Employees walk out when boss asks them to work after colleague's death due to bad working conditions

In today's tough job environment, blue-collar workers often have to work in very poor work environments. Not all of them have the luxury to quit and look for other jobs as they have to pay bills. But sometimes, things reach a saturation point, prompting individuals to quit. An individual on Reddit, u/Sgt_Dirty_Dan, had an eye-opening story about how their company tried to make employees work right after a coworker died from an unhealthy working environment.

The post titled, "Someone died today at work and they put us back to work 1 hour later," has managed to get an impressive 13.2K upvotes on the platform with over 613 comments. The individual mentions that they work at an old lumber mill that was built in the 60s. They write, "So, we have a lot of older equipment. These machines we work with are constantly breaking down and causing upset conditions."

They go to work one day and the machines are giving them problems as usual. The company insisted that they would repair the machines for over two months but had done nothing by then. One of their coworkers, a man, was working a machine and had to clear out wood to keep the machine working. The individual mentions how the man had to move heavy pieces of wood that were stacked together by hand.

They write, "As he finishes re-stacking the entire load, he passes out either due to exhaustion or a combination of different health problems and exhaustion." The man collapses onto the floor on his face and lies there for some time till somebody finds him. An ambulance is called for while the man is given CPR. The ambulance arrived and they continued to give him CPR as they took him to the hospital.

Half an hour goes by and the company calls for a meeting to inform everybody about what happened. It was very short and the organization insisted that the man did not pass away because of "unsafe conditions." All of the workers were then asked to go back to work. They write, " All of us confused and concerned walk back to our departments and start working." As they resume work, the same hostile work environment ensues, with workers having to clear the wood for the machine to work.

A frustrated employee tells their boss, "Well, I see we're never going to fix this and this is what we're worth to the company." The boss casually responded by saying that if they were not happy, they could quit their jobs. Hearing this, all of the employees walked out on him. The individual was unsure at the time if they still had a job but believed that they did the right thing. In the same post, the individual mentioned that they reported the incident to OSHA.

In an update, the individual returns for work and discovers a board reading, "1184 days of safe working and no days lost to injury," at the front office. They write, "Then I walk back to find everyone working like normal." They asked their coworkers what was going on and they replied that they had decided to go back to work. Frustrated at the lack of initiative, the individual mentions that they had hoped everybody would take a stand together and demand better working conditions from the company.

One coworker responded to them, saying, "That's how you get fired." The individual stated they would not support the company that got away with a worker who died due to poor working conditions. The coworkers did not seem to care and the individual gathered their tools and left. They concluded the post by saying that they were at home and looking for new jobs. People on the platform provided their support in the comments section.

u/sherunswiththewolves said, "This is why you never, I repeat NEVER, bend over backward for any company or any job. You are merely selling some of your time so you can afford to live the life you want." Another person, u/Moebius80, commented, "That is definitely a tool down, time to walk situation."