Found out I can't use a knife at work.

[Angus McGunnigle]

Sometimes I have to step back and take a moment to consider this is actually the world we live in ...

Yep.....I am in a lot of contact with recently retired/former military and I have to remind them when training them that the civilian world is ran entirely by liability attorneys. It makes no sense that a Marine with 3 combat tours under his belt needs to take an 8 hour gun SAFETY class before he can go to the range the first time at the police academy. Lawers !!

 

[Ajack60]

Always remember the "Golden Rule".....the man with the gold, makes the rules...... sounds to me the company wants you to be safe and take your time to get the job done with the tools the company provides. We live in an ever changing world that is aligning with the newest generation of workers. Companies spend billions of dollars each year for insurance claims, lost time work, workers comp pay and lawyers fees. Trust me, if any company could get away with cost savings, they would. They change polices all the time because they have to. Yeah it sucks that we don't get to use our own stuff, try to explain that to the unreasonable department heads who can't make a decision or back the workforce to save their life. What a bunch of aholes.

 

[RX-79G]

Yep.....I am in a lot of contact with recently retired/former military and I have to remind them when training them that the civilian world is ran entirely by liability attorneys. It makes no sense that a Marine with 3 combat tours under his belt needs to take an 8 hour gun SAFETY class before he can go to the range the first time at the police academy. Lawers !!

I was also in the military. All LEO's should get exactly the same training - especially any military people that are going to need to be un-trained, first. Can you imagine the fallout if a former military person hurt someone and had been allowed to skip training? Wouldn't be person hurt have every right to sue?


Liability lawyers wouldn't exist if no one ever got hurt on the job doing things without formal training and the wrong tool. Every Marine isn't Rob Leatham and every knife owner isn't a hibachi chef.

 

[Akapennypincher]

Always remember the "Golden Rule".....the man with the gold, makes the rules...... sounds to me the company wants you to be safe and take your time to get the job done with the tools the company provides. We live in an ever changing world that is aligning with the newest generation of workers.

Many years ago I wanted out of the asphault jungle, and was looking for a rural place to practice my occupation. Inyo County in rural CA, had opening on their Sheriff Department.

What a wonderful place to work, and live I thought. Catch was it paid about half what I made in the big city. Not much issued except Badge, Ammo, ID Card and a few uniform items.

Duty weapon was about anything you wished to carry be it semi auto, or revolver. Had to be 9mm, or learger, no single acton revolvers, up to .45 caliber. The but was you bought your own. duty weapon.

After crunching number I figured out I would be in the red with moving, spending on uniforms, duty weapon, bug, etc. Out of pocket 5-7K, plus working for 50% less. Decided not to mail in the application.

 

[kingoftow]

Just got in trouble for it today. Was handed a retracting safety knife and told not to see it again. Sucks too because I have an opportunity to use a knife about 20x a day. Also a vast majority of professions where a knife would be used seem to be strongly against the use of real knives for safety reasons. Almost every place I've worked has done this to me.

Yeah buddy I feel your pain...a lot of business places won't allow the use of real knives because of the ever present chance of litigation (mainly due to alarming numbers of folks who look for any reason to sue)...also folks these days are hyper sensitive to seeing what they believe to only be weapons --knives and guns are tools first and foremost---it's insane people that use them only to do harm. I carry and use really good quality knives (Spyderco -Benchmade--SOG etc.) but I'm Blessed with owning a business thus I can use what I wish...maybe you can get that new non locking Lansky world legal knife --can't see how they could find that threatening...

 

[KingMC]

I guess I should feel lucky.

My first job let me buy whatever knife I wanted and use it however I wanted, since they had literally no safety rules that were enforced other than close-toed shoes. Family-owned businesses are interesting that way. For a warehouse working with used books in boxes and stuff, they were pretty lenient on the safety.

