OSHA Lockout Tagout standard 1910.147(b) defines authorized and affected employees as:

An Authorized employee, by definition, is a person who locks out or tags out machines or equipment in order to perform servicing and maintenance on that machine or equipment. Authorized employees are those who are charged with the responsibility for implementing the energy control procedure prior to performing servicing and maintenance, and thus require the highest level of training.

Whereas, an Affected employee, by definition, is an employee whose job requires him/her to operate or use a machine or equipment on which servicing or maintenance is to be performed. Affected employees are generally the machine operators or users. An affected employee becomes an authorized employee when that employee’s duties include performing servicing and maintenance.