Sometimes companies overlook health and safety guidelines to make work more efficient.

Do you know who pays for overlooking these guidelines?

The employees…with their health!

In this story, one grocery store employee finally has enough of working so hard that he’s in physical pain just to make his supervisor happy.

Here’s how he spent his final weeks at the grocery store.

Followed Health and Safety, Coworker Complained

The story begins with me working at a large grocery store chain as a cart pusher.

Day in, day out I would be outside bringing carts in.

That position had the single highest turnover rate in the entire store.

We had to bring all the carts in manually without one of those electric pushers.

It sounds like a very physically demanding job.

Because I had other duties as well (i.e. Helping cashiers) we would often be bringing in anywhere from 7-15 carts a load.

Health and safety stated we were not to do more than 5 a load.

I was a naïve teenager.

Plenty of my coworkers developed back problems, and one of the cashiers started giving me painkillers out of pocket so I wouldn’t complain.

This wasn’t going to change.

When regional visited, they pulled from other departments to make it look like we were following code.

I took the issue to the union rep, but she was a supervisor who didn’t care.

I took it to my department’s manager, and she told me I’m welcome to find a new job.

So I did just that.

Enough is enough!

About a year into COVID I decide enough is enough and I’m not breaking my back for minimum wage.

I put my 2 weeks in the moment I had another job lined up.

For those last 2 weeks, I followed Health and Safety to the letter. 5 carts a load.

Suddenly, ever reliable me was hardly ever in the store.

This was a very satisfying moment.

I remember one day towards the end I get called into the store manager’s office for a complaint. One of my coworkers complained that I wasn’t pulling my weight and he had to pick up the slack.

I told them that I am simply following the safe limit as stated by the guidelines.

I could see the steam coming from boss man’s ears, but he couldn’t do anything. He told other guy that I was right and he would send someone else from a different department to help.

That was one of the most satisfying days of that horrid job.

There’s another story.

The second one happened about a month before, again during peak COVID.

We were allowed 1.5 hours of paid leave (during scheduled hours) to get our vaccine shot, mandated by the local government.

This was when I was already looking for a new job, so I had no real love for the store.

I scheduled my shot on the busiest day of the week, just after my half hour unpaid lunch.

The employee simply followed the rules.

As we were instructed, I told my immediate supervisor about it when I walked in (it was the Union rep supervisor).

No issues.

I go for my break around noon, no issues.

I come back down to the store floor and get told by the supervisor that carts need to be done urgently.

Now there’s a problem.

I tell her I can’t because I’m getting my vaccine, as we discussed this morning.

She asks me why I couldn’t do it during my break.

A smile shot across my face as I informed her I’m just following the mandate, and that she would have to deal with the carts in my stead.

She was furious but relented.

I got my shot within 20 minutes and spent the rest of my paid leave eating a pizza.

Yes, enjoy every minute of paid leave and don’t physically hurt yourself for a minimum wage job.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person can relate to this story.

This would’ve been the best approach.

The union does sound problematic.

Another cart pusher weighs in.

No job is worth hurting yourself.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.