So, coming to my current job after 5 years at that first job, I was not used to working for a corporation-run company and thus didn't even think about having the company supply my tools for me, so when I was given my company-issued boxcutter I was taken aback. I told them I already had a knife I was using and my manager was like 'ok cool, didn't know that but still wanted to make sure you had a tool to work with'. Later on, when I found this forum and started really getting into knives, he started noticing all the new knives I was now carrying. Instead of getting scared and telling me not to carry them, he actually decided to buy a Victorinox to show that I wasn't the only one you could buy knives. He's really into pens, owning plenty of custom pens and the like, so I guess he understood that my obsession with knives was just a hobby. I have yet to have anybody at work tell me not to use my knives, and from what I'm hearing that's actually not the norm, so I feel lucky.

 

[Bludgeon]

Sucks you cant carry blade at work! My job won't allow them either.:cocksure:

 

[Will Batayte]

Honestly I would hire the guy that carries a knife before I hire a non knife guy.

Me too

 

[Guest5160]

I drive a forklift in a corporate warehouse. We have a "no weapons" policy and I've heard stories about people supposedly being fired for having knives. They've never issued me a cutter so I continue to use whatever I'm carrying that day. I do usually have a smaller knife though, something mini tuff lite sized in case upper management happens to be around.

So far though, it's been a non issue for me. Knock on wood.

 

[NMpops]

Yep.....I am in a lot of contact with recently retired/former military and I have to remind them when training them that the civilian world is ran entirely by liability attorneys. It makes no sense that a Marine with 3 combat tours under his belt needs to take an 8 hour gun SAFETY class before he can go to the range the first time at the police academy. Lawers !!

As an LE Firearms instructor, I worked with many new officers fresh out of the academy and the Military (Marines, Army & Air Force) who were combat veterans and guess what, except for a very short "familiarization" course in AIT they had never fired a handgun until the Academy. Yes they were great with an M-4/AR15 but most never carried a handgun in combat. So yes a gun safety course makes sense to me.

As far as the Op goes, before Military service & LE I worked as a carpenter for a few years. While there was no restriction on what knife I could use (the 1960's) we chose to use a Stanley Utility Knife because it was better suited for the job that the average pocket knife. Employers have the right decide what you use on the job. From uniforms to tools such as guns, knives, safety shoes etc. That's the way of world, always has been.

 

[bdmicarta]

sometimes I hate being self employed because of a few negative things that happen, but when I hear stories like this I'm glad to be my own boss

So what are your complaints about your current boss?


Back to the subject- I think it is unfortunate that some jobs restrict carry. I think a lot of employers are clueless about what really happens. I was in Home Depot yesterday to buy a new toilet. They are heavy and come in big boxes, and most of the boxes seemed to be crunched somehow. I asked the employee if they had a problem with returns due to breakage and he said no but offered that we could open the box to check it. I pulled out my Bradley folder, opened it and tried to hand it to him. He backed up and said he couldn't touch the knife or he would be fired! As much as I like Home Depot that policy would question their intelligence. I opened the box, everything inside was fine, and I took it home and installed it.

I was talking to a friend recently who told me that their company had a new policy forbidding employees to use cell phones in their cars. These are office employees so they are in their cars on their own time, not during business hours or for company business.

 

[Bob W]

I was talking to a friend recently who told me that their company had a new policy forbidding employees to use cell phones in their cars. These are office employees so they are in their cars on their own time, not during business hours or for company business.

There are circumstances in which an employer's insurance and/or workman's comp could cover an employee who's traveling to or from work.

Different countries can be surprisingly different as well. There was a lady in Australia who received employee compensation because a ceiling light fell on her head, while in a hotel on a work trip.

 

[myowngod]

I will echo most of the logical people here with a big "get over it" and be happy you have job... Either that or find a new job... Which would probably be the dumbest reason ever for leaving a job...

 

[The Aflac Duck]

I work construction so I'm encouraged to carry a knife and a good flashlight.

