You seem sort of passive-aggressive, posting all your gripes online instead of working directly with her and your team. What have you done directly to address the issues and what is your plan to resolve this?
I tried talking to her. She is unreasonable. It's very difficult to communicate with her and not have the conversation controlled and steered by her. That's why I created the thread. Initially I thought I was failing at effectively communicating with her, but the more I learn the more I realize she is utterly incompetent and completely unreasonable. It's very reminiscent of arguing with an anti-vax individual - there is no winning, there is no steering the argument back onto the rails of logic and reason. Even if I find documentation showing irrefutably that she is wrong, then I just wasted a bunch of time collecting that as she is off onto another topic. It's impossible to keep up and refute everything she says. At this point I'm no longer soliciting advice on how to deal with her.
I work at a chemical company as a chemist, so perhaps I can relate.
Typically, chemical companies take safety and environmental/etc... very seriously. They have to, because they are heavily regulated to do so. Also, the hazards in such jobs are significantly higher than say for a law firm, or a software engineer (which basically have not job related hazards aside maybe from the commute to work). The cultures in the companies I have worked in is very serious about this. If you have a safety incident and someone is injured, it is common for the perpetrator to be fired even if it was an innocent mistake. We have monthly safety meetings, to review how to be more safe. We have 'safety moments' at most meetings, to reflect upon how we might be safer. There is a constant barrage of reminders from leaders/executives about how safety is the top priority and we must pursue it above all else. Of course, a lot of it is BS... but no one can deny that it is at least touted as some sort of high priority.
At my current and previous companies, if someone without credentials for it and not hired for that role, came in and started messing around with the pre-defined routines for safety/environmental/etc... it would cause problems. It would get noticed. They would probably be told to stop and not interfere with our current procedures. If they persisted, I would not be surprised if they were fired. I don't know the legality of how it all goes down... I suspect the company first has to generate a paper trail (documentation of her fuck ups) before firing her.
The only angle I would take in your situation is to indicate to management that she is jeopardizing the safety and/or environmental compliance of the company and its employees. It seems you have done this already, so you are probably on the right track. As others have indicated, keep a paper trail.
That has been my experience working as a contractor for large chemical companies (Dow, BASF) as well. Also the case at most really big companies I've worked at (GM, Ford, US Steel, AK Steel, etc).
Totally not the case at this plant. This plant is much closer to a small 2 man operation. A lot of safety and environmental policies are reactive rather than proactive. ie a regulator comes in and says "whoa, you guys aren't following the regulations. you need to do A, B, and C". And then they figure out how to do A, B, and C, but don't go any further. It's not a good safety culture.
A lot of it is just common sense though. We use a ton of razor blades, but there is apparently no company policy on how to dispose of them other than "throw them in the garbage". Why don't you guys just use some old coffee cans or something so you aren't throwing loose razor blades into the garbage that is being handled by some employees? How is that not obvious? Also, people apparently don't even follow the unwritten policy of throwing them in the trash because I see them littered around on the floor. You don't even have to be an OSHA expert to know that you shouldn't just toss razor blades on the fucking ground and walk on them.
I'm glad you are bringing in an official expert to codify things, but I think you should bring in sandy to take notes. It might make extra work for you to correct them but it will show you are team player. I've never seen it work in the long run to avoid difficult people.
I think you are misconstruing my confidence level too. It's not that I lack confidence, it's that I lack confidence in areas I shouldn't be confident in. I don't work in the paint booth, and I am unfamiliar with a lot of the chemicals they use. When asked how to categorize and dispose of 30 different items...I don't know! I don't know that off the top of my head, I would have to check the hazardous waste regulations, check the chemical components, and make a determination of how to dispose of each item properly. Then document that, and make it an official company policy for how we do it going forward, which apparently no one has ever done. But WTF, how have you been disposing of everything for the last 20 years if you guys don't know?! In contrast safety sandy has the utmost confidence to start delegating that everything gets put into a bio waste bag, even though she's completely wrong!
This sounds like a task you should do.
I don't want sandy to have anything to do with safety or any part of my job. I get what you guys are saying about including her and being a team player, but she's a fucking cancer and I don't want her involved in any capacity with anything. I do not want her to even have a part in meeting with the consultants beyond interviewing her as we would all the other employees. But as far as sitting in a meeting with the consultants, developing and implementing new policies, and managing those policies moving forward, I want to cut her out as much as possible. I don't care if she's enthusiastic and gung-ho about safety, she's fucking dangerous and I'm sick of dealing with her.
That is a task I am working on along with 100 other tasks. That's the part she doesn't understand, you can't just say "poof" this is how we do things without knowing what you're talking about. You can boil many of these items down to a single sentence, but the devil is always in the details. In order to know how to dispose of all that stuff you first have to understand hazardous waste regulations, and what qualifies and what doesn't qualify. The latex based paint is non hazardous, but you can't dispose of liquid paint, it needs to be dried. Solvents are considered hazardous, but the rags you use that are soaked in that solvent are considered non-hazardous, but only if you follow all the guidelines from the state such as keeping them in a closed container, not having free standing liquid, etc. Some of the other stuff is hazardous and needs to be segregated out, but they can't just be mixed together. She also seems to be under the impression that you simply have regular waste, and "hazardous waste", and you can just put hazardous waste into a yellow bag and poof off it goes to a magic hazardous waste landfill. That's not how hazardous waste works at all. We need to categorize exactly what makes it hazard waste either based on characteristics of the substance (is it corrosive? is it flammable?) or specific components of the substance (does it contain chrome above the regulatory limit?). Then the hazardous waste needs to be disposed of properly by a disposal company, and they need to know exactly what's in it in order to properly treat/destroy it. And they need to track it via manifests because the generator of that waste is responsible for it forever, so you need all those paper trails saying what it is, who took it, where it went, and how it was ultimately disposed of.
Have I misread, or did someone at the company approve the co-worker's food for the meeting? Someone must have endorsed it.
Yes apparently the first meeting was approved. Not by me, so she went to someone else to get approval. I don't know how she pitched it, or any of the details since I wasn't a part of it.
Apparently subsequent meetings were not approved and she got chewed out by the finance department and had to pay for the bagels and donuts herself for that meeting.
I don't understand the people who seem to be supporting the data entry clerk and saying this is no big deal or thinking that just because FN is telling us his unvarnished thoughts about the ability of some of his coworkers to think critically for themselves then that must mean he doesn't treat them respectfully when he interacts with them. I think letting the data entry clerk take notes on a safety consultant meeting is inviting trouble and could further a bad precedent of her involvement in areas she shouldn't touch. I think it would be a big deal and unacceptable if a data entry clerk started incorrectly doing parts of anyone's job. The fact that in FN's industry it involves real safety issues with how chemicals are used and disposed of, or telling anyone in a lab how they should do their job or use safety equipment, makes it even crazier. If you put feelings aside and look at her actions, they are not acceptable.
Sure, it would be great if FN's relationship with the general populace in his company was better, but it doesn't excuse her behavior at all. As an INTJ I totally understand what it's like to not win any popularity contests for being factual and blunt or simply wanting to do your job well without having to engage in a popularity contest at all. Communicating in ways that work for everyone is something to work on over time. (I think @Laura33 's comments on that theme were great suggestions)
I think some people are inferring that I am unpopular or not well liked based on me saying she seems to be popular and well liked. I don't think that is true at all. I get along fine with everyone. My point was if there was a big work party safety sandy would be that extroverted person walking around doing finger guns at people and chatting everyone up and making jokes, and I ...well I wouldn't be that person. Not that I wouldn't socialize with anyone, I just wouldn't be nearly as exuberant as her.