Workplace prohibited Knives

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jbmonkey said:
id blame the insurance more than the company owner.

insurance is getting real nasty lately. I finally had to install cameras in every work vehicle...with Ai monitoring. its a major headache, and I pushed it off for years, but I got cornered into do it or your dropped.......

they also came down hard on warehouse and field safety. we always were pretty good on safety rules and equipment required...but the insurance industry has turned up the volume to 11, and the threats and site visits have increased heavily. they want to reduce the risk to almost nothing and at the same time increase the premiums dramatically. all this translates to higher end costs to products and services you buy.

smaller competitors I know haven't quite been caught up into this yet, but they will.... all my equal and bigger competitors have already gone through this.

its a bad era to run a business......every year gets harder and harder and costs more to do it........between corporate customers refusing to pay anything or even their bills on time and corporate supplier constantly raising their prices...and add in lawyers and insurance, its a battle to see who will squeeze you to death first in this corporate squeeze game.......
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True that, don't forget the constant and costly compliance extortion!

In a hilarious coincidence, I have a Texas Railroad Commission compliance guy crawling around my equipment as I type this. I'm looking at him. 😂
 
jbmonkey said:
id blame the insurance more than the company owner.

insurance is getting real nasty lately. I finally had to install cameras in every work vehicle...with Ai monitoring. its a major headache, and I pushed it off for years, but I got cornered into do it or your dropped.......

they also came down hard on warehouse and field safety. we always were pretty good on safety rules and equipment required...but the insurance industry has turned up the volume to 11, and the threats and site visits have increased heavily. they want to reduce the risk to almost nothing and at the same time increase the premiums dramatically. all this translates to higher end costs to products and services you buy.

smaller competitors I know haven't quite been caught up into this yet, but they will.... all my equal and bigger competitors have already gone through this.

its a bad era to run a business......every year gets harder and harder and costs more to do it........between corporate customers refusing to pay anything or even their bills on time and corporate supplier constantly raising their prices...and add in lawyers and insurance, its a battle to see who will squeeze you to death first in this corporate squeeze game.......
Click to expand...
As a small business owner, I completely agree. The amount of red tape and hoops and regulations literally is strangling to small businesses. The big guys with large $ who lobby the government survive it while small guys are eliminated.

I know we're drifting off topic so back on the OP, sir, I'm sorry I don't have good advice.
 
Aicmophobia is surely part of it (i.e. the fear knives and sharp edges), but I agree about the overzealous and misguided push to limit liability as well. I think when these two intersect is when you end up with irrational rules like "no knives at work".

Wolverine666 said:
Just curious, can you discreetly carry a pocket knife in your pocket without drawing much attention to it? I know it’s against the rules, but would anyone there rat you out?
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At the automotive parts plant there was a "no knives" rule, but by the time I was working there it was already my practice to carry at least one folder, and sometimes a fixed blade. I never used them on the floor, but I would sit at a picnic table right outside the main employee entrance during my breaks and lunch and always cut my apple up with whatever I was carrying that day. Made no efforts to hide it, and my pocket clip was always visible when out on the floor during shift (fixed blade was under my shirt or IWB though). It was well known by most that I carried a knife, and even once in a while a supervisor would ask me to cut something, or if they could borrow my knife. HR never knew about it though. I am sure that might have been different if I hadn't been known to the supervisors for having perfect attendance and high productivity.
 
jbmonkey said:
id blame the insurance more than the company owner.

insurance is getting real nasty lately. I finally had to install cameras in every work vehicle...with Ai monitoring. its a major headache, and I pushed it off for years, but I got cornered into do it or your dropped.......

they also came down hard on warehouse and field safety. we always were pretty good on safety rules and equipment required...but the insurance industry has turned up the volume to 11, and the threats and site visits have increased heavily. they want to reduce the risk to almost nothing and at the same time increase the premiums dramatically. all this translates to higher end costs to products and services you buy.

smaller competitors I know haven't quite been caught up into this yet, but they will.... all my equal and bigger competitors have already gone through this.

its a bad era to run a business......every year gets harder and harder and costs more to do it........between corporate customers refusing to pay anything or even their bills on time and corporate supplier constantly raising their prices...and add in lawyers and insurance, its a battle to see who will squeeze you to death first in this corporate squeeze game.......
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s getting so ridiculous that insurance companies can have that much power and intimidation over companies and individuals. Medical insurance has also had a lot of influence on industrial safety standards and other aspects as well. The company I worked for was self insured and owned a insurance company so they had some buffer to stand against the frivolous policies. I’m still glad I was able to retire and get out of the rat race and foolish ideology.
 
