Mike Andes (founder of Augusta Lawn Care) recounts a recent OSHA inspection triggered by an anonymous complaint whose return address matched a local TruGreen office in Bellingham, Washington. OSHA performed a full inspection of vehicles, safety equipment, and written procedures; most items passed, but Augusta received citations related to required auditory/hearing surveillance. Mike was surprised—he says annual hearing tests are required (at least in Washington state), learned that Labor & Industries will perform testing for free, and appealed the citation and proposed penalty. He reports the penalty range cited was $1,500–$15,000 (three infractions, $500–$5,000 each) and expresses frustration at a competitor reporting them.
Questions this video answers
Almost 100 locations around North America.
Bellingham, Washington.
$1,500 to $15,000 total (three infractions, each $500–$5,000).
Annually (every year).
Washington Labor & Industries (L&I).
Chapters
Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes. I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care. We have almost 100 locations around North America. But today I'm telling you about the last week when we had a little run in with osha. All right, if you've never had a little run in with osha, you probably will eventually one day, especially if you're growing very large, especially if you have quite a few competitors that are large as well locally, you'll probably one day have OSHA come knocking on your door. So let me tell you a little story. Sit back, relax, and come along for the ride. So several weeks ago, we were reported anonymously to OSHA because of, you know, they just said, hey, these people, people are unsafe working conditions or whatever. And so anonymously they were submitted. However, we are able to see the address of the person that submitted this complaint. And it so happened to be the address for trugreen, our local TRUGREEN location. So that was interesting. Kind of strange. We actually do service for TruGreen, just not in Washington state. So the location I'm talking about right now is in Bellingham, Washington. But we actually do work for TruGreen. It just so happens that in North Carolina, another location that I own in Mooresville, where we actually their headquarters. Funny thing, they know who to call when it comes to mowing and lawn care services. Thank you very much. But however, locally we were reported by TRUGREEN to OSHA because of unsafe working conditions for our employees. So what does that lead to? It leads to a full out inspection. So they came out to the office randomly. They didn't tell us they were coming. Fortunately, Marcus was there at the time. He's the local gm and actually I think Lee was there at the time too. So they're basically like, yep, we're going to do a random inspection and we want you to go through all of this stuff with us. They literally went through everything, trucks, safety procedures, everything. And, and honestly, we did really good. We have first aid kits, we have fire extinguishers, we have safety goggles and safety glasses, ear protection that we give away for free to the employees. We kind of checked all the boxes, we have fire extinguishers in the trucks and everything. And we passed all of it. But we came, we actually thought we were in the clear. We thought everything was hunky dory because they were really happy at the meeting. And we like, oh, this is great, I wasn't there. Marcus did the entire thing, shout out to him. And Lee was there as well. And then they came back and they randomly had this one thing. Now, part of the inspection and part of the investigation by OSHA was that we had to have one of the employees wear an auditory tracking device that measured the decibel ratings throughout the day. Now, obviously, we're using, you know, weed whackers and blowers, et cetera. It's loud, okay? So that's why we give them ear protection. And we get the good ear protection, not the cheap piece of junk stuff. We actually get the good stuff from 3M. It's good. Anyways, all of that to say we get this. Them coming back after the inspection and everything we thought had gone really well and basically checked off everything. They had a few remarks on some of our safety written protocols that we had up on the wall. We made sure those were posted a little bit better, but other than that, everything looked really good. Then they come back and they. They're like, oh, yeah, by the way, you're in violation of something that's really big and it actually needs to be remedied. Remedied. In the next 30 days, however, we're still going to fine you for it. It's still going to be considered an infraction, and you're going to get a penalty. And this penalty is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of between 1500 and $15,000 because it was like three different infractions, all of which were under the same thing. And each of those infractions can be between 500 and $5000. So technically, the penalty could be anywhere from 1500 to $15000 as a penalty for this infraction and regardless of whether or not we fix it in the next 30 days, which we have to do anyways. But this is the crazy thing. I had never heard