Senior Technicians/Stagehands and Harness Use

[Jezza]

Ok, this is something that is well, starting to get on my nerves. I work in many theaters and venues in the New York area under the direction of older TDs, stagehands, LDs, etc. At these venues, we are commonly rigging or working at height. Being typically the younger and more agile once of the bunch, I typically offer and am happy to be the one to strap up, throw on my harness and work, whether it be climbing truss, rigging, working on the grid, going up in the lift, typical dangerous stuff that you SHOULD have a harness on for.

Now OSHA standards regulate working at height very carefully and stipulates very exactingly when a harness should and shouldn't be used. Personally, I always wear my harness when applicable. Here is the issue: many older technicians and supervisors, and even some younger ones don't, and will criticize you for wearing a harness. I can distinctly recall two occasions when I was about to climb truss and start a focus when an LD or TD said, half jokingly "oh, you don't need one of those [harness], just get up there". Now, I know that they were kidding around, to an extent, but it allows insight into what they think of as safe and necessary.

No I understand that when many of them started out, OSHA regs were not as strict and that OSHA didn't regulate theater heavily, however one would sort of expect and hope that as many of them have seen their friends and co-workers fall and become injured or die when they have not been clipped in properly or flat out not been wearing their harness, they would wise up and adjust to the new OSHA standards.

Moreover, all of the venues are checked yearly to make sure that they are complying with OSHA standards. I know venues who will only put their harnesses up in the grid or lower their retracting lanyards for ladders when OSHA comes for their inspection, as opposed to having it available for technicians to use at any time. I find this irresponsible, lazy, and extremely unsafe. YES, there are situations when your up on a truss and you've got to do some crazy maneuver to fix that instrument, and you know if you didn't have the stupid lanyard on, or you weren't fighting with webbing and biners at your waist, you could get the job done faster. However, isn't your life more important than getting it done faster?

What do you all think about this?

[Footer]

Well, I just got done with a strike with the exact same mindset. One of our older IA guys who believes he is the head rigger (hes about 5'7, 50 some odd years old, has a long white beard, and always wears cutoff sleave shirts and a camo hat with a dear hunters logo). He enjoys going up in our 30' genie that does not have safety features and without the outriggers installed without a harness to its full height then standing on the mid rail of the bucket. I have to leave the stage when he does that. He then got hurt later in the day because he was using his hand as a hammer and messed up his wrist badly enough he was out for the rest of the day. We also had one guy today who liked to monkey up hollywood flats. Personaly, I always keep my harness in my car with my lanyard and large hook just so if I do end up going up, I'm ready.

This is also in the theatre that has a 90' grid and to get to the loading rail you have to climb a 40' ladder from the pin rail. The ladder has no cage on it however it does have a safety cable but there are no carriers for it, so basicly you are cliping into something that will drop as fast as you do. It should have a retractor on it, but it doesnt. The sad thing is I can anything about it not being safe and there are 10 other people who will scurry up it without hesitation. Most IA guys out there that came from the rock world live in the world off "I wont fall because I won't let go". I can not tell you how many people I have seen scurry accross the steel without a harness.

[DCATTechie]

I know what your talking about. I work at my local theater where I am usually one of two others to be in the air hanging whatever is around. I have checked OSHA many a time just to see what the rules are. And typically, at the height that i am working (on a cherry picker mostly) I am required to wear harness. I have never worn one. Now this is not my choice, I am perfectly fine wearing a harness, in fact i would rather wear one than nothing at all. But i have never seen a harness in any form at my theater. Show me a harness and i'll put it on, but im not going to go out of my way to buy one when they should be provided by the company who you are working for (proved in OSHA). I think that if you had some lying around in plain view, people would be more likely to wear one. But thats my opinion among many.

[Van]

It's funny I fall into a weird place between those worlds. I will lecture 'till I'm blue in the face about kids not wearing saftey glasses, or hearing protection. I'll be the first one to call somebody out for not using outriggers etc. Yet at the same time, I am from the " Just get it done" school. I teach people around me with a "Do as I say not as I do" , mentality. I'm guilty of breaking several rules, and I know it. I'm not justifying my posistion, I just finally realize I'm a much better teacher than practitioner when it comes to some safety standards. I think it's very important to instill in kids that the first thing you do is harness up, then climp up to the grid. Grab a dust mask then the palm sander. I also realize I'm horrible at following my own advice. So I say More power to ya, You put on that harness and when I can't walk or hear, or see, you can say "told you so!"

[JD]

Originally Posted by Jezza

many older technicians and supervisors, and even some younger ones don't, and will criticize you for wearing a harness.

