What does a bad day look like?
What does a bad day look like? This series takes a look at the mildly frustrating to the seriously unfortunate.
Tune in every Tuesday for a new edition, or scroll down to browse previous topics.
A quick text?
June 17, 2025
On my drive back from work, I noticed a Tesla suddenly jolting and braking behind me. It only took me a quick glance to realize that the driver was texting.
Tennessee is a hands-free state, meaning that it is illegal to use a mobile device while behind the wheel — even if your car has automative driving.
In fact, Teslas include a driving monitoring system, which sounds an alarm if the driver attempts to look at their phone during autopilot.
This driver had the ingenious solution to temporarily disable autopilot (and, therefore, the driving monitoring system) to send a quick text.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize two things:
- His multitasking skills are expectedly poor. He barely manages to stay in his lane, nearly rear-ends me, then halts interstate traffic for about five seconds for a completely unneeded stop.
- The driver in front of him, myself, recorded and shared his unsafe behavior.
Risk assessment should not take into account the likelihood of getting caught. Texting while driving is dangerous and illegal.
If you’re interested in stopping unsafe behaviors at your workplace, join us at the 2025 Global TapRooT® Summit. We’re hosting a Pre-Summit Session on Stopping Human Error, and we have an entire track dedicated to Safety and Risk Assessment Best Practices.
This week’s edition was written by Jacob.
Eating like kings of the forest
June 10, 2025
Gardening is a real passion for a lot of people, me included. Working the soil, choosing plant materials, designing a garden, gardening pays off in significant ways for you.
Experienced gardeners go through highs and lows. An example of the latter happened last week when the deer ate all my new hostas. Talk about a bad day! When I saw what was left of the newly planted hostas, I momentarily reevaluated my admiration for the beautiful deer that frequent the nearby woods.
Keeping a lid on
June 3, 2025
Last week, a girl at the window handed me a drink in a way that made me reach for the top. So, I was holding the lid and the rest fell between my car and the window. We tried again; the drink made it inside my car this time only for the lid to pop off and both cup holders to fill up with zero orange fizzy. Lovely.
Apparently, I still hadn’t gotten the message the universe was sending. After ordering a bowl of chili and fetching the bag from the window, I rested the bag on the console. One minute later, I felt hot chili ooze through the bag as I was driving down the road. Use your imagination to finish the scenario of the bad day in my new car.
A “very bulky new neighbor”
May 27, 2025
When a Norwegian homeowner awakened to a 440-foot ship run aground on his doorstep, he described it as a “very bulky new neighbor.” The Norwegian homeowner, Johan Helberg, apparently slept through the whole ordeal of the container ship, the NLC Salten, running onto his property which adjoins a fjord in Trondheim in central Norway.
Helberg’s neighbor, Jostein Jorgensen, had been a witness to the whole ordeal and rang Helberg’s doorbell many times before trying his phone. CBS News reported that Jorgensen “said he was roused at around 5 a.m. local time by the sound of a ship heading at full speed toward land and immediately ran to Helberg’s house.”*
CBS News also reported that “None of the 16 crew members were injured in the incident, the cause of which is being investigated by Norwegian police.
“Bente Hetland, the CEO of the shipping company that owns the NCL Salten, told TV2 that the same ship ran aground twice before — once in 2023 in Hadsel and once in 2024, in Ålesund..*
*CBS News, “Norway homeowner wakes up to find 440-foot ship ran aground on his doorstep: “It’s a very bulky new neighbor,” updated May 23, 2025.
Tough work getting folks to show up
May 20, 2025
U.S. factories are running a bit short these days in their staffing of workers. According to a LinkedIn article, “the country currently has nearly half a million unfilled manufacturing positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 65% of manufacturing firms say staff recruitment and retention is their biggest challenge. Among the issues: a lack of properly skilled workers, strict degree requirements for jobs, and ‘outdated notions’ of what factory work is like.”*
*”Factories have a staffing problem,” by Andrew Barker, editor at LinkedIn.
Do you think turbulence is dangerous?
May 13, 2025
They say in this video that turbulence isn’t dangerous. I say that it sure FEELS dangerous. Are you of the same opinion?
Guess what is so much better than turbulence? No turbulence + TapRooT® RCA Training!
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14 hours of dimes
May 06, 2025
A semi veered, overcorrected, then overturned, spilling millions of shiny new dimes all over a Texas highway. You might call it a bad day for the driver of the truck, the lines of cars backed up along the highway, and the officers who had to sort out the 14-hour mess.
A bad day in the mirror
April 29, 2025
A bad day is almost always better in the rear vision mirror, right? When is the last time you had an accident? Or saw an accident? Or perhaps you were delayed by someone else’s accident?
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