Tying back hair in the pits at competition

[Foster]

My local Eye Lab made a little card for me that says they are safety glasses and the ANSI standard they are made to. I try the "they are safety glasses, thanks for asking" and if I get push back I dig out the card. That's never failed me.

[MooreteP]

Yale Student Killed as Hair Gets Caught in Lathe
Ick.

I used to work in power plants. I sometimes wore a tie. Great way to be garroted. I always tucked it in when touring the plant.
(I also tuck it on when I eat lunch. The shirt goes in the washer, the tie needs to be dry-cleaned.)

[SousVide]

Our shop specifies safety goggles, closed toe/heel shoes, and hair ties when you enter the shop. Same for tucking in anything loose... We also specify no jewelry on hands/wrists. The entire shop is needs to be a safe place, whether you are actively working on a machine or not. Same with us at competition, the only time we can let our hair loose is in the stands.

We have numerous mentors on duty with various missing body parts (lucky enough to just have missing body parts) who can illustrate to problems in a shop even when you are careful.

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Yale Student Killed as Hair Gets Caught in Lathe
Ick.

I used to work in power plants. I sometimes wore a tie. Great way to be garroted. I always tucked it in when touring the plant.
(I also tuck it on when I eat lunch. The shirt goes in the washer, the tie needs to be dry-cleaned.)

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by Foster

My local Eye Lab made a little card for me that says they are safety glasses and the ANSI standard they are made to. I try the "they are safety glasses, thanks for asking" and if I get push back I dig out the card. That's never failed me.

You shouldn't need the card, they should just believe you. It's a silly thing to lie about anyway. I can show them the Z87 2+ engraving on mine, but I have to take them off to do so...

A girl in my high school shop class met a drill press up close and personal one day after her stylish hair got caught. She didn't look as pretty afterwards with a chunk of her scalp missing just above her temple. Our kids tie back their hair when they work with equipment that requires such precautions, I really don't need to see that happen again.

[Joel Glidden]

Anyone else think this thread was going to be about styling your back hair? Just me? Pfft!

[mrnoble]

Can I take this thread as my first opportunity this year to say that Safety Theater is NOT safety, and that I agree with Libby, this time as with the other times in past years when she has stood up against socially unsafe behavior. In some ways, these social tact/appropriate behavior issues are more dangerous to our students than the usual shop safety issues are.

[SousVide]

There's a bigger problem with the social tact norms - *a lot* of students simply do not understand this. Every single year, I have to tell the students on the team to separate themselves and not hug, touch, massage their team mates or people they meet. These people think that everyone are friendly and welcomes all of these social intrusions - like everybody they see on TV/Netflix/whatever else. It takes a while for them to understand that the workspace is completely different from their personal friend space. Hopefully, they learn that by the time Competition comes around...

I have a rule about keeping arms length from people and making sure people are separated with their personal space... sometimes that's hard to do when you have to work on the robot though. And the pit, it's hard enough to squeeze the fab, safety, marketing, and the programming team into the same 10x10 space.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by SousVide

There's a bigger problem with the social tact norms - *a lot* of students simply do not understand this. Every single year, I have to tell the students on the team to separate themselves and not hug, touch, massage their team mates or people they meet. These people think that everyone are friendly and welcomes all of these social intrusions - like everybody they see on TV/Netflix/whatever else.

Our head coach has had a chat with the varsity (that is, those going to the venue on Thursday and Friday) shortly before competition every year. This is one of the topics, because our team is rather huggy (being founded by Gixxy, could it be anything else?).
Another big point every year is like unto it. The rule is - we are family - don't let a stranger harass your brother or sister, sexually or otherwise.