Would capping off live wires be considered securing a circuit.

[sameguy]

He probably didn't have any jet line to secure the circuit with so he capped the live wires with insulating wire connectors.
To me the fail was continuing to work (making the Co. money) after a person was shocked on that same job, on a live circuit.
Is that the reason for the write up?

 

[Jamesco]

Looks like they don't understand a secured circuit, it's OK I have plenty of back up support.
co-worker is a Lead, I got to the job that day which he was in charge of, a few weeks earlier I had reported to the supervisor he had gotten shocked at the same job site, different part of the bldg,
supervisor was clearly past the safety boundaries established by the NFPA (next to the light pole) where the cw got shocked so I secured the circuit and closed it up so no one else would get injured or worse.

Co worker was in charge of the job. I wouldn't call him a co worker.
I blame the guy in charge of the job for not knowing what panel the lighting was fed from. The lead man should have shown anyone working on the live circuits where the panel was located.

Enter the supervisor on the scene. He told you to turn off the power. You told him you had no idea where it was fed from. At that point he should of helped you look for the panel if he wanted the lighting circuit/s turned off. Sounds like he just left the job.

Why did he write you up. Somebody has to take the fall. Crap runs down hill.
Sounds to me like you were the last man standing.

Is there a company grievance process? If yes you need to do a lot better job of making your your case than you have done in this thread for what you did to make the live circuit/s secure and safe from being an electrical shock hazard.

If I were one of the members on the grievance panel I would side with you. You made the bare hot circuit/s safe and closed up the hand hole on the pole. If any one needs to get wrote up it's the lead electrician that got shocked. He shouldn't have been working the circuit hot. I would also recommend the supervisor be reprimanded for writing you up for an unjust cause.

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[James Lee]

It's been asked many times in this thread so in your opinion securing the circuit was accomplished by installing the wire nuts on the bare ends of the spliced conductors?

NFPA Approach Boundaries for the light pole is 10 ft, when the supervisor stood next to the light pole that day close to the exposed bare wires he went past that boundary with no PPE on, I made the circuit secure stat.

 

[James Lee]

Correct.

 

[Jamesco]

NFPA Approach Boundaries for the light pole is 10 ft, when the supervisor stood next to the light pole that day close to the exposed bare wires he went past that boundary with no PPE on

I would not use that statement in defense for your grievance appeal. It's not relevant imo.

What if a woman passed by the pole on her way to her car? What if a couple of kids playing in the parking lot passed in close proximity of the hot wires? What if? What if?

Yes, the immediate right thing to do was to install insulated wire connectors on the joints, then push them back into the hand hole, and fasten the cover back in place. That's a no brainier.

You need to show in your grievance appeal you could not kill the circuit that fed the light pole/s because you had no idea where the electrical panel was located. You told the supervisor you didn't know where the panel was located. Did the supervisor offer to help look for the panel? Obviously no. I guess you could have walked into the building and started either looking for a mechanical room or electric closet/s for the panel. Of course would there even be an accurate panel schedule. Did you have a circuit tracer on the job?
You never mentioned what the lighting circuit voltage is.

Your defense is you had no idea where the electrical panel that feeds the pole lighting circuit is located. You weren't in charge of the job. How would you know where the panel is located? Did the lead electrician in charge of the job even know where the panel is located? You told the supervisor you didn't know where the panel was located. What was his response? He left the job. He just left you hanging.

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[James Lee]

I would not use that statement in defense for your grievance appeal. It's not relevant imo.

What if a woman passed by the pole on her way to her car? What if a couple of kids playing in the parking lot passed in close proximity of the hot wires? What if? What if?

Yes, the immediate right thing to do was to install insulated wire connectors on the joints, then push them back into the hand hole, and fasten the cover back in place. That's a no brainier.

You need to show in your grievance appeal you could not kill the circuit that fed the light pole/s because you had no idea where the electrical panel was located. You told the supervisor you didn't know where the panel was located. Did the supervisor offer to help look for the panel? Obviously no. I guess you could have walked into the building and started either looking for a mechanical room or electric closet/s for the panel. Of course would there even be an accurate panel schedule. Did you have a circuit tracer on the job?
You never mentioned what the lighting circuit voltage is.

Your defense is you had no idea where the electrical panel that feeds the pole lighting circuit is located. You weren't in charge of the job. How would you know where the panel is located? Did the lead electrician in charge of the job even know where the panel is located? You told the supervisor you didn't know where the panel was located. What was his response? He left the job. He just left you hanging.

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Thanks Jamesco
I have to go to Civil HR
so if ya'll don't hear from me till next week, I hope you understand, I'm attaining my documentation.
I appreciate ya'lls responses
Have a good week.

 

[__dan]

No no no no. No. No no no.

Look at the writeup again for the exact words used and if they are the same words used by one of the standard recognized authorities like NFPA 70e, some type of already established and followed work rule. If you were written up for one of those, yes your job / employment would be targeted.

I have never heard of "securing the circuit" as the commonly used phase, or seen it in reference material. My guess is that the writeup is not referencing an already established rule, and if this is a fact that is true, the supervisor saved your job,.by writing you up for some nonsense phrase, and not something else that does have an already established work rule, must follow requirement (like no LOTO, working wirenuts with the power on ... there are so many).

He saved your job by referencing some not established phrase, if it says "securing". Like Infinity has been saying, "secured the circuit" what does that mean? you should be happy about that or at least recognize the signifcance. You may have been written up for something that is not a mandated rule.

But of course no one will ever forget and trying to make it an HR case, when you visit the zoo, you are advised to not poke sticks into the bear's cage. Iguanas and reptiles you can poke at, they are slower than you and used to it. But not with mammals, especially the meateaters that outweigh you by a lot.

If there were some way to make it go away quietly, it would have about the same odds as Powerball. Stepping on the dog poo and then poking sticks into the bear's cage, you are the hazard.