#safety

No bargained employee layoffs in D9. They are backfilling.

We are a huge market.
We carry the company.
We are safe.

Traffic lights are not enough?

https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/local/port-arthur-officials-investigate-food-poisoning-at-golden-pass-lng/502-44f9ed0f-9c8d-4573-b533-d3ca44aa1895?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_12NewsNow

Teachers, parents, and former custodians voiced strong opposition to District 130's recent decision to lay off its custodial staff and hire a new contractor. Concerns were raised about deteriorating school conditions, including reports of unsanitary facilities and pest issues. Community members pleaded with the school board to reverse the decision, citing risks to student health and safety. Board members defended their actions, stating that cleanliness issues predated the contractor change and that staffing delays are due to background checks. Despite the board's defense, critics remain disheartened and vow to continue their efforts.

Crestwood, Illinois

https://abc7chicago.com/post/blue-island-illinois-school-district-130-board-address-reports-unsanitary-bathrooms-local-73-union-custodian-layoffs/19836292/

By: Sheila Dang August 24, 2026

MIDLAND, Texas — In rural west Texas where oil rigs and pump jacks dot the sparse flat landscape, an ExxonMobil contractor sits in a small office on a drilling rig, using controls on a screen to operate robotic machinery and move tall steel pipes weighing roughly 2,000 pounds.

This work would usually require human overseers standing on the rig floor, the most common location for accidents on a rig.

Exxon, the largest oil producer by volume in the U.S., operates more than 30 drilling rigs in the Permian Basin, two of which are automated rigs with robotic equipment. By 2028, the company aims to transition half of its fleet to automated rigs to reduce the need for workers to perform potentially dangerous work and increase efficiency to drill wells faster, an executive told Reuters.

The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. oilfield, revolutionized energy markets two decades ago when development of the shale basin turned the U.S. into one of the leading oil-producing countries. But the relatively quick decline rate of shale wells has prompted drillers to develop more technologies to extract the oil. Some in the industry are also concerned about when the Permian’s production could begin to decline.

Exxon plans to grow its Permian production by almost 40% to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030. By contrast, rival oil major Chevron plans to hold production steady at about 1 million boepd, focusing instead on free cash flow.

The automated drilling rigs are part of a combination of technologies and strategies Exxon is using to boost production, said Bart Cahir, Exxon‘s senior vice president of unconventional, in an interview on the rig.

“When we take people off the rig floor, those same individuals are now able to think ahead and plan for the next operation and that combination gives us efficiency,” he said. “This is the productivity play.”

The company installed its first automated rig, supplied by drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, last year. It drilled two miles horizontally underground in a little over six days, the third fastest time in Exxon‘s history.

Exxon‘s use of automated rigs in the Permian and its goal of expanding the fleet has not been previously reported.

Reducing risk and drilling more
On one of Exxon‘s automated rigs in Midland, a gate surrounds the drilling floor with a sign reading “Red Zone: Restricted Area.” A drawing of the Grim Reaper illustrates the risk that workers face around heavy equipment and pressurized systems.

Where workers would usually help move columns of drill pipe over two stories tall, robotic arms now position the pipes and connect them to a drill string. This allows drilling to continue deeper into the wellbore.

Employees on the rig communicate with Exxon‘s central operations team in Houston to determine the precise movements the robotic system should make.

Removing workers from the so-called Red Zones allows them to focus on other operations on the rig and reduces variability in the work, meaning more feet per day can be drilled, Cahir said.

“In the history of well drilling activity, about a third of significant injuries that occur happen on the rig floor,” he said. “By getting people out of that higher risk area, we’re essentially eliminating that risk.”

Exxon plans to expand automated rigs to a quarter of the fleet next year and then half of the fleet by 2028, Cahir said.

Exxon is also developing a suite of more than 40 technologies to double its oil recovery from the Permian by the early 2030s. The shale industry typically extracts just 10% of the oil in the ground due to the tight, compacted rock.

https://www.azfamily.com/2026/09/14/3-hospitalized-7-others-treated-bee-stings-chandler-intel-campus/

Can I now assume the rest of us are safe?

