On my last job, I saw the chief design engineer violate the mobile ladder safety guidelines and I felt pressured to do the dangerous thing he did. My mentor told me to unscrew the pneumatic fitting at the center of the top dome of the experimental vacuum dryer. The dome was 8 feet in diameter and 12 feet up high. When I was standing at the top platform of the mobile ladder reaching over, I could barely touch the central pneumatic fitting, let alone unscrew it. When I brought up the issue with the chief design engineer, he showed me what he did. He took one leg off the ladder top platform and stepped it onto the dome - in violation of the ladder guidelines. It really scared me to see that, and I feared the ladder would tip over. He said, "That's what I do. It doesn't mean I 'should'". When I brought up the issue with the chief assembler, he said that he previously recommended that the huge dome be redesigned into a platform such that a person could sit or stand on it, and it should have guide rails. Despite his recommendation, they never redesigned it.
On a forward descent ladder, is this considered mandatory or is it optional? I do not feel safe facing away going down the ladder. I prefer to both ascend and descend while facing the ladder as it provides me a better point of balance and safer grip on the rail. My job however is demanding that we "must" face the direction of travel. I am nearly falling off the ladders if I face out while descending, it's only a matter of time before I fall face first off of one of these ladders while descending.
