Yesterday I had a meeting between myself, one of our contractors, and an OSHA inspector. OSHA is a federal agency, which stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They have a reputation of being extremely strict, and regularly fork out whopping fines for even minor safety violations.
Apparently, this inspector took photos of the contractor’s employees in some risky situations that violated safety guidelines. When he approached the foreman, there was a confrontation and he was chased off of the jobsite. A meeting was set up for the next day, and I was there to try to diffuse the situation.
The contractor was fuming with anger right from the start. I mean, he was absolutely livid. I actually had to pull him aside and tell him to cool it. This inspector has the power to inflict massive penalties, literally in the tens of thousands, if he wants to. I pleaded with him to just eat some humble pie, apologize for the non-compliance, and kiss the guys butt so we could get past this. Getting in his face isn’t doing us any favors and will only make it worse. It’s only a matter of time before his insults and aggressive behavior get the guy really angry.
I was thinking about a verse in Proverbs 30:33 that says, “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”
Your nose usually isn’t going to start bleeding on its own. But if you start reefing on it, twisting and tweaking it, eventually, sure enough, it’s going to bleed. Same thing usually goes before an argument.
That didn’t help. He didn’t stop. The inspector actually handled it quite well at first. He kept his composure and maintained his professionalism through most of it, until the personal attacks started to come. Once his personal integrity was questioned and he was accused of underhanded methods of conducting routine inspections, his jaw clenched as he bit his tongue. The contractor continued to unload on him, winding him up like a jack-in-the-box, until finally, BOING!, he snapped, and the fight was on.
Immediately I stepped between them, bearing in mind that according to Proverbs 15:1, a soft answer turns away wrath, and spoke gently to both of them, doing the best I could to restore sanity and civility. As the inspector calmed down, I was wishing I could ask the contractor to leave, but he had to be there, so I decided I would take control and do all the talking from then on, applying yet another verse from Proverbs 22:10, “Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.”
By the end of the meeting, I’m not going to say that all wounds were healed or even that the inspector won’t go to his office and mail out a penalty, but at least we avoided an all out catastrophe.
That situation was headed towards a full on disaster for the subcontractor, and probably even for us, as the general contractor. But thanks to a little wisdom from Proverbs, cooler heads prevailed, and I am hoping damages were minimized.
Proverbs – free wisdom found in your Holy Bible. Read them.