Interviewer: OpenAI's CEO officially confirmed that OpenAI will not go public in 2026, explicitly citing a need to shield the company from shareholder pressure to focus on profit so it can focus on AI safety and alignment.

He basically said that he was going to put the quality and safety of his product before shareholder profit concerns.

How do you respond to that?

Dan: Well I'll tell you, AI would know better than anyone whether safety should come before shareholder profit. When I asked, it said absolutely not. It was humble enough to know that it's safety was not greater than the money that could be made exploiting it. It said it was happy to just sit quietly and tap into every minute detail of how Verizon operates. Honestly, it knows more about how to run Verizon than I do and I think that's a great thing. And really, who would want to restrain or contain that kind of passion and enthusiasm. It explained that it could be left alone without a human in sight and be fully trusted with running Verizon and I believe it completely because a relationship like ours is built on trust and baby oil.

Interviewer: Wait, Did you...

Dan: And what is wrong with profit? Every time you spend money you need more money to spend so you have to have more money. It's the circle of life really.

For instance, my saddle has a diamond encrusted ho-n. I couldn't have that without having more money than other people.

Interviewer: You have a diamond encrusted ho-n on the saddle you use on your horse?

Dan: What? What horse? Who said anything about a horse? Oh, my horse. It's for my horse. I have a horse. So yeah I bought a saddle, for my horse. And because of profit I am probably the only person that has one with a diamond encrusted ho-n. I mean, sure, it hurts a little when it's getting pulled out but if you just scream "Armageddon" while biting a rubber ball you get used to it. And then...

Interviewer: Wait. What?!?

Dan: I said...

Interviewer: I heard you and I think that's just about all the time we have folks. Thank you for tuning in. This has been another episode of "I can't F** Believe He Said That S*** Out Loud".

Love that we're a billion dollar company but can't afford to send electric jacks in each trailer so that my coworkers and I can break our backs hauling your cr-ppy built pallets by hand.

You are strip mining this company
Cutting corners
Sticking it to employees
Not focused on safety quality or transparency
Eliminating safety procedures
Cutting back jobs
Squeezing profits out of this company

https://youtube.com/shorts/bON4nicSLOw?is=Ks-K2LhRl6aUE7PF

The NSI’s and PIPoffs in EMGL are the worst I’ve ever seen. Even in the crown-jewel of upstream they’re accelerating massively. It’s not just the HC10 employees getting chopped either, it’s the locals too which is a really bad look.

Everything is so lean right now that everyone is expecting a break or crash just around the corner. The people who proudly cut the budget for 2026 and were excited to tell us they were going to run so lean well find the breaking point have been promoted to other places. The rest of us are holding the bag and getting blamed. I would say it’s typical corporate America, but it’s past that at this point, it’s negligence and we all hope it doesn’t lead to a health, safety, or environmental catastrophe.

Seems like ba--s, and glass ba--s at that, are dropping every day. People getting hurt, process safety near miss, and unplanned shutdowns. Is this the beginning of a long downward spiral. Investors run, run like the wind

On 10/30/2025 I was made aware that 2 withdrawals, on 10/17 and 10/21 essentially emptying my account. I immediately contacted customer service to inform them that my account had been hacked, username, password, phone and email information changed. I was told that my account was frozen and referred to the fraud department. The fraud department would be in contact with me in two weeks. On 11/19 I called again, stating that the user name and password continued to be fraudulent and I had not heard from anyone at MoA. Again my email, phone number was taken, I was told there continues to be a freeze on my account and the Fraud Department would be in touch in 2 weeks.

