Total Employment & Management

Let’s talk about the who’s of safety.

Who does it affect?..

It affects everyone. Safety is boring but a serious injury or death last forever, emotionally, and financially. Minor injuries are warnings of more to come. They affect us financially more than anything and are usually not investigated or leant much credence, but they are the warning signs.

Major injures affect the individual who is hurt and cause those around them to take note and have some sleepless night and it take a bigger chunk out of the employer’s pocket. That chunk is not just in dollars but more so in lost production and moral.

Death emphasizes the emotional. The person who is killed is affected the least by the accident. Even though they paid the ultimate price those around that person, family, friends, and coworkers are affected long term but those near the accident never recover in most cases.

Who’s responsible?

The rule of thumb on most work sites is anyone within 30 feet, or within vision or hearing. Most people who witness an accident are aware there is a problem before the accident. Working individually with those who are unsure of the process and thus unsafe is the responsibility of all, in the least reporting it to someone else should be the norm. The ability to observe the problem and mentor someone through it is called leadership and is always rewarded. However those who cry about the line moving too fast or the work being too hard are usually part of the problem, they are a distraction instead of a catalyst to a safer work environment. The more intent a company and its employees are on production coupled with perfection or a deliberate attempt by all to improve the product though the process. The less chance there is of accidents, when everyone is awake, aware, and bought into the process and that process involves safety by nature.

Who’s the most dangerous or most likely to cause or be involved?

The new guy and the know it all share this title. The new guy because of a lack of experience, the (know it all) for lack of participation in the least and for degrading the attempts at safety at it’s greatest.  The (know it all) has been around forever and everyone knows who he is except the new guy. The new guy has become more pronounced in the last few generations because of inexperience. In many cases we are seeing people getting their first job in their twenties. Previous generations were working in their teens or before had learned work ethic and on the job basic work skills. But this is a whole separate subject.

Since this blog is starting out with the intention of increasing awareness in safety and health at home and at work we would first like to invite any and all comments. We would like participation in the development of, and use of safety meeting. Our safety meetings are conducted in English and Spanish, our hand outs are written in both also, when we actually write them out. Most are impromptu tail gate meeting with covering a concern caused by a near miss, accident or safety violation. Having a site like this to post them or link to them could help us to be more aware of and better at recordkeeping
Some like our current topic of heart attacks (the signs and prevention of) are on health issues. This topic came from a client who had an employee who showed all the classic symptoms of a heart attack for 3 day before being taken from the job site in an ambulance to have an emergency by pass within hours of collapsing on the floor.
As we become failure with this process the written content of the safety meeting will be posted on line and a link posted here. Again we invite you to edit and add.
But the shocker here was that he had all the signs for 3 days and no one noticed, or at least did nothing if they did, (this didn’t happen on one of our job sites). We talk in each meeting about you being responsible for those around you at work and at home. The meeting included the symptoms for both men and women. No they don’t have to be and usually aren’t the same.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATXSK8LkxUcVZGNuZ3J3MnJfOWhobnBoYmRk&hl=en womens signs
Then we covered best practices to avoid a heart, exercise, keeping blood pressure in check, good eating habits. Posts like http://mashable.com/2010/03/19/amazing-health-infographics/ are great to get hand outs for a meeting or just to get an idea of best practices. Find one? Send it, or link us to it.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzXSK8LkxUcVZDFmYzJlOTQtNzM4MC00MzVmLWExMmEtODM2YWQxM2RhYzVj&hl=en For help Preventing a Heart Attack

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATXSK8LkxUcVZGNuZ3J3MnJfMTNoenFqNXJ3Yg&hl=en For help Preventing a Heart Attack. Spanish Version

Stay healthy
Randy