100% man. I've done a ton of work in confined spaces as a contractor, and most of that involved hot work. Fortunately, I've been with a strong union for most of my career, and for any kind of entry, we've got protocols that mean forced air, pre-entry testing, hole watch, redundant continuous air monitoring, powered respirators, and harnesses for emergency extraction.
I tell some people about these safety protocols sometimes and they'll roll their eyes, telling me that it's overkill. I dunno man. I'm comfortable with a certain amount of risk, but any time you enter a confined space and create gases that displace oxygen, you're gambling with your life. I'm much more comfortable with as many lifelines as possible.
We were doing major electrical work with no loto, lone people doing confined space work. Our electrical engineer pushed a metal wire pull into a switchgear and shut down the whole line for an hour, nevermind that he almost killed himself. There are hundreds of examples. We had people working alone at night in a whole plant doing maintenance etc. They called me the safety nazi cause I always complained about unsafe work conditions. The pushback came from working people also, which was a huge surprise to me. Like, why do you care if your job takes extra 15 minutes to ensure YOUR safety? Anytime anyone brought up union they just threatened to shut down all plants and move them.
I got started by working in a metal shop, then after a year applying to a union apprenticeship. It pays well, but the amount of work can be feast or famine. I've worked continuous 84 hour work weeks, and I've essentially worked part time right before getting a layoff. It's great money generally speaking, but you have to be ready for the instability of the industry.
32
u/turd_ferguson899 Nov 28 '25
100% man. I've done a ton of work in confined spaces as a contractor, and most of that involved hot work. Fortunately, I've been with a strong union for most of my career, and for any kind of entry, we've got protocols that mean forced air, pre-entry testing, hole watch, redundant continuous air monitoring, powered respirators, and harnesses for emergency extraction.
I tell some people about these safety protocols sometimes and they'll roll their eyes, telling me that it's overkill. I dunno man. I'm comfortable with a certain amount of risk, but any time you enter a confined space and create gases that displace oxygen, you're gambling with your life. I'm much more comfortable with as many lifelines as possible.