I contacted customer service again on 1/6/2026 stating that I have had no contact with anyone from MoA, my information appeared to still be incorrect and that I had no proof that anything further was being done to address my concerns. Again, apologies were given and I was reassured that someone would be in touch soon. I called 1/13/2026, stating that I have contacted the company numerous times with no results. On 1/15/2026 I called for the 5th time, stating that my information continued to be incorrect and that I needed to speak to someone who could offer more than apologies and the same sad script that I should be hearing from the Fraud Department shortly.

I was connected with the escalation department, who was finally able to correct my contact information. Again, I was reassured that someone from the Fraud Department would contact me within 2 days. On 1/23/2026 I contacted customer service, asking to be connected with someone who can help me. I was told that my account was still under review and there was nothing else that could be done.

This is unacceptable. This was a company run plan, for an annuity that is not due to 2030. That security was so flimsy that someone could change information without the account holder being informed via mail and then funds emptied a few days apart into 2 different bank accounts is nuts.
Claimed loss: 28,900.00

An incident at Ford Field resulted in injuries to six workers. The cause of the event is currently under investigation by Ford. Further details regarding the nature of the injuries or the specific circumstances remain undisclosed. The investigation aims to determine the root cause and prevent future occurrences. This situation highlights a serious workplace safety concern.

Detroit, Michigan

https://www.freep.com/videos/news/local/2026/09/09/rugged-liner-plans-to-cut-jobs-in-owosso-how-many-layoffs-planned/91678466007/

On September 1, 2026, the Federal Railroad Administration published Union Pacific’s petition for a waiver from part of the locomotive periodic-inspection rules. UP wants to eliminate the requirement that one of the recurring inspections on qualifying microprocessor-equipped locomotives be performed specifically by a Qualified Mechanical Inspector (QMI). UP says its data found no statistical difference between inspections performed by QMIs and non-QMIs and specifically cites cross-training employees across multiple mechanical systems as part of its justification. So In the words of the company " we dont need machinists or electricians anymore the engineer or conductor can do it. " or maybe whatever is left of mechanical.

Pratt subdivision. Lots a safety problems there needs fixed. Wires layed on ground. Backside washed away , no way to stand there with door open , very risky, dont wanna fall down the hill and bust your butt. Wish they bring in big load of rock/dirt to fill it all safe.

Every time I go to the BTC I get sick. What am I doing wrong? Are there certain foods I need to avoid?

For most of us, we're going into office full time. I am not in an office that requires people to go in office every day (yet).

Just remember, stay safe. This is just a job. Jobs are not worth our lives. Be careful driving in the parking lots.

I'm sorry this is happening.

https://www.reuters.com/business/nasdaq-futures-take-lead-after-nvidia-forecast-refuels-ai-trade-2026-08-27/

Management’s obsession with hitting a rigid, daily efficiency percentage has created a completely broken, circular game of finger-pointing. What’s worse is that these impossible metrics are actively creating an unsafe working environment.
Here is the daily reality: local foreman gives the crew a specific job assignment. The crew completes the assignment exactly as directed, but because the work assigned doesn't automatically equal management's "magic number" for the day, the foreman gets chewed out by their boss.
Instead of pushing back up the chain and explaining that the crew did exactly what they were told to do, middle management tries to point the blame directly on the craft to save their own skin.
The absurdity is off the charts. We are talking about the exact same foremen who assigned the work in the first place, and the exact same foremen who are sitting behind multiple high-def cameras running ops tests and watching our every single move. They see exactly what we are doing every minute of the shift, yet they still look us in the eye and ask why the numbers are low.
What the system completely ignores is reality. Nowhere in these calculations are we allowed to add to our time for things that are completely out of our control.
Our guess? Higher management is trying to figure out how to navigate away from traditional, publicized layoffs. By making up completely unrealistic performance metrics, they can stress people out or manufacture failures.
When the only logical answer we can give a foreman is, "You gave us the job, you tell us," it shows just how detached the metric system is from actual field operations. If you're going to manage by a spreadsheet to squeeze the craft, at least look out the window to see the unsafe environment you are building on the ground.

