My interest in safety began when I experienced a “near-hit” incident early in my engineering career, and when I realized how many of the equipment operators I had known were missing some of their digits. At that time of my life, I was enjoying playing piano and guitar, and I couldn’t imagine what it would [...]
A little thought can make all the difference
Author Archives: Tim
Let’s Vote On Safety
I’m not a high volume traveler, but in the last 6 months I have traveled on a more frequent basis. And by travel I mean fly from Atlanta to about three other places with some regularity. I have the flights I would like to get on, and the ones that I try to avoid. And [...]
Good Luck or Bad Luck?
In a post last year, I told of an employee who felt he was unlucky because of the accident he was involved in. In truth, he was incredibly lucky that he wasn’t killed.
Luck is a funny thing. We use the terms good luck and bad luck to signify opposite concepts, but when we use the [...]
7 Tips for Runners – Race Day Edition
Last year I wrote a couple of lists about running. The first was for people considering taking up running, and the second was about preparing for a specific running event. Today’s list is for the day of the race.
Last weekend, as part of my first 20,000 days celebration, I ran my second half marathon. In [...]
Safety on Vacation
Mrs. SBC and I are taking some well-deserved time off, but here on the first day of vacation I saw two instances of negative outcomes easily avoided.
This morning we took a walk along the beach in the picture here, and a lone surfer was enjoying mild wave action. Later in the day, around lunchtime, this [...]
5 Ordinary Tools Often Used in an Unsafe Manner
The invention of tools is one of the things that differentiates us from other life forms. Not all necessarily, like the sea otter who figured out how to break open shells, but most. Our willingness to use tools, however, is generally not tempered with the desire to use them correctly, or to use the right [...]
2 Physics Lessons That Could Save Your Life
It’s been cold in Atlanta this week. Thursday evening we had a rain and snow event which left our roads icy and dangerous.
I’ve lived in places that routinely get weather like this, but Atlanta gets it so infrequently that people don’t get a chance to develop the skills to drive when conditions are icy. More [...]
5 Steps for Protecting Those Fingers
In some industries, you can walk into a facility and within ten minutes find at least one person that is missing part of a hand. A thumb, a fingertip, or even several fingers.
I play instruments. Keyboard and guitar primarily. Loss of even one part of one finger changes everything. But even day-to-day living is challenged [...]
When Workflows Change
It was busy at my house over the holidays. The kids and their spouses, our college son, and 3 dogs were all there at once.
When there are special events in your home, work patterns change. In particular, there is more time spent in the kitchen preparing, serving, eating and cleaning. The kitchen is full of [...]
An Obligation to Be Safe
Years ago (I seem to use that phrase more and more often) I worked for a manager who talked about safety as an obligation. But his unique spin was that the obligation was with each employee. Yes, we had to do all we could to provide a safe environment, good tools, the right personal protective [...]
