Doesn't anybody fix anything any more?

[bUU]

We have become a nation of weenies, afraid to try anything, afraid to do anything outside of our comfort zone because we might fail, we might break something, we might get sued.

Even that is such a prejudicial way of viewing the opposing perspective that it would be almost impossible to afford reasonable perspectives contrary to what you said the respect that you'd want for your own perspective. I definitely can see the value of your perspective, in terms of expediency, independence, etc.; I wonder if you are able to see the value of mine. I suppose one may need to see the after-effects of someone doing something that they weren't qualified to do to gain a real appreciation for it.

It is stuff like this that created that poor work ethic.

And it is thinking like that that has caused the extreme polarization of our society.

[disneysteve]

I definitely can see the value of your perspective, in terms of expediency, independence, etc.; I wonder if you are able to see the value of mine.

Certainly. I totally get the need and benefit of reasonable regulations and guidelines, particularly in a larger organization. There are issues of worker safety, liability, and other such things to consider. I just think that overall, the situation has gotten out of hand to the point where we stifle free-thinking, creativity, industriousness, etc. Companies often spend so much time and money complying with regulations that they don't have time or money to do anything else.

[JoeP]

The point here isn't that you did something wrong - you didn't - the hospital did, by putting you in the position you were in by not having a qualified maintenance person on duty or not otherwise prompting you to call one in to fix the problem rather than trying to fix it yourself (that is, of course, unless they certified you as qualified to perform repair work).

Steve fixed a hole punch. It's not like he jury-rigged an MRI machine. Sure, certain machinery and software requires specialized skills, and in some industries, bypassing this requirement can result in fines or worse. I work in IT, and when something goes wrong with my desktop or a system I am working on, we have clear procedures to escalate.

I hope you are not suggesting Steve hire a Certified Hole Punch Repair Technician who is qualified to repair the occasional jam. Besides, these guys are very hard to find since the Hole Punch Repair Technician strike of 2008...we all remember the calamity caused by all that un-punched paper lying around. Thank goodness Federal arbitrators got both sides talking.

I picked up the spirit of the OP's post as: "Instead of going out and buying a replacement, see if you can fix it yourself first. It might be something simple, and you could save yourself some money and avoid throwing the item out."

[bUU]

I just think that overall, the situation has gotten out of hand to the point where we stifle free-thinking, creativity, industriousness, etc.

Fair enough; we can agree to disagree about that. While there are surely some regulations that are overly restrictive, I believe that is not the general case.

Steve fixed a hole punch.

Steve isn't the issue. First: Steve is apparently the boss, and therefore is that entity that I said was responsible. Second, and more importantly: That comment was with regard to Gailete fixing a hospital bed. So the rest your comment was pretty-much completely off-target, until this...

I picked up the spirit of the OP's post as: "Instead of going out and buying a replacement, see if you can fix it yourself first.

And the spirit of my posts have been that misplacing responsibility for things isn't always the best approach.

[Gailete]

As I believe I had mentioned before, the fixing of the hospital bed (more than once) involved getting under the bed and seeing that the plug wasn't all the way into the wall outlet or the bed outlet and the repair was pushing it in completely. I would have been embarassed to call in maintenance for something like that. Would I try and fix the inner workings of a bed or IV machine--not on your life, but simple common sense things, yes I have no problem. I do wish when I was still nursing I could have worked for someone like Steve and I wish I still had the ability to get on a floor and get back up. My life has changed, but whenever it is within my ability to 'fix' something or deal with a potential problem I do no matter where I am.

There is a time and a place to repair with an authorized repairman or replace spending money and there is a time to use some commonsense and deal with it yourself. If the hole punch is about to be tossed in the garbage, what is the problem with seeing if you can fix it? It isn't like you can make it in worse shape.