I've got a rather annoying know-it-all coworker that is really getting under my skin. At first she seems very knowledgeable and has an answer for absolutely everything, but if you talk to her in any level of detail, or about any subject you actually know about, it becomes obvious she is an idiot and doesn't know hardly anything at all. She is super confident though, and that I think she has everyone fooled simply because her confidence level is through the roof. She's also very personable and seems to be buddy-buddy with a lot of people, cracking jokes with them and bonding all the time.
I've had a number of run ins with her, which is how I came to the realization she doesn't know anything. She talks a good game, until she started talking about things I know a great deal about, like air emissions calculations which I've done for literally my entire career, and it became obvious she doesn't know what she was talking about. She didn't even understand the concept that a pollutant will have a different concentration dispersed into a larger volume vs a smaller volume and repeatedly claimed you just "use a constant" for the volume. Interactions like these just leave me shaking my head, and also have me simply trying to exit the conversation. There is no "winning" with her, so I just try to avoid her or end the conversation as quickly as possible while completely disregarding anything she says.
She's also very dismissive of any expectations I have. For example our company has essentially no safety policies or training. They did address some things like putting in some eyewash stations (though they are still inadequate and weren't being inspected as often as required, etc). Lots not non-english speaking employees, and they've pretty much just been flying by the seat of their pants and disregarding a variety of safety laws. I stated that we were likely not going to be in full compliance this year. We need to develop a hazcom policy, print out the sds of the hundreds of chemicals we use and make an sds book, develop a respirator policy, revamp the fire extinguisher program, revamp the eyewash stations, implement some basic safety policies, etc. Lots of stuff that we need to do get fully in compliance. When I stated this she basically rolled her eyes and was dismissive and claimed it's "no problem" to just implement all this stuff and won't take nearly as long as I think. Fast forward 2 months later and we've made a lot of progress, but are nowhere near being in complete compliance, exactly as I predicted because it's a significant amount of work.
She's taken it upon herself to be the safety cheerleader now, and is starting to conduct safety training because she claims she is "osha certified". I informed her osha doesn't actually certify anyone, so exactly what safety certification does she have, and can she produce it? She claims she can't because it was internal training at her previous company, and as everyone knows they don't allow you to take certification with you when you quit because they paid for it. Nevermind that this doesn't make any sense because you almost always receive a personal certificate for training, and absolutely can take it with you because I've done just that - I mean why wouldn't you be able to bring non-expired training certificates with you? Anyway, she conducted some initial training and was just flat out wrong on a number of items. The first item was that she has MSDS listed as "MDSS, Material Data Safety Sheets". I didn't even point out the error, but she kept using MSDS instead of SDS, so I jumped in to give some clarification so the employees weren't confused, and I didn't even think this could possibly be a point of contention. The convo when something like this:
me: Just some background and clarification on the MSDS vs SDS acronyms being thrown around. MSDS and SDS are essentially the same thing, but MSDS is an outdated term that is not actually used anymore. MSDS were not in a standardized format. The UN developed the globally harmonized system (GHS) which standardized a bunch of things internationally. OSHA has adopted this standard format so it is officially law as of several years ago and all hazardous chemicals must have an SDS and use the standardized 16 section format.
her: actually a lot of chemicals are still considered "materials" and still require an MSDS.
me: No that's true, they all use SDS.
her: well no actually a lot of them still use MSDS
And everyone is just nodding along agreeing with her. I don't really know how else to argue my point other than laying out the facts. But when she "refutes" these facts with her own brand of bullshit, and people just buy into it and nod along, I don't really know how to respond. It catches me off guard every time too, because I never anticipate that I'm going to receive pushback in this manner and I just don't know how to respond. This happened a few times during her presentation, and every time people just nod along and agree with her because she is just so confident. She's so damn confident she actually makes me question myself. Maybe I don't know as much I think and she actually has some insight I am missing? But no, she's a fucking a idiot, but it still trips me up every time.
She is woefully unqualified to be teaching safety, but already has everyone convinced she is a safety expert. I feel that I need to intervene, but I don't see any good outcomes. I don't feel comfortable allowing this to go on. 90% of the information she gives is factually correct, but it's sprinkled with misunderstandings and errors. If I step in an shut it down by stating exactly how I feel it's going to turn a lot of employees against me and ultimately will be counter productive. However if I allow this to continue she will be propagating her misunderstandings to everyone. If I try to jump in and correct errors I get pushback from her insisting she's right, and as far as I can tell all the employees side with her.
How do I deal with a person like this?
How do I shut this safety thing down without seeming like an asshole to all the employees?