You know, its your life not theirs. Life is enough of a game of Russian Roulette as it is. I'll admit that when I was younger I did some pretty stupid things. These days I use a modified version of the old carpenter's saying: "Think twice, act once." Anything that can stack the cards in my favor for living another day, and requires that little effort is worth doing.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by Van

It's funny I fall into a weird place between those worlds. I will lecture 'till I'm blue in the face about kids not wearing saftey glasses, or hearing protection. I'll be the first one to call somebody out for not using outriggers etc. Yet at the same time, I am from the " Just get it done" school. I teach people around me with a "Do as I say not as I do" , mentality. I'm guilty of breaking several rules, and I know it. I'm not justifying my posistion, I just finally realize I'm a much better teacher than practitioner when it comes to some safety standards. I think it's very important to instill in kids that the first thing you do is harness up, then climp up to the grid. Grab a dust mask then the palm sander. I also realize I'm horrible at following my own advice. So I say More power to ya, You put on that harness and when I can't walk or hear, or see, you can say "told you so!"

Very true, I can't tell you how many times I have been up in a geni and said those magic words "Pull the outriggers!". I tend to take safety steps to a certain level. I rarely ever wear a harness in a geni, however I know when it is "safe" to go up in a geni without outriggers and when you need them. I think it all comes down to intuition. I know the loads of a geni, I know what happens when you have a pipe 500 pounds out of weight and you are trying to pull it in with 2 bull lines, two loaders, and two flymen. I know the working load of most things onstage. The stagehands I work with do not. The simply dont know what is in the relative realm of safety and what is not. They see the immediate job to get done and not what is or is not supporting what they are on.

[Jezza]

Originally Posted by Footer4321

Very true, I can't tell you how many times I have been up in a geni and said those magic words "Pull the outriggers!". I tend to take safety steps to a certain level. I rarely ever wear a harness in a geni, however I know when it is "safe" to go up in a geni without outriggers and when you need them. I think it all comes down to intuition. I know the loads of a geni, I know what happens when you have a pipe 500 pounds out of weight and you are trying to pull it in with 2 bull lines, two loaders, and two flymen. I know the working load of most things onstage. The stagehands I work with do not. The simply dont know what is in the relative realm of safety and what is not. They see the immediate job to get done and not what is or is not supporting what they are on.

See, here is the problem. Yes, I am guilty of all of this too. There have been times when I needed to get a focus done quick and the only way was to pull the outriggers out of one side of the lift or to unclip for a second just to get around the piece of steel and then smack the light. There are always exceptions and situations that will test what our priorities are. What is sad and also very telling about our lives, is that in the long run, we will typically forgo safety (to some degree) to get the job done. When it comes to the safety of others, be it performers, co-workers, or the general public, that is paramount, in all of our minds I'm sure. But there are times when we really gamble with our own lives, over a little thing like saving 25 seconds here or there by participating in unsafe actions. Its this vicious paradox....we all are completely dedicated to the craft and to the production, people in theater/entertainment have tremendous dedication to what they do, sometimes I guess, too much.

The "Do as I say, not as I do" mantra, although used by many and myself on occasion, is possibly the most detrimental to the brains of an impressionable crew. Van, I am by no means calling you out here, but you raised a good point. This is utilized commonly by many in the business who have been around gear long enough and experienced enough to know what something is really unsafe or not--or rather maybe we should look at is as whether that person thinks it is unsafe or not. As we age, our notions of safety and comfort level with operations around the stage develop an inverse relationship. As we become more comfortable and seasoned, some levels and procedures of safety disappear. To some degree, this is inevitable and I know that I don't need a block and fall to lower in the cyc pipe at the main stage that I work at. A good wrap and a firm grip will do it just fine. I know that if I take the 4th leg of the lift out and lean out of the Genie I can just climb out onto that piece of steel and monkey around. However, the other impressionable crew members don't. They look at you and myself doing these things with some degree of art and finesse, because we are so comfortable with this practices, and they must assume that they will be capable of those actions themselves. This is dangerous. This is the wrong way to teach younger people the craft.

Also, working with older people, there is always an element of trying to prove yourself, regardless of how secure one is with their skills or not. I know there have been moments when I've waived safety to one degree or another just to get something done quick and artfully, to show people I know my stuff, because that is exactly how they would have done it.

Gotta go load out, more tomorrow.

[ship]

Someone wants fall protection while climbing an eight foot ladder, I might if they walk about in such gear while not on the ladder make a joke, but I have total respect for anyone that wants to use the equipment using it no matter the situation. There are certain mandatary situations for using it, but in general a policy of beyond that, you want it in situations other than this, put it on.

Full classes in climbing truss ladders, walking a truss, operation of machinery etc. are given frequently and you are not allowed to do so without certification by those professionally trained and even certified in anything from fork lift driving to climbing and safety. Also have two certified EMT people on staff, in addition to two fire men and a former Navy Medic that has scraped bodies off the ceiling after they hit their ejection seat lever while in a building, much less lots of others certified in first aid and my military training... let’s see, start the bleeding, stop the breathing, dirty the wound and don’t protect from shock. ... or was that inverse. TBA is further training on rescue of those after fall protection has happened. Those that train are able to, they are not always in the building.

