In my second or third year as a team leader, I was making a safety presentation to my team. I was reading a lot about Deming at the time, and the whole notion that quality, managed correctly, reduces cost. The same applies to safety.

When employees are fully trained and expected to work safely, the investment involved in getting them there pays off. They stay safe and remain able to work and contribute. They never become a non-contributing expense. One of my machine operators said “You’ve always been a proponent of safety Tim, but the way you just explained it, your interest is in lower costs, not my safety. If I didn’t know you, that’s what I would have understood you to say just now.”

This was a smart guy, a team member who had worked with or for me for at least 3 years at that point. He was trying to explain to the newer employees in the room that I cared more about their personal safety than they might think I did from listening to me. I assumed they already knew that.

I asked if that mattered, if working in the safest possible manner was it’s own reward, and something we do for ourselves and our family. The truth is that my employer at the time had a tighter standard for safety than many of us had. Things we might do at home to save time or money – like use a chair instead of a steady ladder – were simply not tolerated in the workplace.

But would people work more safely because they thought I was genuinely concerned for their safety, or because the consequence of discipline for not following rules was something they could not afford?

It occurred to me that I did not care about motive. I just wanted them to work as safely as possible. If they didn’t have a personal motive, then part of my work was to help them get one.

What’s your motive for encouraging safe practices at work AND at home? What is the motive perceived by your employees? Does it matter?

Let’s be careful out there.

The post title comes from the weapons policy for the event – and weapons were everywhere. Sort of scary for a first timer like me, but surprisingly, you get used to the craziness.

Since many of those attending identify themselves with their favorite characters, today’s list involves a count of what I saw there.

• 27 Indiana Joneses
• 2 Marios
• 1 cast of Futurama
• 5 Legend of Zelda Links
• 3 Wookies – we assume they were Chewbacca
• 14 Darth Vaders
• 2 Mad Hatters
• 1 Alice in Wonderland
• 1 Orc (Warhammer Game)
• 100 (or more) Storm Troopers
• 1 Wild Thing (see pic above)
• Various characters from Teen Fortress (Video Game)
• 1 Thomas the Train
• 2 Bob the Builders – no, wait, my son tells me that is the engineer from Teen Fortress, and yeah, he does look like Bob the Builder.
• 2 Princess Leias in Bikini (1 that shouldn’t have, really)
• 4 Princess Leias with Bun Hair and white robe
• 6 Ghostbusters
• 5 Creepy Masked Guy from “V is for Vendetta”
• Hundreds more Characters from Games, Movies, and Role Play that I do not know.

I saw no incidents of weapon policy violations, so for all you other HR-types out there, it just goes to show you the value of a good policy.

Let’s be careful out there.

Anna at abdpbt is responsible for the effort to Fight Listless Mondays. Find other list links on her blog. Her lists are more clever. Lots.