When safety is brushed aside, you can bet the fallout will be anything but smooth.

So, what would you do if a manager’s poor decision put everyone at risk?

Would you follow orders?

Or would you take a stand, even if it meant creating a headache for the whole operation?

In the following story, one theme park supervisor found themselves in this exact situation.

Here’s what happened.

“Oh now I can I can stop the ride?! Enjoy your 6 hour downtime”

When I was in my late 20s, I worked at a large theme park as a supervisor for one of the roller coasters.

The safety policies were drilled into our heads every week.

So that if a situation ever came up, hopefully, our instinct would be to follow our training for the safest outcome for all parties, customers, AND employees.

Things like fire drills, ride evacuations, and medical situations were stuff we were quizzed on multiple times a week and could land us in hot water if we answered incorrectly.

This is stuff everyone AT EVERY level should know.

One day, I was working with one of my fellow supervisors, we can call Jeff.

Jeff was a supervisor like me, except with about 10 more years of experience, a chip on his shoulder for management, and the authority of a union position.

It all started when the fire alarm went off.

He was loved by his employees and coworkers but did not get along with anyone further up the food chain.

And he was not someone to be trifled with.

Jeff and I were working together when the fire alarm went off at the ride.

The process was:

• Stop loading.
• Kick all of the customers out of the building. -while simultaneously-
• Run the ride so that all the customers on the ride could get off the ride.
• Once everyone is off the ride itself, we would stop it, and everyone would leave.

However, this day, we had a younger manager who was trying to make a name for themselves show up during the process and make the call to stop loading and kick everyone out, BUT not to stop the ride for the employees to leave.

This effectively kept everyone, both employees and customers, in the building for about 20 minutes longer than needed.

Apparently, Jeff knew the process better than a manager.

Jeff was fuming but did as he was told.

Once the last customer left the building, the manager smugly turned to Jeff and announced, “Now you can follow our protocol.”

Jeff raised his eyebrows and chipped back, “Oh, now I can? Alright.”

He reached over and waited for a few beats before slamming the emergency stop.

This ride had 3 lifts (which could easily be reset) and 3 safety brakes (which required our maintenance staff to physically winch the vehicles out of it and to a lift).

This dude had waited just long enough for each vehicle to crest its respective lift and catch in a safety brake.

Here’s the outcome.

He turned to our manager and said, “Have fun with that. I’m going home. Oh, and I’m filing a grievance with the union for you putting employee lives in danger.”

The ride was down for about 6 hours after that.

When maintenance saw the state of the ride, with a vehicle in every brake zone, they rightfully raised ****.

Jeff never got in trouble but did leave the area not long after that.

The manager also never got in trouble, and I believe they are doing really well for themselves now.

But until the day I left that job, I told the story of Jeff’s wide-eyed expression as he asked, “Oh, now I can?!” before turning what should have been an hour’s downtime into a 6-hour monstrosity.

Yikes! That’s quite a situation.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit have to say about this.

People must not like going to carnivals with this man.

Yes, roller coasters can be very dangerous.

This person is confused.

The story brings back memories for this person.

The manager should’ve known the protocol.

From a safety standpoint, it’s pretty scary that the people in charge don’t know what they’re doing.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.