Imagine working at a store that sells DIY items. If a forklift operator told you to get out of the way and blocked off the area, what would you do if there were something in the blocked off area that you desperately needed in order to do your job?

In this story, one employee is in this exact situation, and they have no choice but to wait, and wait, and wait!

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

Want me to wait until you’re ready to let me in the yard? That’s fine.

I work for a company that assists with refits, resets, range reviews, and setting up of new stores in the UK. One of the chains we’re contracted to is a major DIY chain.

For the most part we don’t receive all of the extra training that the chain’s own staff do, and we’re generally there to provide an extra set of hands or two.

This is fine by me.

Here’s an example of one thing they’re not trained on.

One of the bits of training that we don’t receive, because it would have to be done in every individual store we visit, is the “Vehicle Movement Training”, which would allow us to be in the stockyard or warehouse while there are forklifts in use.

If a vehicle is active in the warehouse or the yard, the operator must make sure that a barrier/warning chain has been pulled across the respective door.

In one store I was told to take a cage full of cardboard waste out into the yard, and bring back a cage full of stock from the same place.

I made the trek across the store to the warehouse. The inner chain was down, and I could see that the outer chain was also. There was only one person in the warehouse.

The forklift operator warned OP to get out of the way.

Forklift operator: I’m about to start yard movement.

Me: Perfect timing. This cage will need stacking I think.

Forklift operator: You can’t go into the yard. I’m going out there.

Me: I’ll be as quick as possible. Drop this at the waste area, and grab the stock cage on my way back in.

Forklift operator: I’m going out there now. You’ll have to wait.

OP had no choice but to wait.

I was sent off with the expectation that the rest of the team would finish the cage we’d be working on in the time it took me to finish my errand.

There was no backup plan for if I returned without the cage that was in the yard, the last one of the review. The only one left before we could all go home for the week.

But I wasn’t, and I’m still not Vehicle Movement Trained.

My name wasn’t signed on the board next to the door as one of those permitted to mix it in the yard with the forklift. And therefore I had to stand as the chain was hooked across the doorway and the forklift engine coughed to life.

The team leader eventually wondered what was taking so long.

The door came down once the forklift was out of sensor range, so I could only assume that the driver was working hard.

And half an hour later, when the team leader came looking to see why a simple stock cage retrieval was taking so long, he found me waiting still. Leaning on my manual pumptruck, the forks still under the cardboard cage I’d been meant to leave in the yard, waiting for the forklift operator to come back inside and remove the chain from the door.

He was Vehicle Movement Trained, so he opened the door… to see the forklift parked near the garden centre entrance to the stockyard, and the operator nowhere in sight.

We didn’t get out as early as we hoped because of the delay. And the store manager did not look impressed when the tale was relayed to him.

Where did the forklift operator even go? It would’ve been much more efficient to let OP grab the cage and leave if the forklift operator knew he was going to take awhile.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

They definitely deserved overtime!

I hope so too!

This person has a couple questions.

This is the biggest question of all.

The forklift operator could’ve waited a minute.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.