Knifes in the work place?

Clang! said:
There's a blanket "no weapons or anything designed as a weapon" policy. The interpretation varies from department to department. Business oriented departments tend to ban knives. Departments involved with the product tends to allow knives.
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This exactly. Most of the techs (like me) carry their own edc knife, same with shipping guys, but you won't see any of the phone service reps with one. Even the managers that are willing to step in and get their hands dirty when required to get things done, carry their own edc knives.
 
Answers are more diverse than I would of thought.

We used to have a sign on the door that stated no weapons had the gun w/ the circle and line through it. A while back a coworker saw whatever pocket knife I had at the time; and was a quick to say "you can't have that that's a weapon!". I countered with the whole "it's a tool not a weapon"; its legal to carry in the state. He basically rebuttals something about the handbook... No weapons, blah blah blah... The type of guy to argue meaning of words; and have policy's re-written to have a clearer meaning. (real douche that nobody cared for). Anyways, he stated he was going to HR because the knife (≈ 3.5 in blade) wasn't allowed at work.

About a week or so later the sign changes to state "No concealed handguns". So I brought it up to him and asked what HR said; I was brushed off. So I assume I can have it in the work place. But I'll get asked about it sometimes.
 
Well I'm part of a small law firm (4 partners, which I'm one of) and we have a total staff of 15 right now (paralegals, admin, interns etc)...I like to think that our employee handbook is well written and fair (since that's the type of practice we have and because I wrote parts of it!), we have no policy against "weapons" specifically, but there is a general "employee personal conduct" section that basically says that your expected to act professionally, ethically, within the law and so on.

I have a CHL, as does one of my partners, and we both routinely carry in the office. I do not know if any employees do, and I really don't care, I'm certainly not going to post a 30.06 sign on the door ever. I usually dress fairly casually (since I very rarely go to court) and often wear nice jeans or chinos and usually clip a knife on my pocket. It has never really been a topic of conversation except a few rare times, and never in a negative way. An amusing moment was a few months ago when I bought my first auto and had it shipped to me at work, I had just unboxed it in my office and a then intern came in to bring me some documents and asked me about it. I explained the change in the law as of last year (had to make it a "teaching moment" after all) and let him fire it a few times. His reply was that it was "sick!"...I think that's a good thing right?
 
The_Knife_Man said:
Answers are more diverse than I would of thought.

We used to have a sign on the door that stated no weapons had the gun w/ the circle and line through it. A while back a coworker saw whatever pocket knife I had at the time; and was a quick to say "you can't have that that's a weapon!". I countered with the whole "it's a tool not a weapon"; its legal to carry in the state. He basically rebuttals something about the handbook... No weapons, blah blah blah... The type of guy to argue meaning of words; and have policy's re-written to have a clearer meaning. (real douche that nobody cared for). Anyways, he stated he was going to HR because the knife (≈ 3.5 in blade) wasn't allowed at work.

About a week or so later the sign changes to state "No concealed handguns". So I brought it up to him and asked what HR said; I was brushed off. So I assume I can have it in the work place. But I'll get asked about it sometimes.
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Out of curiosity, what state are you in?
 
I always carried a knife at work (hospitals and universities) and often used it for work purposes. As long as you carry a blade that is less than about 3" in length, you should be fine. A blade of this length should not be intimidating to the ladies...whether male or female.
 
The_Knife_Man said:
Answers are more diverse than I would of thought.

We used to have a sign on the door that stated no weapons had the gun w/ the circle and line through it. A while back a coworker saw whatever pocket knife I had at the time; and was a quick to say "you can't have that that's a weapon!". I countered with the whole "it's a tool not a weapon"; its legal to carry in the state. He basically rebuttals something about the handbook... No weapons, blah blah blah... The type of guy to argue meaning of words; and have policy's re-written to have a clearer meaning. (real douche that nobody cared for). Anyways, he stated he was going to HR because the knife (≈ 3.5 in blade) wasn't allowed at work.

