TIFU by trying to impress senior managers and accidentally going under a safety shower and getting soaked

Submitted by WinOk2110 t3_121y34i in tifu

This happened yesterday and I’m still so humiliated when I think of it. I’m dreading Monday.

I’m an operations manager in a chemical plant and we had some bigwigs from head office visiting this week. Yesterday I took them on a tour of the site, which until this point had gone well. We’d shown them all our improvements and shown them areas we wanted to improve, hoping for some money. All very positive and going well.

I walk round there all the time, I’m very familiar with the site, so why I did this I don’t know, but we were in a narrow space and one of the VIPs wanted to look at something, so I got out of the way and stepped under the foot activated (unheated) heavy duty safety shower! I got instantly drenched in cold water. And this isn’t a trickle. It was awful and they seemed horrified.

This happened as many of the operators were going on their break nearby, so I had quite an audience. Those who missed it saw me squelching back to my office.

I had such high hopes for the visit improving the profile of the site and all the visitors are now taking away is this wet idiot!

TL;DR tried to impress high profile work visitors but instead soaked myself under a cold safety shower.

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Comments

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GeofryHempstain t1_jdnwalp wrote

The sooner you embrace the oopsie, the less power it will have. I think it's great your safety systems are so sensitive. Imagine the opposite happening: you show them the newly installed showers, press the button... And nothing happens. That's a much worse scenario! So of the two things that could have happened, yours wasn't even the worse one! Hope this helps, enjoy your weekend!

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdnwn0s wrote

Yes, I suppose. Someone covered in a harmful chemical needs this to work. It’s just so embarrassing and it was so cold!

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Decapentaplegia t1_jdnycno wrote

"I hope everyone appreciated my unscheduled demonstration of our safety systems yesterday!"

Throw that in your follow up email and everything will be fine, lol.

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdnyx42 wrote

Thanks. I will actually steal this. It might salvage something. It was going so well up to this point… Thanks

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KennstduIngo t1_jdp48lk wrote

Well, there is another thing you need money to fix. I believe safety showers are now supposed to be supplied with tepid water, so people will stay under them as long as needed and/or not get hypothermia.

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MrPlow_357 t1_jdo4rya wrote

If you have any type of group call on Monday bring up the incident with a little joke. Good morning, hope everyone got a good shower over the weekend, I was a little eager and got started early. Something to break the ice and make you relax a little. Once you acknowledge the incident you'll feel better and your coworkers will appreciate you bringing it up instead of leaving them unsure how to react.

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdo7gvh wrote

Thanks. Can’t make it any worth I suppose.

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LowArtichoke6440 t1_jdo8bdm wrote

Epic story that you’ll be telling for years to come. Will take some time to live it down. And yes, humor is a great coping mechanism.

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdo8tan wrote

Well I’m hoping everyone will have forgotten in a week, sadly don’t think so. Posting it here is actually helping a bit though

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ThadisJones t1_jdomr6p wrote

> And this isn’t a trickle

This is a massive understatement. My lab's safety showers will fill up a five gallon bucket in ten seconds.

Mine are activated will a pull handle, which opens a valve in the ceiling. The first time my assistant and I did a safety check, I held the bucket while she pulled the handle. A few seconds later, I realized I'd made a critical error by not explaining how to close the valve before having her open it.

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdonbif wrote

Seems about right…. Suffice to say I was fairly drenched !

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ThadisJones t1_jdooea2 wrote

That's why we check them monthly- to ensure that the stuff that comes out is water, and not, say, a liquid form of black mold fungus.

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WinOk2110 OP t1_jdopd00 wrote

Absolutely. Completely right. And usually I won’t be standing under them!

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Atillion t1_jdq0m1q wrote

Thought you'd appreciate my completion of the safety shower periodic testing..

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Helmann t1_jdpupg3 wrote

"And this is our state of the art safety shower 😅"

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AcrobaticSource3 t1_jdp6pdq wrote

Hopefully you weren’t wearing a white shirt, if you know what I mean

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Joshydonryan t1_jdqr7ah wrote

At least they know the equipment works

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romancement t1_jdt2hz4 wrote

Honesty I'd be impressed! It's good to know that in a serious situation the systems work as they should. I like the idea of joking about it but also double down on how great your workplace safety is haha! Better to be cold and wet than chemical burned

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