Changing Times & Higher Expectations

We are in a high period of change for many families as the schools and colleges have all opened and are under way. Patterns of behavior at home are changing as demands on our time are changing. The ways we depend on each other are changing.

New responsibilities, opportunities and challenges are popping up. It is more clear than ever how much we depend on and need each other. The networks in our lives are always changing.

The patterns at work are also changing as the business activities and demands are changing. There are not enough good, trained people to fill all the openings so the pressure on everyone is going up. Everything at work happens through people so it is critical that we keep everyone engaged in helping to achieve our successes. We need to open up the trust and build interdependence among everyone to keep the information flowing freely. It is clear how important genuine engagement is within our workplaces.

The Need for Building Strong Interdependence

The networks of interdependence spread across our business life as well as our personal lives. When there is a break or disruption in the network, it can have a broad impact. We need to remember that we are in networks and that we need to better understand our roles in them. Everyone depends on us to keep the networks in our organizations and families strong.

One area that is especially vulnerable is safety. The pressures to get the work done quickly pushes people to do a lot of things quickly – cutting the safety corners. This puts a lot of people at risk. Every day on LinkedIn I see pictures of people doing really creative, very unsafe and frightening things. For example:

• A man stands on the forks of a fork truck to get lifted up to a reach high place;
• A man lifts a fork truck with another fork truck to reach a higher shelf;
• Step ladders are used unopened to substitute for a regular ladder;
• Step ladders are placed on stairs and make-shift scaffolding;
• Fork trucks tip over having unbalanced loads or loads that are too heavy;
• Cranes tip over because of poor positioning, or an unexpected shift in the lift;
• People are standing under loads as they are being lifted;
• Materials fall unexpectedly from overhead, narrowly missing a man on the ground;
• A man falls from a beam as he tries to walk across it;
• A woman is killed jumping onto a fork truck to prevent it from tipping over under the huge load;
• Unsupported trenches collapse unexpectedly trapping and killing the people;
• Etc.

I expect that there are lots of things going on that lead to repetitive motion injuries; these just don’t show up in the Linkedin videos. There is also probably a lot of process safety management work being short circuited. For example, I wonder about drift in the technology and hope people are staying on top of it.

People are putting themselves at risk in all sorts of ways. I keep asking why and what are they not thinking about. Most people are not stupid or trying to get hurt. They just are going off in a half-baked way to get the job done in any way they can.

They are totally unconscious that they are an important part of networks at work and at home. Many are the bread winners and if they get hurt or killed, they will cause their loved ones terrible hurt and trouble. The indifference of so many people in supervisory or management positions to this sort of behavior is terrible.

More OSHA rules and regulations do not seem to be the answer. There are already plenty of rules and regulations which managers, supervisors, and workers disregard. There is a whole safety consulting industry offering all sorts of ideas, classes, training, etc., yet this unsafe stuff just keeps happening. Some businesses have taken responsibility and do not have this sort of behavior, but how do we get all the rest on board?

I wonder what would happen if the spouses and children of those doing these sorts of unsafe behaviors could see their loved one putting themselves at risk. Do you suppose that they would speak some sense to them and help them to understand their full responsibilities? People are taking lots of videos so there is material that could be sent home.

Do any of us want to put our families at risk of such pain and hardship if we were to get seriously hurt or killed at work? Our families expect a lot of us and we need to take the responsibility to live up to their expectations.