Today my friend Teresa posted the following on Twitter: Accidents are never funny. And the picture of the broken chair can give you an idea of how serious this could have been. I immediately tweeted her back asking why she didn’t routinely check her chair. “I need to do that?” she wondered. I’ve worked around…
Tag Archive: prevention
Offense or Defense?
I’ve commented several times about the way we measure safety. Many companies measure accumulated hours worked without incident, but injury rates, or failure rates, are the most common benchmark. We look at the number of failures of the system compared to the number of hours worked in the same time period. This leads to a…
Is “Idiot-Proof” The Same As Safer?
The Consumer Products Safety Commission was established to help protect us from design of faulty products. Or, as stated on their website, the commission “…is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction.” Much of what they do is an…
More On Obligations
Recently I wrote about my experience with safety obligations. These were three statements that all employees where I work are expected to follow. In writing, and in discussion, they seem clear and easy, but we all have to learn to implement them successfully. When I worked in a facility that put these in place, I…
Measuring Opposites
One of the things that struck me as odd when I first starting working in a manufacturing facility is the way we measured safety. The big sign on the way in to the plant indicated the number of days since the last accident. A reminder that unfortunately was set back to “1″ far too often….
Can We Control Random Events?
In the past I have written about luck and it’s role in safety. We think we can control everything, but there is very little we truly control. I’ve worked around big machines my whole life. Machines don’t kill people, but people die from making mistakes while working with them. Machines are totally unforgiving of human error, which…
Beyond Compliance–Obligation #3
In my two most recent posts, I explained that I have seen safety performance improve when management puts in place a series of obligations – and then does everything they can to support them. I explained the first two obligations, which are: Refuse to do work that you cannot perform safely. If you see someone…
A Culture of Preparedness – Obligation #2
The other day I took up the challenge from Trish to help managers consider what they can do to assure that we are not just compliant with safety issues, but also prepared and actively managing safety. What I have seen work is embodied in three obligations that belong to each and every employee. The first…
Beyond Compliance – Creating a Culture of Preparedness
Last week, my friend Trisha McFarlane wrote about her recent tornado experience, and how it applied to the workplace. One of the things I saw was a difference between compliance and preparedness. Trish was prepared. She knew where things were, she calmly instructed her children, and followed the plan. In a safety audit, she would…
The Backpack Lean
RSI, or Repetitive Stress Injury, is a dreaded acronym. Employers fear it for the associated worker’s comp costs, and individuals fear it for the possible impact on quality of life. There are many things we do everyday, not just in our workplaces, but in our homes and in just going about our daily business that…