of this infraction ever. I never heard of this. And upon getting this notice, I contacted about five to 10 other local contractors and said, like, hey, have you guys ever heard of this ever? And they all were like, no, we've never heard of that. They've probably never been inspected by OSHA because they've probably never been reported by TruGreen. But, however, hey, look, first and foremost, let me be very clear. Worker safety is extremely important to me, and I don't take it lightly. I'm all on board with OSHA doing their thing. However, they come back with this auditory testing infraction. And this is something I never, ever knew we had to do. And I would venture to believe that 99.5% of people listening to this don't know this exists. So I learned things every single day. Did you know that you're supposed to. At least in the state of Washington, you're supposed to. But, you know, OSHA is a federal agency. It could potentially be something national. But at least in Washington state, you have to check the hearing and do an auditory test of your employees every single year, annually, to make sure that they're not losing their hearing too much. And if you are, you can get in trouble for it. Now, this is what's crazy, and this is what Lee, because he was there at the time when they came back in, he's like, hey, how does that make sense? Because what if they go on the weekend and they. They're at the shooting range and they don't wear air production, like they're going to blow out their ears. And yet, you know, of course their rating over the course of a year is going to be bad. And they're like, yeah, that's true. But, you know, you still got to track it, and you got to. You got to do the testing. And if you. If they're losing their hearing, you could be penalized for that. And it's just like, what in the world? So, fortunately, it's not like you have to pay for this. It's just a matter of contacting labor and industries, L and I, you know, worker. You know, if you get your workers comp. Like in Washington state, you get your workers comp and everything through L and I Labor and industries. So it's free. Like, you just have to come have them come out and test your employees every year. And I'm like, look, I'm okay with that. It just. I, and no one else are around here ever knew that was a rule. And so I actually appealed the infraction. I said, look, I get. We made a mistake. I just had no idea that this was an infraction. And if I didn't know, I would want to comply and make sure that we fixed this and did whatever you guys thought we were supposed to do to keep our employees safe. But I just didn't know about this rule. And I said, by the way, you might want to work on some sort of education process, because I contacted a bunch of other contractors and landscapers in the local area, and none of them had ever heard of this. And what you actually have to do is contact them. And OSHA comes out to your property once a year, does auditory testing for all your employees, tracks the employees, and then has one of them wear a device to monitor it over the course of time. And it's just like, are you serious? I was just shocked. I literally still don't know what's going to happen here because I just submitted my appeal and I said, look, I'm not appealing whether or not this is a citation and whether or not this is an infraction, I am appealing that I should be penalized for between 1500 and $15,000 because I just had no idea and you all never told me. And it's not like you told me, hey, you're in violation. If you don't fix it in 30 then you get penalized. You're just slapping a penalty on me from the get go. When everything else which like actually moves the needle for worker safety was just fine. Nothing else was was reported after a long investigation. So I don't know where this is going. I'll keep you all updated. For the record. Trugreen, you got a point here. You reported us and you got us in trouble. So good for you. We'll see what the long run has for you. I'm not going to report Trugreen and tell all the bad things that they've done, but we will see how the long term game plays out between Trugreen and Augusta Lawn Care after now that they have officially reported us. Well, hey, if they're reporting us, they must be nervous about something because we don't compete with them locally. They just do treatments. We don't even do treatments and chemicals. So I think it's really scummy, by the way, that you would ever report your competition. I think it's a horrible way to build your business and I think ultimately it comes back to bite you. You can. Gary Vaynerchuk always says you can always. You can build the build this building in town two ways. One, you can build the builder, build the biggest building. Like focus on growing your business and making it better, getting better customers, growing the company, etc. Or you can just tear everyone else's building down and then regardless of how mediocre your company is, you still be the biggest building in town. So true. Despite your $1,2 billion in revenue, you just keep trying to tear down other buildings and guess what? One day someone's going to build a bigger building than you.
