A lesson in stupidity

[Evans Electric]

I go to this law office place I look after to replace a faulty light fitting in Ladies loo, 2nd floor, dist. bd for whole place is on the ground.

Switch off MCB for 2nd floor lights (Lesson 1 in stupidity, I don't carry MCB locks, van is full up as it is) ( You can see this coming can't you)

Stagger back up to 2nd floor , check with testers, dead, remove fitting which has a live feed looping in and out, fit new fitting, go to cut T/E , something tells me to check it again, its now live !!

Back to the ground floor ,MCB is back on . Now I had left the cupboard door open, a chair to reach, the dist.Bd door open and my " electrician working " sign propped up the board.

Turns out someone on the 2nd floor phoned the IT guys on the top floor to say lights are off, IT guy goes down to ground , finds cupboard door open , chair to reach from, dist.Bd door open ,breaker off, ignores sign and switches back on. ( Lesson 2 in stupidity)

So ,my fault for not carrying the locks, but the guy must have thought, oh goody a chair to stand on, oh door is unlocked and open, ah dist.Bd door is open , oh look some electrician has left his warning sign behind, now lets see this breaker is off , I'll switch it back on.

So lesson of the week , buy some MCB locks.

 

[kme]

Nah mate...

Lesson there: eradicate all I.T. personnel on sight. They don`t have the necessary intelligence to be allowed to continue to breathe.

:red card :red card] :C :innocent

R-souls:^O

 

[m4tty]

safe isolation sandra lol. ROTFWL

 

[Lee321]

should of got the helpful it guy to help connect up

 

[green-hornet]

I had a similar experiance, I had to report to the IT guy before I started work, so he knew I was there!!

He still flicked the mcb whilst I was working on it!!

I did give him a good telling off in front of the office staff though.

I always lock off now and I have some spare locks just in case.

My sign for electrician working has the words including IT idiots, in black marker pen underneath.

 

[Brian 157]

Lucky your electrician's "sixth sense" told you to test again...

Having tried various MCB lock-off devices I can recomend the Wylex MCBLDX "dolly locking device", it's the closest to a universal lock I've found & is what I recommend to my students.

 

[Apache]

Or go to IT dept.

Lock off staff

Work without fear

 

[Evans Electric]

Thanks Patchy, Sandra has some cuffs somewhere , I'll drop 'em in the toolbox.

 

[ianmacd]

No idea why IT staff are always the ones people call when something breaks be it electrical, mechanical or even a chair.

 

[AAAMUSEMENTS]

No idea why IT staff are always the ones people call when something breaks be it electrical, mechanical or even a chair.

Because in the general scheme of office life, they are the most technical people in the building. Many of the other staff can barely adjust their own chair, let alone wire a plug...

Lost count of the number of times I have ended up sorting out photocopiers for people, just because I was standing nearby and exuding an aura of competence!

:C

 

[Lee321]

exuding an aura of competence! :C

looks like you picked up on some decent words to use too while amongst the office staffWet Fish

 

[Andy™]

i have 2x MCB locks in my tool bag... not used much in houses, but always in places like that. depending on the place, some had a padlock on the door to the DB - this sometimes gets changed to mine

 

[binky]

Get your own back, knock off power to IT department and see how much they like re-instating ther computers] ] ] ]

 

[Andy™]

isolate the board....

 

[sparkytim]

Near mis then, just shows you can not be to careful.

If unable to lock of MCB then I pop lid off and dis cct, put ends in Earth bar, pop lid back on and then leave notice, that way if they can not read and switch on your still ok. Not many would take lid off.

Good job you checked for dead most would trust there first test.

 

[AAAMUSEMENTS]

looks like you picked up on some decent words to use too while amongst the office staffWet Fish

Indeed, a veritable proliferation!

 

[Evans Electric]

Near mis then, just shows you can not be to careful.If unable to lock of MCB then I pop lid off and dis cct, put ends in Earth bar, pop lid back on and then leave notice, that way if they can not read and switch on your still ok. Not many would take lid off.

Good job you checked for dead most would trust there first test.

Don't know why, just thought I'd give it touch with the Voltstick.

The problem for us at these offices ,( most are the same,) but everyone ,without exception , works on a PC , massive problem to kill power circuits.

 

[ktguk]

anyone seen the NICEIC dvd on safe isolation with sort of the same thing but more cheesy

 

[bengie]

twit, needs a slap round the chops there.

 

[Evans Electric]

No idea why IT staff are always the ones people call when something breaks be it electrical, mechanical or even a chair.

The guys at this place have this smug , we understand everything attitude, but when you hear a legal eagle come to Reception to ask for someone to turn off his radiator , you can understand it somewhat.