May 22, 2025 at 12:45 am

There Were Big Safety Issues At His Workplace, So An Employee Asked For Rain Gear. But When They Weren’t Given It, They Would Refuse To Work Whenever It Sprinkled.

by Jayne Elliott

Shutterstock/Reddit

What would you do if you were expected to work in unsafe conditions?

Would you call out the problems to management and refuse to work until they were fixed, or would you do your best to stay as safe as possible under the current circumstances?

In today’s story, one man notices big safety issues, and he refuses to put himself at risk.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Break health and safety no problem and we don’t work in the rain, excellent.

This is a 2 parter, my initial Malicious Compliance probably contributed to the cause of the 2nd.

And it all happened roughly 2 years ago.

I used to work for the local church as a grounds keeper (and other odd duties).

One of the odd duties was going upstairs to brush/vac the open floor.

It wasn’t an odious job but getting up the very old, worn and uneven stone stairs was a pain with a vac, brush, bucket, etc.

There was a big safety issue.

One of the first times it happened I noticed several of the brackets that held the thick rope ‘hand rail’ were either loose or came out completely if you weren’t careful.

I reported this and was told the Parish Council had known about it for 3yrs.

I kinda got annoyed about it at this point because if it came out when you had the vac on your back (it had a rucksack harness) and you slipped it’s a hell of a fall backwards.

Not to mention the thousands of tourists that used to go up those steps, it could lead to serious injury.

He refused to go up the stairs.

I also said that I was marking the date and any injury caused by the stairs I’d immediately advise H&S.

I said to my immediate boss that I wouldn’t be going up them until the issue was fixed.

She seemed a bit shocked but said she’d say something at the meeting.

True to my word, when asked to go to clean I refused.

That worked fast.

Weirdly the issue was fixed within a month or so.

Roll on a few months and I was called in to a meeting with the Parish Council’s Employee Contact.

Long story short, in the 1st I was told my job was secure.

I was asked to come in for a 2nd meeting a month later (agreed at the time of the 1st meeting) and was told I was being laid off at the end of the year (this was August).

I did win a discrimination case against them but that’s a different story and not malicious compliance.

He wasn’t about to work in the rain.

There’s been an ongoing joke about the Parish Council saying we didn’t have to work in the rain.

I’d been asking for general work and rain gear since I started working there the previous year but wasn’t too bothered because I had plenty of old work clothes from previous jobs.

After the Employee Contact informed me that I was being laid off and was “unemployable” and a year of asking for rain gear I’d had enough.

So every time it even drizzled I went inside. If it stopped, I came out.

He only worked until October.

Thankfully my colleagues fine with this, they knew the score.

As it was coming towards Autumn I did less and less work.

I just sat with my feet up.

This carried on until the end of October where I just booked the rest of the year as holiday.

He helped as much as he could.

Additional info: I was on a disabled work scheme via the government so it was documented what I was and wasn’t capable of.

This also was adhered to even more strictly than before and if any job even looked like it might fall under the umbrella of the “if he thinks it’s too much, he can say no” rule.

All in all, I helped my colleagues as much as needed but my work load dropped massively as I started to go inside to avoid the rain and refuse to do the jobs I didn’t necessarily have to.

Nobody should be expected to work in unsafe working conditions.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

If a tourist gets hurt, it could be a big problem!