An eight story building collapsed in Bangledesh today, killing at least 87 people. The USA Today story notes that three stories were approved and the rest were likely built without permits. That’s crazy enough, but the quote below amazes me.

Workers said they hesitated to go to work Wednesday because the building had developed such severe cracks the previous day that it had been reported on local news channels.

Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager assured them there was no problem, so they went inside.

“We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly,” he said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside the building.

Can you imagine telling your workers to ignore the big cracks in the building and just get to work? Even though we rarely have failures this egregious in America, it still should remind us to use our common sense for safety. Pay attention to items that could cause failures and accidents. Don’t sacrifice all on the altar of productivity.

Bangladeshi volunteers prepare lengths of textiles to be used as evacuation slides for the injured and dead after a building collapsed in Savar. (Photo: Munir Uz Zaman, AFP/Getty Images)