ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion Safety #1?

I am wondering how many of you work for a company that states "Safety is #1" or "Safety is our TOP priority", etc. After 10 years in industry as a safety professional I had the great honor of working for two of the best plant managers walking the face of this earth and working for two of the worst human beings that have filled the role of "plant manager". I have no doubt that the two best were dedicated to making safety RIGHT; but they taught me a very valuable lesson in that EHS should be EQUAL to production, quality, and costs. Making either of these #1, just causes everyone to jump from ship to ship so to speak. Having been a consultant this past year, I have been amaazed at the number of companies I work with that have banners everywhere stating "Safety is #1", eyt when you talk with employees they provide you with sound examples of how they perceive that to be a lie. Heck I should know, I was one of those employees in a couple of my roles, and if you can't convience your safety leader, then you sure are not going to have much luck with the workforce he/she has been hired to protect.

Bryan www.SAFTENG.net

Bryan,
Yeah, I do.
It's all lies!.

Just to expand on that earlier post.
I work in a large area of work that encompasses Industrial, Commercial and Line Work.
Electrical safety, should, by all rights, be universal to any discipline, no matter what you are doing.
Shouldn't it??.

Do they still post "THINK" signs in machine shops and other worksites where you have to be careful with the equipment to avoid injury?

One shop manager we had said to us engineers "You had ten fingers when you walked in here, don't leave any behind" or "Be sure to keep them on your hands" or "I want to see all ten fingers where they belong when you are finished and leave."

Too many time the empty safety slogans are there only to duck a law suit or OSHA fine. Just ask the employees "What happens if you refuse to perform a task for safety reasons?"
In far too many cases if the are not fired then and there they soon will be laid off or downsized without anything said about the safety issue. Most employees know this in companies were safety slogans abound.

Thanks for the question. This is a subject that has bothered me for a while. So much so, I placed this short article in our local construction organization safety newsletter.
If you asked your employees how many had heard the term “Safety First” within our organizations, most if not all would probably raise their hands. Then ask if safety really is first when it comes to work in the field, most hands would drop. Everyone knows profits are what makes the world go round and the doors to our lobbies stay open. Profits are ingrained in all operational aspects of most successful businesses. Placing “Safety First” on a poster and telling everyone “this is the philosophy our organization lives by” puts safety in direct competition with the true goal of business. We never hear “Profits First” because everyone knows that is what we all come to work for.
Now let me ask you this question. Does a once a week safety inspection from the safety geek make a safe job site? It may make the physical site safer, but what about the 200 workers on the site who can change it in seconds after the safety person leaves. Safety is not the safety guy’s job alone. A token safety person can not make our projects safe. Safety encompasses EVERY laborer, carpenter, foreman, superintendent, intern, PE, PM, estimator, welder, mechanic, electrician, plumber, roofer, etc. Safety is preservation of assets to our VP’s, presidents, CEOs and owners. Our assets are our people, facilities and equipment and without them we cease to exist. Safety has to be at par with budget, schedule and quality. Take away any one of these four essential aspects of a successful business and the whole organization pays. The absence of accidents does not imply the presence of safety. Nor do accidents imply the non-existence of safety. A goal of zero accidents may be a nice result, but a real goal is getting all of us to realize how much safety really encompasses each and every aspect of all our individual jobs. Exhibiting safe behaviors, allocating safety resources and including safety in each function and role every employee fills will go a long way in preserving our resources and increasing our profits. If we all work at controlling safety as well as we control the budget, schedule and quality of our projects we are way out in front of the competition.

Don’t make safety first. Just equal to.

Lance

Lance,
as long as we're being totally honest, let's call a spade a spade shall we?

Safety is big biz in this country, and the focus for corporism here is as it has always been, thier own liabilty

These two strange bedfellows merely use the common worker as the kicking post for thier agendas

The old adage re; 'the louder the speaker touted his integrity, the closer we eye'd the silverware' never fit better here.

Please save us the constant patronizing, we're just not that lame kay?

~Steve

Fair enough Steve. Just answering a question from MY point of view.

See ya....

Lance,

Thanks for your comments. I do not envy the job of the safety guy at all. I hope that you will continue to give us your honest input here.

Bill

Steve why is it a bad that a company is motivated by liability to get a safety program going.

You have to speak the language to make your self understood, the language of business is money.

Bob

Because the corporate mentality focuses on liability instead of asset and thus every aspect follows suit.

I think everyone here's been witness to the superficial 'safety cheerleading' that exemplifies this.

that i opine it lame is merely being honest

Steve,
I think that Lance nailed the same problem you are complaining about pretty well in these sentences and stated things as honestly as possible.

Why you are jumping on him?

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 06-19-2003).]

Always remember: The safest thing to do is Never Turn The Switch On.

The people listed here need to have some input, other than merely signing off @ a safety meeting.

When workers can simply 'just say no' without reproach or retribution sorts such as i shall be less acute of the constant safety rhetoric , incidently all the rage in this springs trade mags.

~Steve(aka; Norma Ray's big bro)sparky

Sparky,

How would a system like that work if anyone could refuse to do anything they didn't want to? Where's the balance?

Bill,
IMHO,
Safety is an attitude or a state of mind.
It's all part of your training as an Electrical Worker, it goes hand in hand with the basics of Electrical Theory and Practice.
If you can't work safely, you might as well pack up and go home!!.

OK, I am the safety guy at work, so I think I can have a say here. Is safety #1. No. Is safety very important? Yes! Fortunatley at my work they do take safety important, so I rarely have to "sell" safety. However I have learned that you do have to sell safety. First of all to sell safety to management you can show that the indirects costs of an accident are much more than the direct costs of an accident. This is also wasted money to a company. Now don't take this the wrong way. Yes you do get an injured worker back, however if you prevent this injury than you do not have to spend this money in the first place.

Yes I also have to sell safety to the employees. Many of them will say that it will take too long to do what I recommend, or that it is a pain in the a$$ to do it. To the employees I tell them that sure the company will get a ding and have to spend some money. However they are the ones that are going to be in pain. Accidents hurt! No one should go home hurt. For example, hearing protection. We have some areas where employees have to wear hearing protection. Some people don't like to wear the ear plugs, so they will not put them in all the way. I tell these people that sure they can fool us and not wear the hearing protection properly, however they will be the ones when they are 50 going "What, what did you say, I cannot hear you." So they have to take care of themselves.

I think my messages are getting across, we had a good year last year. Then this year we had some problems. We had one day that 2 people got injured. I told my wife that I was having a bad day. She was talking to people at her work and someone said that they were having a bad day. She said sure when you have a bad day you break a part, when my husband has a bad day people get hurt. I called a special toolbox meeting the next day to focus their attention to safety and told them what my wife told me. Since then we have not had an accident. (Knock on wood)

I know that may job in to be a pain in the a$$. I try and do it with reason and not too much interference. I also know that I can NEVER come into work with a broken are or something like that. I think of this everytime I am on a ladder working on my house.

Well I have more to say, but I already think this has been too long.
Scott