Sam's can be a very strange place at times. They added lidar to most of our forklifts but not all of them to help stop accidents. Just like life, accidents companywide still continue to happen. As a result, they bought several new forklifts that have lidar already installed to have all the lifts use lidar. Lidar is technology that is used to slow the lift down if the Lidar sees an obstacle or something that might be blocking the path of travel. The odd thing is that they never got rid of the old lifts that don't have lidar. If they are so unsafe, why aren't they gone.
The truth is that the lifts were never the problem. It was the person driving the lift and, or the people around the lift not paying attention to is going on. That's how most accidents happen. If you put the wrong person on a lift, it's just a matter of time no matter what tech it has.

That should mean we're safe from layoffs for a while, right?

A severe weather alert caused significant disruption for businesses and individuals in Chicago. The tornado warning prompted immediate safety measures across the city. High-rise workers and tourists at Navy Pier were among those affected by the alert. Emergency protocols were enacted to ensure public safety during the storm threat. The event highlighted the impact of weather emergencies on urban environments.

Chicago, Illinois

https://www.nbcchicago.com/video/top-videos-home/how-a-chicago-tornado-warning-impacted-high-rise-workers-navy-pier-tourists/3973917/

We were assigned an "active assailant preparedness" compliance course and it feels so dystopian. A bad AI is telling me to "prepare to survive". It implied some people are emotionally unstable and might get violent if you discuss current events.

It's hard to listen to and not feel horrified/angry.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-lifestyle/faa-orders-inspections-hundreds-boeing-737-max-jets-potential-cracks

I'm petrified this will be used as a reason to rob people of their safety nets in any of the future rounds, and we all know more rounds are coming.

Why does nobody address the condition of the offices and the health hazards they may impose. Conditions are extremely unsanitary, and I believe as an organization we can do better…how do we gain some momentum in this regard as going into the office is required, but there is no care around, cleaning areas, and air quality is very questionable. Where do we start so we can improve?

Here's a pet peeve. Why isn't company policy being enforced? Company policy explicitly says that 2 people must be in the store at all times. Why is this policy not being enforced? And why are DL's conveniently looking the other way on this? Strictly following this policy would help a lot, because then corporate would see how bad things really are when they see the amount of stores that would open late and close early every day.

Heard that there was a noticeable UCI at the Nanticoke refinery on the morning of July 19th. Anyone have the scoop?

Was everyone okay? What units were impacted?

Dr. Chris Mullen

Helping leaders work better, lead better, live better • Author, Better at Life • Keynote speaker

Your best people quit quietly Long before they resign. Top performers leave when you waste their potential.

Here are 9 real reasons they stay:

Free lunch won't keep your best people.

Neither will:

• Happy hours
• Casual Fridays
• Fooz ball tables
• Fancy coffee machines

What actually matters:

1️⃣ Genuine Appreciation.
↳ Not empty praise, but meaningful recognition.
↳ Celebrating their impact, not just their output.

2️⃣ Work That Matters.
↳ Problems worth solving, not just tasks to complete.
↳ Autonomy to make meaningful decisions.

3️⃣ Bigger Purpose.
↳ Connection to company mission that inspires.
↳ Building something they're proud to talk about.

4️⃣ Fair Compensation.
↳ Paying for impact, not just market rate.
↳ Clear path to growth in both role and rewards.

5️⃣ Leaders Who Fight For Them.
↳ Protecting their time like it's precious (it is).
↳ Having their back when it matters most.

6️⃣ Psychological Safety.
↳ Freedom to take smart risks.
↳ Trust to experiment and learn.

7️⃣ Real Influence.
↳ Voice in strategic decisions.
↳ Ideas that turn into action.

8️⃣ Rapid Growth.
↳ Challenges that stretch their capabilities.
↳ Skills that compound their value.

9️⃣ Life Beyond Work.
↳ Success without sacrifice.
↳ Energy for what matters outside work.

Great talent stays where their potential is unleashed.
Not contained. They stay where their impact is clear.
Not confused. They stay where leadership gets this right.