I work in a public school where pocketknives are prohibited. We have metal detectors at the entrances, an SRO, an armed security guard, an AI weapons detecting system linked with our cameras, and still kids prop doors open to let friends inside at all hours of the day and night, and some of the kiddos have been caught with knives and loaded guns. Except for the AI system, the college where I used to work had the same rules and security. I don’t have any workarounds aside from some itty bitty safety scissors at my desk, a lock on the door that a dozen other people have keys to, and a “panic button” application on my phone that the school implemented a few years ago.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
1. Refuse to cut anything until they provide an approved cutting device.

2. Request training on appropriate use of the provided cutting device.

3. Feign confusion and insist that all cutting operations be assigned to someone else with more experience in using cutting devices.

:)
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Malicious compliance remains one of the few options available to us these days.
 
Around 1975 in my freshman year of high school we had a new principal from New York who wanted to implement a ban on knives and no guns in vehicles parked on school property. It was a rural community and many pickup trucks had guns in the back window rack. And at least half the male enrollments carried a pocket knife and probably 20% of the females. The school board which consisted of 2/3 ranchers and farmers got involved and had a sit down visit with said principal. They explained that our community was comprised of working farms and ranches and that knives were a necessity, used daily and not for show or play. He had to let it go but that principle didn’t last another year, he just didn’t fit in with our culture and habits. I miss those days when common sense was as common as water.
 
Speaking of insurance companies, an insurance company I was pricing a homeowner's policy with years ago, asked whether I owned firearms and if I had any in my home. I answered in the affirmative.

I explained that only myself, my wife, and our dog lived in the home and that the latter two had no interest in my firearms. I also explained what security I had.

When the rep told me the company's policy against insuring homes with firearms, I asked her who she would feel competent to safely and responsibly own firearms in their home, (as is legal under the Constitution), more than a recently retired federal agent with 20+ years of experience using firearms, including as a member of an SRT.

I told them if that was their policy, the company could basically pound sand and I would take my business elsewhere, which is what I did.

Some years later, the same agent contacted me to tell me that the company had reversed its position, (it was never "her" position), and that if I were interested, she would be happy to give me a quote. (She had never forgotten about us, and had kept me on file to recontact if things changed.)
I actually liked the agent, she was bright, articulate and actually went to bat for us at the earlier time...and spent a lot time on the phone with me. We eventually signed on with them and have been very satisfied. But we both laughed when she contacted me to tell me regarding their about face at the time.

It's actually one of the couple of highest rated companies in customer satisfaction, but I've never forgotten how angry their "policy" regarding firearms in the home had made me at the time.
 
Maybe not quite a "prohibited" story, but one of my prior jobs, was working in corporate for the Ark Encounter/Creation Museum. The security there is pretty serious. Metal detectors, full coverage cameras, half a dozen canine officers, the works. The head of security is a friend, and with my job I was tacitly allowed to carry a folder.

I was escorting a guest group through the front entrance and onto a bus when I realized I had left my knife in my pocket. And not just any knife, but an almost 4" Shiro HaTi.

Thank the Lord the officer at the front played it cool when I set off the alarm and walked sheepishly through. :oops:
 
Blues said:
You do have an uncanny resemblance to The Duck of Death


The only place I've had to turn in my knives (and guns) was the federal courthouse during most of my working years. There was a time when neither of those had to be locked up, but times changed.
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In my area these are prohibited at courthouses, police stations, and any school.
 
So I have decided to use their crappy tools while I am at work with one exception. I eat an apple every day at lunch and I always cut up my apple before I eat it. I have bitten into an apple that looked fine on the outside but inside was rotten, and I don't want to repeat that. So I decided to leave my Victorinox SD in my backpack pocket for apple cutting duties. I figure IF someone sees me cutting up an apple with that little thing, hopefully they won't have much to say.
It is sad because we just got a new Production manager a couple of months ago and he is really cool, I mentioned pocket knives and his face lit up and he immediately whipped out a Microtech and started showing it off.
Unfortunately safety guys don't have much of a sense of humor, and in my experience they tend to be the reason a lot of people get fired in industrial settings.
You never know, it may have been an over reaction to someone getting a cut at one of our facilities and maybe after a while they will back off. I hope so.
 
During my working years I always carried a Bench Mite. Policies or not. Probably stupid to potentially risk disciplinary action or my job, but I loved carrying and using that knife. (It got relegated to closet queen at the advent of my Livewires).
I always called it a tool.
 
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