The down side, is the knuckleheads that ask to use my gear and don't understand that my knives are expensive and my flashlights are bright.

I remember one time I removed/cut up about 200ft of silt fence with only a hammer and my sebenza (forgot a shovel). My boss offered me his box cutter/utility thingy to use while cutting the fence up, and I declined and said I had a good knife.

He asked what I had, and I pulled out my large sebenza. He kind of chuckled and said something like "ok, but that might ruin your knife".

Later on, after lots and lots of cutting, my boss said "geez, that knife is still going?"...Yep, told you its a good knife

Also,
I hate when someone hands me my flashlight without turning it off and I end up blind for a few seconds. 1100 lumen in the eyes is never a good thing, and my reaction is never good either:grumpy:

I've quickly learned that my flashlight has three brightness levels: low, coworker, and high

Rant over...

 

[wtlj]

I work construction so I'm encouraged to carry a knife and a good flashlight.

The down side, is the knuckleheads that ask to use my gear and don't understand that my knives are expensive and my flashlights are bright.

I remember one time I removed/cut up about 200ft of silt fence with only a hammer and my sebenza (forgot a shovel). My boss offered me his box cutter/utility thingy to use while cutting the fence up, and I declined and said I had a good knife.

He asked what I had, and I pulled out my large sebenza. He kind of chuckled and said something like "ok, but that might ruin your knife".

Later on, after lots and lots of cutting, my boss said "geez, that knife is still going?"...Yep, told you its a good knife

Also,
I hate when someone hands me my flashlight without turning it off and I end up blind for a few seconds. 1100 lumen in the eyes is never a good thing, and my reaction is never good either:grumpy:

I've quickly learned that my flashlight has three brightness levels: low, coworker, and high

Rant over...

I must know what flashlight you Edc!

 

[Woodcamo Nut]

So what are your complaints about your current boss?


.

Since I'm self employed I don't have a boss , I am the boss.

 

[The Aflac Duck]

I must know what flashlight you Edc!

For work, it's an Olight R40 Seeker.
For normal stuff, 4Sevens Mini-ML.

The Olight stays in my work bag, but I often just stick it in my back pocket if I know I'll be needing it. It's too damn big to edc; the rechargeable option is the sh!t though. The Mini-ML has proven itself over and over to be very reliable imo, plus it's tiny.

I'm new to the light world, however a very certain Steve Ku is on my want list

 

[skyhorse]

Every workplace will have rules.Hang in there long enough and maybe the rules will change someday.

 

[Kai Winters]

I work in a paper mill and over the past several years our corp has implemented lots of "safety" rules to "protect" us.
Basically it is for insurance purposes and I can live with that.

We used to use our standard utility knives to "slab" off paper...until someone put a nice slice in their off hand arm while trying to embed the entire exposed blade into the roll and slab off the blade amount...jumped off the cut and gave him a real nice cut...OSHA involved, etc. and now we use those "safety" utility knives that only expose an quarter of an inch more or less.

We also have to wear cut proof gloves on the off hand...but the gloves are quite nice and I use them all the time...they are very grippy and in the paper biz grippy gloves are very useful.

In truth the safety policies and "near miss" reporting has improved work place safety in our mill. We are up to 540 days without a "lost time", "reportable", "OSHA recordable" incident...great for the workers as we get to go home with all parts intact and undamaged and as someone that got his hand caught in rollers which pulled my arm through crushing two fingers and requiring surgery I'm happy for the rules and tolerate the inconvenience.

They do let us carry our own knives as well as providing us with three inch fixed blade cheapy knives so it is not all bubble wrapped mill workers hehehe.

 

[The Aflac Duck]

Come to think of it, I used to use a Benchmade "rescue hook" when I worked retail and wasn't allowed to carry a knife. It worked extremely well at cutting boxes, straps, and zip ties, plus it was easy to sharpen with Spyderco's ceramic rods.