Workplace safety rules exist for a reason, even if some people think they’re optional.

So when one concert crew member’s coworker kept brushing off warnings about safety protocols, the tension finally landed right at the boss’s feet.

That’s when this coworker got a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget.

Keep reading for the full story.

“Don’t Tell Me How To Do My Job” “OK Then”

I work for a company that gets hired to do the grunt work at large concerts.

Basically, we set the gig up in the morning, then tear it back down at night.

Two things you need to know first that are relevant to this story.

Firstly, this is a job that has the potential to be inherently dangerous.

The nature of the work comes with some inherent risks.

You’re working with very heavy equipment, and sometimes at a decent height off the ground.

So there is always the possibility that you’ll either fall off of something and do some damage, or something will fall on you and do some damage.

He shares an example of these risks in action.

To give you an example, one load-in we were working, one of the trucks was packed from top to bottom, side to side, and front to back with flight-cases.

This is dangerous, since it gives the people unloading the truck no breathing space to unload.

While trying to get the first case off the truck, one of my co-workers lost his balance and fell off the ramp.

Luckily, I was standing in the perfect place to catch him and cushion his fall.

But this could have ended a lot more disastrously.

If I hadn’t been there, he’d have fallen just over five feet and landed flat on his back on solid concrete.

That could have done serious damage to his back.

So, as you can imagine, health and safety is quite a big deal to our boss.

The workers are required to wear protective gear while on the job.

We’re required to wear a hard hat and steel toe-capped boots when we’re working.

When we first apply for the job, we’re given a sizable document on health and safety to read.

We also go through a health and safety briefing before we start our first shift.

Secondly, we start every shift by unloading trucks.

He describes this process.

Depending on the size of the show we’re working, we have anywhere from five to thirty trucks to unload.

Generally, we’ll start unloading the trucks, and bit by bit, some of us will be called to start assembling some freshly unloaded staging or rigging.

This story involves a gentleman we’ll call Kevin.

Kevin’s an older guy, maybe in his early sixties, and started working for the company at the same time I did.

Although he worked similar jobs when he was my age, in the late 70s and early 60s.

For the most part, he liked working with Kevin, although the guy had some flaws.

Kevin’s a perfectly affable guy, and it’s always entertaining hearing about his experiences from working back in the day.

However, Kevin is a little bit lax when it comes to health and safety.

He’s compliant with most of our guidelines, but some things he’s a little bit less compliant with.

There’s one bad habit Kevin really needs to break.

The one thing he does that annoys everyone is sending down flight-cases without checking that someone is on the ramp to take the case from him.

A little bit of flight-case etiquette: when you send a small-ish flight-case down a ramp (one that one person can wheel along the floor to its destination), you make sure there’s one person on the ramp to grab the case.

There’s good reason for following these protocols.

This makes sure it doesn’t speed down the ramp and go flying into the middle of the arena floor.

You also make sure there’s at least one person on each side to guide the case down the ramp.

These cases might be light enough that one person can wheel one across the floor solo.

But they’re heavy enough that it’s going to hurt if a runaway one hits your leg.

Kevin doesn’t do this with the smaller cases, and this annoys everyone else.

Many people have tried to warn Kevin, but he just doesn’t seem to listen.

We’ve told him several times, but it goes in one ear and out the other.

One particular show, we had ten trucks to unload.

So that set the stage for the main conflict of this story.

By the time we were on truck number nine, everyone else, bar myself, Kevin, and a few others, had been allocated a job setting up a part of the show.

The last truck was late.b It had broken down en route to the venue.

After we were finished with truck number nine, we were allowed to take a smoke break while we waited for the last truck to arrive.

Finally, Kevin snapped.

We confronted Kevin outside, and he told us,

“Stop telling me how to do my job. I know what I’m doing.”

So we all nodded and went to smoke our cigarettes.

The final truck arrived not long after, and we went to go and gut it.

We opened the trailer doors and put the ramp in place.

So Kevin got back to work and in came the boss.

Kevin and another co-worker got on the truck and started unloading the cases.

Our boss, John, walked over to our truck, and one of us said,

“Hey John, would you mind helping us unload? We’re a man down?”

John obliged and walked up to the ramp to get the first case.

Just as he stepped foot on the ramp, Kevin launched his first missile.

The boss immediately took notice and gave Kevin a formal warning.

John caught the case, then told Kevin to go with him for a chat.

I jumped on the truck and took Kevin’s place.

We gutted the truck in about twenty minutes.

Then we were delegated to setting up the drum risers for the stage that we’d just unloaded.

Kevin came back to join us.

We heard later that John had given Kevin a warning.

If he was ever caught breaking health and safety rules again, he’d be fired.

Looks like Kevin finally understands the importance of workplace safety.

What did Reddit think?

When you refuse to follow the rules, word can get around.

This commenter knows firsthand the consequences that can come from a coworker’s carelessness.

It always pays to know who you’re speaking to before blatantly disrespecting them.

In the end, Kevin finally learned he couldn’t play fast and loose with the rules anymore.

Funny how fast “I know what I’m doing” turns into “Yes, boss!”

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.