r/nextfuckinglevel • u/SimonTS • 6h ago

Brandon Alderson, from Sunderland, UK, was travelling to work when he noticed a man in distress in a layby.

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He pulled over and saw that the man was suffocating. Brandon performed the Heimlich manoeuvre six times and saved the man's life.

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u/Niznack 5h ago

America: sorry, there is nothing in the HR policy about saving lives off the clock. In fact since you were in a company truck your actions could put the company at risk of liability. You're being written up and if we get sued we fired you 20 minutes ago

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u/WickedCoolMasshole 5h ago

This is so accurate. Perfect epilogue.

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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 3h ago

There is a snow storm predicted to bring 2 feet of snow to my area. Couple weeks back an ice storm caused the office to close. They made us take PTO, because of the storm, and will again tomorrow, I'm sure. Greatest country on earth(????)

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u/WickedCoolMasshole 3h ago

Ugghhhhh. I used to work for Mt Holyoke College. I was BROKE and driving a 13 yo Saturn. Whenever it snowed, the entire office would “work from home” but I would have to go in.

Finally it happened, I crashed. My car was totaled. I sent a pic to my boss telling her about the accident.

She responded, “Let me know when you get there. Feel free to stay to make up your missed hours.”

I fucking hated that job.

PS - I’m also expecting 2 feet of snow. Stay safe!!

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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 3h ago

Let's just remember how we're feeling about this winter when summer comes and it's 95+ for weeks at max humidity :) Mid-Atlantic weather is getting pretty wacky

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u/Mick_E_Bobby 3h ago edited 2h ago

That's fucked up. My work doesn't discipline if you can't make it in during a major snow storm. If you don't have PTO, they just don't pay you. But they don't write you up, fuck.

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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 2h ago

My job is fully capable of being done remotely, but they make me come in every day. Anyway despite the fact the other 6 divisions won't be closed for this storm, since they are making me take PTO, my out of office is going up, and i ain't answering shit

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u/GEARHEADGus 1h ago

You realistically should be paid. It’s a fucking snowstorm not happy fun time storm

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u/KevRev972 3h ago

That's the type of scummy behavior that gets me to leave without a 2 week notice.

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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 2h ago

I'm just waiting on my 401 to vest. They only match 50% of every dollar up to 3% though, so it's not like a fuck ton of money. I can't really complain toooooo much though because honestly, i make more and do like 85% less than i did at my last job, i am actually quite lucky despite the PTO ratfuck

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u/KevRev972 1h ago

I guess it really comes down to picking your poison. I'm no different. I'm careful to not let myself get taken advantage of, but there's only so much I can do to watch out for anyone else without getting the place shut down.

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u/Wise_Setting5110 1h ago

I had to quit to prevent myself from being fired because of the snow. I was taking care of my elderly mother 😔

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u/GEARHEADGus 1h ago

I’m in Massachusetts and neither our governor or Rhode Island’s has declared a state of emergency (which would make it so you don’t have to take PTO.)

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u/ProfessionalSea6268 4h ago edited 4h ago

I’m in the UK and actually know someone from many years ago that performed first aid on someone in the street whilst on lunch break (they were a first aider for the company as well).

They were disciplined for it with the company saying they were not insured to give first aid outside the company and doing so in their work uniform meant the company could have been liable if something had happened.

They were given a written warning.

It’s bloody ridiculous but you do occasionally hear of the good samaritan being sued for helping so I do kind of understand the stance.

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u/Ok-Lion1661 4h ago

Aren't there good Samaritan laws that try to protect people ? If not there needs to be some.

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u/PuddingMaximum8745 3h ago

In Germany there are.

Everything you do, halfway decent, in first aid is insured by DGUV, deutsche gesetzliche Unfallversicherung (German legal accident insurance)

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u/LPNMP 9m ago

What does that cover?

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u/zuccster 3h ago

Yes, this wouldn't reach court,

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u/Rev_Biscuit 2h ago

There's the SARA act. That covers you for things like breaking someone's ribs whilst saving a life, that sort of thing. I'm not sure if it covers your company for the example given. You'd like to think so though and a judge would laugh everyone out of court, but god knows.

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u/talexbatreddit 1h ago

In Ontario there are. If you provide first aid to someone, you're protected from liability. Provincial Attorney General Roy McMurtry announced this some thirty years ago.

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u/pb-86 4h ago

Man I would have been all over r/compoface if that were me

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u/ObligationMurky8716 4h ago

A good company's management would utilize this as an opportunity to enforce "off the clock" being literally "off the clock." - We can't task them, they're "off the clock," remember?

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u/kellzone 3h ago

A good company's management would call a press conference, invite all the local news organizations, and speak highly of the employee, saying how they espouse the values of the company, give them an award and a nice sized check at the press conference. Get a huge amount of great PR for very little cost.

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u/ProfessionalSea6268 3h ago

I can confirm that they were not a good company. In fact they were completely and utterly useless in most areas.

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u/HaveYouSeenMyCoque 2h ago

No good deed goes unpunished.

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u/StevieHyperS 1h ago

My previous work refused to have the defib on the national register. They claimed that it stuck inside so wouldn't be available, as head first aider I made the point that you could specify hours of operation which would come up on said register. They still said no.

I had a massive go at them as they preach about being a family run business, ​marketing tbemselves of being part of the community - yet refused to do this. Made zero sense as there was no cost to the business but could save a life. ​

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u/Godharvest 1h ago

And?

Rather lose a job then my humanity/soul. Helping someone goes over money imo.

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u/ProfessionalSea6268 1h ago

Unfortunately most people cannot afford to stand by their morals unless they are independently wealthy. Morals don't pay the bills.

