The two minute walkaround

Before you pick anything up, look at where you will be working. How do you get to it, what is above you, what is under your feet, and where would you go if you had to get out fast.

Then find the person in charge and ask two questions. What is the plan for the day, and where is the water and the bathroom. How they answer tells you how the rest of the day is going to run.

The gear that should already be there

You bring your own boots and gloves. Anything the site requires beyond that is the employer's job to supply.

• Hard hats where anything can fall.
• Eye protection for cutting, grinding, or anything that throws chips.
• A vest anywhere near traffic or moving equipment.
• Fall protection above about six feet, meaning a harness that is tied to something real.
• A first aid kit somebody can actually find.

Heights and ladders

A ladder should be on solid ground, tied off or held, and long enough to stick up past the edge you are climbing to. Standing on the top two steps is how people fall.

On a roof or a scaffold, you want a harness tied to a real anchor, not a rope wrapped around a vent. If the fall protection is improvised, the plan is that you do not fall, and that is not a plan.

Trenches and holes

This is the one that kills day labor workers most often, because a trench looks harmless right up until it does not.

A trench deeper than about five feet needs shoring or sloped walls, and a way out every twenty five feet. Dirt piled at the edge should be set back, not stacked at the lip.

If you are asked to get into a straight sided hole over your head with no shoring, say no. A cubic yard of soil weighs about as much as a car, and nobody digs a person out in time.

Power, and what is behind the wall

Assume every wire is live until somebody proves it is not. Ask who shut off the power and how they know, before you cut or pull anything.

Working near overhead lines with a ladder or a pole is the same problem outside. Give them a wide berth. Electricity does not need you to touch it.

Heat, water, and pace

Heat sneaks up on people who are being paid by the day. Drink before you are thirsty, get in the shade every hour, and eat something at lunch even if you are not hungry.

Know the signs in yourself and in the person next to you. Dizzy, a headache, cramping, or a sudden stop in sweating means you sit down in the shade right now and tell somebody. Confusion or fainting is a 911 call, not a break.

Old buildings and things you cannot see

Demo on an older building can turn up asbestos, lead paint, or mold. You cannot tell by looking, and a dust mask from the hardware store is not the answer to any of them.

Ask whether the building was tested. If nobody knows and they want you to start swinging, that is a fine day to have somewhere else to be.

Equipment you have not been trained on

Do not get on a forklift, a lift, a skid steer, or a saw you have never used because somebody says it is easy. If you break something you can be on the hook for it, and if you hurt somebody it is much worse than that.

Saying you have not run one before is not weakness. It is the answer a good foreman actually wants.

How to say stop

You do not have to make a speech. Short and calm works best. "I am not comfortable going in that trench without shoring." "I need a harness before I go on the roof."

Most of the time you get the gear, or the job gets rearranged, and the day goes on. A good employer would rather fix it than explain an injury.

When to walk away

Sometimes the answer is no and the work is still expected. Then you leave, and you do it without an argument.

• Required safety gear does not exist and nobody is getting it.
• You are asked into an unshored trench, or onto a roof with no fall protection.
• Nobody on site can say who is in charge.
• People are drinking or high on the job.
• The work is nothing like what the post said, and it is dangerous.

If you get hurt

Tell the employer immediately, even if it seems small, and put it in a message in the app so there is a time and a date on it.

Get medical care the same day. A back that feels fine at 4 and cannot get out of bed at 6 in the morning is common, and a gap between the injury and the doctor is the first thing anyone disputing a claim will point at.

Then read the guides on workers compensation and on what to do if you get hurt on a job, which cover who is covered and what happens next.