About a week or so later the sign changes to state "No concealed handguns". So I brought it up to him and asked what HR said; I was brushed off. So I assume I can have it in the work place. But I'll get asked about it sometimes.
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Win :D:thumbup:
 
I work in IT for a small manufacturing company. The policy is "no weapons" but no one even talks about it. Everyone in the warehouse (about 20 people) have razor knives, I always have my SMF, Satu or something else from my rotation on me. Everyone knows I'm a knife guy and I'm the one who cuts open most of the packaging in the office. Most of the guys stop by whenever I get a small package delivered to see what new knife I just got. ;)
 
My company doesn't say anything about knives. I carry relatively large folders, up to a Military and a ZT 0561. I don't hide them, mostly using them to cut open the occasional package or slice fruit at lunch. In a year and a half only a couple of people have actually commented on one of my knives. Last Friday we had a team meeting at lunch and the boss brought in Barbecue. There were about 8 of us in the conference room and I didn't think I could slice the meat with the tiny little plastic knives so I used my Manix 2. One younger employee asked me what kind of knife it was, I wasn't sure what she was getting at so I said Spyderco. Nobody else paid any attention to it. So for now I'm back to carrying whatever I want to, next week it will be the ZT0561.
 
I use mine at work all the time in construction so much so I had J Neilson make me a custom fixed blade just for work I keep it on my tool belt or in my bucket I use it all the time.
 
Knives are VERY welcome where I work, mainly because I'm the boss. :D I coach wrestlers at a local gym, knives and guns are not only welcome there but show and tell is encouraged.

I used to run an NGO with lots of hoplophobic interns (mostly nice folks with good intentions, but very ill informed about guns and knives), I made it a point to give out knives (I had boxes of Opinels and a bin of Vic Classics) and I would take anybody who wanted to shooting.
 
My workplace has no specific restrictions for knives. If it's legal to carry, then it's allowed. That said, we also don't have people that try to push the envelope just because it falls within the limits of the law. I assume if some people did, some people would complain, and new, restrictive policies would emerge.
 
I work in a paper mill and most people have a knife on them. In fact, you can go to the storeroom and they hand out papermaker knives to whoever wants one.
 
Where I work knives of any kind are strictly prohibited. :( Having one on you is grounds for termination. You could always try to carry one, but since we pass through metal detectors upon leaving, it's not likely it wouldn't be noticed.
That being said, I did stop in on a day off to check with HR about something. I walked into the building and on my way to HR put my hand in my pocket. I realized that I had my knife on me since I was off for the day. I immediately turned around and went to security and let them know, and explained it was my day off, etc etc. They told me to slide it through the table at the detectors and make sure I take it to my car before returning. They didn't give me any issues since I let them know right away at least.
 
I've never worked anywhere that had a knife policy. They've all had weapon policies.
 
Luckily I have a cool boss, but I am a chef and the dedicated knife sharpener here, I get many benefits like cutting oranges on slow days with my display katana (ronin).

Often I bring my outdoor knives and pocket knives for sharpening and polishing. Owner and bartender buys me patron shots for sharpening their home kitchen knives...

I've had too many drinks tonight so sorry if I'm hard to understand
 
I work at a manufacturing company that has a lot of former Gerber/Kershaw/Leatherman employees working in our shop, so knives are pretty common. We have a vague no weapons policy, I've carried a Mora before without raising too many eyebrows, many of my coworkers have assisted or auto folders. The former chairman of our company used to carry his M1911 daily and occasionally fired it in the building, or pointed it an employees who asked him to stop waving it around, HR didn't say anything until the pointing at an engineer situation.

Akcir said:
I am the manager of a small manufacturing company, and we are totally "politically incorrect". There aren't any legal restrictions in this area, so that isn't an issue. The things that will get you canned are being stupid, lazy, or a bad attitude.
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See, our company needs to adopt more of this approach, if you regularly scrap out more than you make in a month, you probably should be in a different line of work.
 
Pistols must be checked with the guard

Knives do not enter in to the radar...
You can get box cutters along with the stationary supplies
 
I use to work for sport chalet, and i dont know if it was my general manager or also the loos pervention people but even ever i produced my leatherman to use the pliers or ever my gerber curge which has a smaller blade than a vic classic i was told they were not company approved knives. In my head i thought "we sell these things, i play with them in the case all the time" but once i believe the chairman was talking to me about my paracord and told me i was the most prepared person hes ever seen at work, and chatted for a few more mins; he was pretty cool. As well as my old distric manager he was eye balling my pocket clips one day but didnt say a word, i tend to think it was because he use to me the camping dept dept. head as i was basically fullfilling that role :D. Only had annoying run ins with my GM, others told stories about being hasseled by LP.
 
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