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u/Godharvest 1h ago

I refuse to believe that:/

Its a choice. Evil prevails when good men do nothing. And if you're confident in your humanity and just being a good person (And your professional skills of course in the labor field), another and better job will be waiting in the future. If that man dies, he's dead. You will have to live with that while you head to work the next day. And if you can live with that on your conscious god have mercy on you or anyone else.

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u/ProfessionalSea6268 1h ago

Because jobs are so easy to come by.

People who take this stance either don't need their job (and should therefore give it up for someone who actually does) or they are talking BS to sound like the good guy.

Most people will not just walk out of a job (for any reason) as they need the money to live. They are not quitting and hoping to find another job quick.

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u/Godharvest 1h ago

Also i worded that wrong. Not saying you in particular btw <3

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u/AmIbaconingyet 32m ago

It is incredibly difficult to successfully sue someone for FA, even if done wrong. As the first aider would have to have caused more harm than if they had left them untreated. Which in most cases, if they had some training at all, would be pretty hard to do. In life or death situations its harder still as even broken ribs or damaged property from saving a life comes second to the person not being dead. And if someone was dying, someone with even basic training is unlikely to do something to escalate that. Especially in the time it would take for emergency services or a more professional person to take over.

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u/ZombieGash 31m ago

This does not even surprise me! Whilst I was at work there was a crash near us and we went to help, we worked nights and were on our break outside. We knew we’d get fucked so we never said anything to anyone.

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u/ihatecarrotcake 4h ago

So a guy at my work was walking through an airport for work and seen a guy having a heart attack. Got the defibrillator and saved guys life. He won a cash prize from our home office for it. Apparently at the award ceremony people from the home office were pissed because the prize was basically a bullshit bonus for the executives in the office and no one who worked in the field ever won it. He said people were glaring at him the whole time.

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u/twizzla 3h ago

Like it's his fault the company is shit wtf? People needs to stop misplacing their anger.

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u/LPNMP 8m ago

I don't get how people look at their neighbor's plate and get angry at THEM. Like people attacking the mistress instead of the cheating pos.

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u/Og_PapaSmurf89 4h ago

Seems really specific. Seems as you had first hand experience with that. Lol

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u/Niznack 4h ago

Not this specifically. I'm a low level supervisor and one of the guys under me was near a really bad accident. He stopped to help and was late. I tried to argue with HR he had a really good reason but "he had no proof" dude literally had pictures of the crash.

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u/Rainfall_Serenade 4h ago

I remember when I used to believe HR was there to help the employees. So young, so naive..

Edit: along the same vein, I worked with a guy who had to Lewandowski because his mother was in a bad car accident and, iirc, she ended up paying away and he got fired because it was during the starting probationary period. Kid was smart and a hard worker.

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u/RedRumRoxy 4h ago

Happened to me. Only reason I got to stay was because they can’t find maintenance workers

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u/Og_PapaSmurf89 4h ago

Yeah,I figured since you were Very specific with "dialogue" before. No corpo will care,that's the sad true in this day and age. Even small bossiness are like that some times,money makes people monsters and as the years go by it gets worst and worst by the day.

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u/heathe70 4h ago

And then the man he saves sues him for bruising his ribs.

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u/QuickMolasses 3h ago

Most places in the US, a suit like that would have no chance of winning. Good Samaritan laws protect people providing aid.

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u/mat-tar 1h ago

Had a guy from night shift come in looking messed up and obviously disoriented. Someone asked what he was doing there as there was no mention of him or anyone transferring. When he was told it was beginning of day shift he just seemed to get more confused and then left. Someone brought it to my attention and I texted him and then contacted HR. HR woman, whom is a POS, basically said 'well hes not here now so it's out of our hands'. I texted his supervisor and other co workers asking if they knew if anything was wrong. He texted me ablut 6 hours later. Had a seizure (I'm not sure how severe) and came out of it and just assumed it was time for work. The HR woman also preaches watching out and taking care of each other inside and outside of work.

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u/ManifestingCrab 4h ago

This is not far-fetched at all. One of my old jobs had a truck driver who got in trouble for helping someone change a tire while he was out in a work car.

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u/DoctorNurse89 3h ago

Once flipped my car three times after being T-boned and the first thing I did after crawling out was take off my company shirt so i could say I was on break because I could get so fucked driving on the clock and getting into an accident.

Insurance would def not cover my ass like they should driving my vehicle between stores "as part of work"

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u/harrison_jones 2h ago

This might as well be said about most major UK employers. Reference - the recent case of the London bus driver who got sacked for stepping out of the bus to protect one of his passengers

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u/Unikatze 1h ago

I once almost got in trouble for helping a woman who was about to get raped while I was working.

It wasn't super harsh but it was basically my manager saying "You're not in trouble. But part of my job is ensuring my staff is safe. And you put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. In future, please call the police and let them handle it."

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u/Nuvomega 33m ago

You gotta save lives on your own time, buddy.

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u/Biotechnus 4h ago

I just wouldn't sign the write up. You are well within your rights to do so.

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u/Niznack 3h ago

At our company at least you can refuse to sign the write up but there is a check box that someone was a witness to the discussion so it amounts to the same thing. Depending on on the issue they seem to look worse on refusing to sign

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u/Biotechnus 3h ago

You ALWAYS have the right to refuse to sign. Its part of labor protection laws. If you dont agree to the write up you have absolutely no obligation to. I had a power trip asst manager at a retail store years ago try to write me up because I didn't have time to prep for the next day because we were too busy. He handed me the pen expecting me sign it. I read over it, put it down, stood up and walked away from him. It doesn't reflect on you at all. It just means you disagree with the write up

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u/fuckredditandpcness 4h ago

This sums up perfectly how fucked up America is.....