A Story of Women in the Workplace: The PHYSICAL Dangers

I saw the following with my own eyes (אי לא הואי התם לא הימני):

A veteran, experienced foreman was busy operating an expensive (and potentially lethal) heavy machine that required close human supervision during operation. He was in his sixties, Jewish, and married. He was also irreligious and antagonistic toward observant Jews.

Then, an irreligious lady from the office came over to ask him something. And this veteran, hardboiled-Israeli completely forgot what he was in the middle of, and got distracted, answering at great length. He even sauntered off deep in discussion with the same lady — while the machine was still busy working! — presumably, to continue a “work-related” discussion. (He was neither depending nor counting on me being there.)

An agonizing few minutes later, he returned and profusely admitted his mistake to me (the professional mistake, that is).

(I don’t have Ruach Hakodesh so I don’t know if the woman was attractive.)

Nothing bad happened that time, but…

(I omit my own role in the story.)