Carelessness…can be COSTLY

Do your coworkers “care less” about your well-being? What about you, for them?

Almost every day, as I read my LinkedIn posts, there are pictures and stories about people doing really risky things.

Here are some recent examples:

• Several guys were working under a car that was lifted up by a fork truck and had no bracing.
• Many people were seen working at heights without tying off, or being otherwise secured.
• People were climbing ladders that were sitting on other ladders, or fork trucks or on buckets. People put ladders on just about anything.
• People were riding fork truck lifts to get to higher floors or to do other work of some sort.
• A fork truck driver lifted an unsecured load, which tipped over onto an improperly stored propane storage tank that was sitting right next to the load and broke off the valves.

Every day there are examples of people being really creative in solving a problem and being really stupid in how they are doing it. Where are their coworkers, their supervisors, their managers? Does anyone care?

These are the obvious safety problems. What about the less obvious problems like asbestos dust, silica dust, excessive noise, fatigue, and heat stress? WorkSafe in New Zealand estimates that many more people are injured and die from these sorts of problems than from the acute injuries like falling and tripping.

Caring about each other – so no one gets hurt – should be second-nature to us! (After all, do we not continually protect our kids from getting hurt, to do things right?)

We can only overcome these challenges by everyone taking the responsibility to look out for each other and care enough about what is going on to speak up. Then we can take the initiative to fixing things together before an injury, illness or mechanical problem takes place. Most people are doing things safely and well, but there are a few people who need help. Let’s all pull together so we can all be winners.

Raising awareness and keeping alert is something that everyone can do. Take responsibility to talk together, listen and learn, think about possibilities, and give each other a helping hand. Do this because you care.

Here are some questions that you can consider together:

• At the start of the workday, ask each other what the two most serious hazards are that we will face today in our work and what are we going to do to control those hazards?
• At the end of the shift, talk about the day and how you did in controlling the hazards, as well as discussing new hazards that came up.
• Are we prepared for the day’s work in having the right frame of mind, the right equipment and the correct PPE?
• Is everyone ready and prepared for the work?
• Is anyone troubled and distracted?

As our businesses get busier, time pressures get more intense and the push to get the job done more quickly builds up. Having short discussions about questions like these feels like it is getting in the way of getting the job done.

However, the quickest and most effective way to get a job done is to do it right the first time.

• If we haven’t got the right equipment for the job, then we will have to stop to go get it.
• If people are not ready for the day’s work, then when will they be ready?
• If the quality of our work is poor, then delays come in waiting to fix things.
• If we do not have the right PPE on hand, we will have to stop the job to get it of just take our chances.
• If we are cutting corners and haven’t thought about the hazards and someone gets hurt, everything stops and things get ugly.

Caring about yourself, about each other, and the quality of your work is something that everyone can do, if you want to.

Please step forward to make you workplaces great in every way.