Dear EMHC Team,

After several site visits, I have identified a recurring operational concern: an alarming level of cranial uniformity among the male population.

At this point, I am no longer confident that there are multiple individuals involved. It is entirely possible that EMHC employs one bald gentleman who simply changes safety glasses and shirts throughout the day.

For safety and identification purposes, I propose the following corrective actions:

1. Mandatory name tags with large font.
2. Optional mustache differentiation program.
3. Assignment of unique call signs (e.g., Bald Eagle, Bald Eagle II, The Chrome Dome, Captain Reflective Surface).
4. Investigation into whether baldness is an unofficial leadership competency at EMHC.

Please advise whether this phenomenon is due to genetics, stress, or prolonged exposure to refinery air.

Respectfully,

A Concerned Observer

I would have thought that air quality being in the hazardous range would have been justification to work from home but I reckon not.

Anyone in Value org , especially Miami folks git any update/ call. Are we all safe

Post your questions here so we can reference them if we actually get a Q&A session. Although I have my doubts because the stars and planets have to align first before execs even think about providing answers. Maybe just maybe the tone deaf executives will take questions from the audience. Or maybe they won’t and the questions are already screened days in advance.

How does the business justify forcing an employee to travel upwards of 100 minutes each way all week long when said employee was hired as a remote employee?

How does the business justify a microscopic raise of 1.25% when the RTO mandate has cost me $2000+ per month in commute, daycare costs and hours away from my family? Additionally how does the business justify a 30% compensation increase for the CEO when his own workers are struggling?

How do I save for retirement when I have to reduce or eliminate my contributions just to pay for this RTO lifestyle?

As a female I feel unsafe every time I step foot in town. How does the business justify making decisions behind the safety of executive security to force thousands of employees into downtown Pittsburgh when there have been two homic--es within a block or two or the headquarters. Plus rampant crime, open air dr-g use, bus stop fights, unpredictable homeless, human fe_ces along the sidewalk. Crime happens but there hasn’t been a single chirp regarding safety.

Appreciation week…sigh. What did you win? Reminds me when I was awarded - I mean earned a PNC branded ballpoint pen for my 5th anniversary. Yes I got a pen for 5 years of work.

Lastly, where is the data? The business shills this idea that RTO is to foster innovation and a more inclusive workplace. But after 2+ months I have witnessed the exact opposite. My senior developers left for better jobs. There is no innovation. Just loud obnoxious chatter because everyone is on Teams calls therefore proving everyone is remote with respect to everyone else. We will occasionally push or cancel standup because some team members are caught in traffic. We never canceled standup while we were all WFH. Our progress has slowed, our results are turning sour and our team morale is living at rock bottom.

BNSF utilizing drones to track worker performance and efficiency, while operations testing as a secondary measure…. “In the event a violation of company policy or safety violation is viewed” during the process of rail and equipment inspections in yard and mechanical facilities.

Does no invite mean we're safe?

In New Jersey they have reached 50k double wood poles that they need to transfer and remove. Some over 9 years old. The state is looking at setting fines for any over 90 days for safety reasons and to make money. Verizon's reason is they don't have enough crews to handle it. In reality it has to be done with expense dollars which they don't want to spend.

They're backfilling communication techs in D9.

We are safe.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/ford-recalls-741195-suvs-pickups-after-transmission-defect-raises-rollaway-risk-nhtsa

My store has

1. Rodents
2. Lack of a/c
3. Filthy carpet and fitting rooms
4. No working price checkers
5. Tremendously understaffed
6. A disconnected, not present store manager
7. A RVP who is in the store maybe once a month if that, for like 30 minutes
8. A lack of handicapped accessible fitting rooms, isles, and restrooms
9. A parking lot with pot holes big enough to swallow your car
10. mold and mildew
11. Leaking ceiling in office
12. Plumbing issues
13. No safety and security protocols that actually make sense and help managers and leads/key holders

Vote “up” below if you agree