I”m just old school enough to have been raised without such gear. There is nobody better than I atop a wagging in the breeze castered A-Frame ladder and I would rather nobody but me on it anyway. At other times while playing Spider Man across a low grid during warm ups, the grid fell apart and down I went into the middle of the assembled actors... that was fun. Later, especially after a bosemens chair with my repelling harness 40' above the deck, I did started using real fall protection to the extent I could provide on my own and now work where it’s mandatary. (Most have their own fall protection that do shows but the shop gear is absolutely inspected by trained personel before each use. This to the extent of load testing vertical fall arresters according to their certifications for needed testing - believe it's every three years. Took part in one such test.)

On the other hand, I’m also at times in the do as I say not as I do class or I have a bigger rear to chew than you do and often get the wink and nod if I’m standing atop my 4' ladder. Last week for the first time since the fall protection horizontal life line was installed above my pallet racks, I wore it - even forgot how to put it on - it was a new type of harness however. This as opposed to the last couple of times I was atop the pallet rack where I did at times not have such good balance and at one point me being alone in the shop late one Friday night with nobody due in until Monday. (This horizontal life line was something I asked for and supervised the install on following those near fall times. It’s only 14' and most likely I would be able to catch myself on the way down but boy would it hurt. This way at least while it would hurt, it would not be a question of how many lamps broke my fall on the way down.) Measure once, cut twice - I still often follow that rule but demand those I supervise do otherwise. On fall protection on the other hand, given I’m often not the one I’m sending up in anything from a lift to climbing the rack, fall protection is required by me.

I also follow this at this point. No exceptions, someone tells me there is someone in a lift without it, while not the safety manager, my word is sufficient they comply, someone mentions this to me, I find out in making them comply. Ground support people not paying attention to their job, and or people in the area of a lift not wearing a construction helmet, they hear from me and comply. Not the safety manager but been around long enough that it’s enforced. A few weeks ago a 30+ extended scissors lift ran over a laser pointer. I was sitting chatting with a different shows crew chief and we all just kind of saw this yellow/black piece of gear shoot across the shop. Didn’t think much of it other than that the Shop Stewart is going to be pissed in knowing what it used to be. He had to go to great lengths to have the company buy this laser for him and it just became a semi-crushed golf ball when it met the tire of a moving extended scissors lift. As policy, I don’t agree with the concept of moving a lift about at full extension but was over ruled on the concept of having a ground guide for the lift. Obviously the concept of having a ground guide didn’t filter all the way down to those on the ground ensuring that where the vehicle was moving say might not run over a not so cheap laser under it’s wheels this day. What if it were say a cinder block, sand bag or something that wouldn’t crush given a 30' tower?

Following this, I made sure the ground support assigned person did her job, much less everyone in the area as policy wore a hard hat in not listening to excuses. Also was told that besides observing that the person operating the lift did not follow policy about not moving the thing without ground support, he was not wearing his harness. Did some correction of education for this person also - more his fault than hers in many ways.

Turns out the laser was personally owned by the crew chief of the show and it was not a shop tool. He for all intensive purposes had what was left of the tool roll to his feet, picked it up and tossed it in the trash, than proceeded to walk away from the room very calmly. This in ignoring questions of if he was upset by the ground support person.... Took it kind of well for a no doubt 20 year in the industry veteran that has been known over the years to kick people’s rear.

Told him to put the crushed tool on my work table and if not repairable, I would replace it. Instead he replaced it that day in having more points to hang and submitted the receipt. All because the ground support person was not paying attention and doing her job and the operator of the vehicle 30' up in the air was moving the lift without having a ground support person actively paying attention to what she was supposed to be doing. This much less not wearing fall protection or if no ground support in doing her job while moving it, bringing the thing down. The operator was supposed to be a seasoned roadie. Not impressed.

[gafftaper]

I just took a intensive 3 day class on theater safety at a nearby university. The class is aimed mostly at Highschool teachers but is often attended by college faculty as well. The text book was "Dr. Doom's" book... the titled something like "400 pages of how theater will kill you". It was a "fun" class.

So there I was spending 27 hours in 3 days discussing teaching safety and maintaining a safe theater. Over and over I heard people discussing the same things that are mentioned above. Sometimes there isn't time to use the outriggers, sometimes you get busy and forget to use the hearing protection, Sometimes you just have to use the dangerous A frame to get the job done. Except in this case the people doing the work are 14-18 years old. Want to know where the Macho attitude starts? It's with kids riding the arbors or climbing the T-bar all the way to the loading gallery when the teacher is out of the room (AHH... things so dangerous I had never even considered them possible.)

You know what the best part is? OSHA only applies to employees. If students are doing a light hang, there is no law requiring them to wear fall protection equipment so the district isn't required to even provide it.

[Logos]

In Oz and the UK "duty of care" would kick in. Giving you and the school a duty to ensure "reasonable" safety precautions are taken even if not defined by law. This obviously then becomes a debate over reasonable and what that means.