuticles sometimes 😭😭 that’s scary okay?
Image source: littlemsradish
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