Make safety a personal commitment
May 1, 2008 By: Carl R. Metzgar, CSP Pit & QuarryEvery employee deserves to feel safe at work and to go home each day with sound mind and body. Your employer, safety officials at your company, supervisors and managers are responsible for assessing risks and implementing appropriate safety programs, including rules, procedures and training. This doesn't mean you can slack off – and that someone else is responsible for your actions when you do something that is unsafe.
Some companies promote a personal commitment to safety by having employees sign a real contract or pledge to work safely. Whether your company does this or not, you may have noticed a general shift in the workplace from straight regulatory compliance to culture change when it comes to safety.
Senior executives are touting "zero tolerance" of accidents and injuries and investing in better programs to ensure a safe work environment with hopes ultimately of reduced costs and improved morale. To realize a perfect record, however, each employee must take responsibility for safety at a personal level. This may require a change of attitude, a new mindset.
Key questions
Think about how you approach your life. Do you live within a safe zone? Are you committed to safety in all aspects of your daily routine? Do you check to make sure you turned the toaster oven off before you leave the house, use your seat belt when on the road, adhere to speed limits, regularly check your car's oil level, change batteries in your smoke detectors, read instructions before operating appliances and equipment around your house and yard, drive after drinking alcohol? Do you think you are somehow exempt from the laws of physics and other forces of nature and the chance of human error?
Don't take chances. Make a personal commitment to safety in your personal life and at work. No one says this is easy. Co-workers may slack off, even tease you and others for wearing personal protective gear, taking the time to inspect equipment, keeping the work area clean or attending a safety seminar. Make it a personal goal to reverse this negative peer pressure. Don't be skeptical; it will happen over time, especially as lives are saved.
Commit to consistency
Your level of commitment may fluctuate; this is normal. After an accident or close call that involves you or co-workers, you may "wake up" and start paying more attention to the procedures. Whatever equipment failed or whatever mistake was made is highlighted in your mind and you become wary of similar conditions. Then, with time, the intensity fades and the need to be careful diminishes, and everyone may go back to unsafe practices.
Don't let the knowledge fade. Think about your work habits. Are there times when you're more likely to take a chance, break the rules, act unsafely – on Monday mornings when you're late to work, after lunch when you are tired, on deadline when rushing to meet customer demands? Find a personal mechanism for keeping safety on the top of your mind when you are most likely to cut corners on safety. Know your weaknesses and make the extra effort to change these patterns.
Change your habits
Consider the consequences of failing to act safely and determine some way of staying tuned in to safety. This is the hard part of personal commitment. You may need to change your habits. Go to bed earlier on Sunday nights, so you have time to get appropriate clothing together and not speed to work. Change your lunch to something high-protein if that will help with energy and focus. Pay closer attention to the rules and procedures – read them and ask questions if you don't understand what they mean. Take a longer look at the safety brochures, posters and checklists that your company provides.
If you work in a mine or a gravel pit or on a construction site, your job involves certain hazards. You must be educated on what these hazards are and be wary of them constantly. Slippery surfaces, heavy suspended loads, old equipment, tricky catwalks, etc. are common in our workplace.
Think about the injuries that you and others have experienced. Make it your personal goal to not let them happen again.
Carl R. Metzgar, CSP, has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the pit and quarry industries. He was formerly a safety and health director for Lone star industries, and mideast division safety director for Vulcan materials.
He currently offers consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation, training, compliance and loss control. Based in Winston-salem, N.C., he can be reached at 336-766-8264; fax: 336-766-1218; E-mail: cmetz46840@aol.com.
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