In the real world, employers and employees need to decide how to act in an imperfect environment. Stage workers often find themselves in situations where the right thing to do is not obvious. What follows are some common fall hazard situations which will hopefully stimulate discussion about good judgment and the legal rights workers have with respect to training and proper equipment. Case 1: On the loading rail of a college theatre, a student spies the problem with tangled system pipes and sees he can just step across a three-foot gap from the loading rail handrail to the end of one of the system pipes and then ìwalk the pipeî to get to the site of the problem. There are plenty of handholds and the student is an experience rock climber. Should he step across and fix the problem? It will just take a few minutes. Case 2: A local rigger with a couple years experience shows up at a rigging call in a theatre in which he has never worked. The call requires that he bring his own harness and haul line. He is given a double lanyard and told that the other riggers on the call can show him how to hook into the installed anchorages where they will be working. Should the rigger go on up? Case 3 At an outdoor touring music show with a ground-supported self-climbing truss roof, a local rigger who is a recreational climber is assigned the job to climb one of the twenty-five-foot tall towers and un-foul the chain motor chain at the top sheave. There is not a self-retracting lifeline attached to the top of the tower. This happens to be his first call as a rigger through the hiring hall. Case 4: Truss follow spot operators on a touring arena show are provided a self-retracting lifeline above the wire rope ladder that goes up to the high steel anchorage. However, there is no fall protection between the ladder access and the spot chair. Should they refuse to go up? They could lose their job. 30 theatre design & technology F A L L 2008