I'm actually something of a liberal douche.....
....so most efforts towards equality and fair practice are fine by me. What does irritate me is how health and safety (effectively an exercise in common sense) has become a massive, deeply patronising industry. I have recently been on the receiving end of a two hour monologue which could be summerised thus;

1) If an item looks heavy don't try lifing it yourself.
2) Why not ask a friend to help you.
3) Don't lift like a twat.

I even received a certificate to show I'd "passed" this awesome challenge. I'm increasingly pissed that money was forked out for this drivel.

Length? Far, far longer than it needed to be.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 17:03, 3 replies)

same here
i did one of those, and just about everything was common sense.

just the other day, the wagon driver where i work had to do a tail lift training course. fair enough, except this course was in an office, so they didn't even touch the tail-lift, and the driver has been working there for nearly thirty years, so he probably knows more than the people who did the course.
(stapleface, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 18:12, closed)

It's less about teaching you anything
And more about having an excuse to fucking screw you out of worker's comp if they drop something on you.
(Slyph, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 18:40, closed)

Handle me manually, madam
During a manual handling course, I was instructed to show the class what a "bad lift" looked like. Basically you bend from the waist. I refused, as I've put my back out doing precisely this. I was told "You have to do it or I won't pass you".

"That's fine. I believe you have a law degree. I believe my mortgage balance is about £47K. How's your savings account?"

Dead silence.

Length? About 8 seconds, followed by 18 months of victimisation.
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 20:08, closed)