I mean people work with their friends and so often they work with family: brothers, sister, fathers, cousins, etc. So what then after a death?! Am I going to say follow the lockout/tagout procedure? Or remember what the company has said during all the OSHA training in the past, “Wear your PPE”?
The truth is that most people know how to do their jobs, and most people know how to do them safely. BUT, the issue is people don’t always follow the OSHA rules they know.
WHY?
That exact question is what we spend so much time on in our training after a fatality. Why do you do the things you do safety-wise?
- At home.
- On the road.
- At work.
Why do you pick up the cell phone and search through your emails looking for a number while you are driving 80mph in a 55? Could you die from making a pre-meditated and unsafe decision like that? Would that fatality be due to lack of knowledge about the hazard of taking your mind and eyes off the road as well as your hand(s) off the wheel? Absolutely not! And so sadly that is what people say after a fatality at home, on the road or at work. They cry out, “Why did I do that!? WHY! Oh, I wish I could go back.” But they can’t go back. You can’t go back.
See, safety has to be a 24/7 thing! What good is it if you follow procedure at work, have regular safety meetings, frequent OSHA training, spend all kinds of money on safety equipment; but then you leave work and don’t buckle up and when you get home you stand up on the very top of the 6’ step ladder to do some work. Could you die from a 6’ fall? Did you need a special training for someone to tell you that? Did you need some boring safety trainer to tell you that statistically you are twice as likely to die from a fall at home than from a fall at work? Please, don’t let this happen to you.
There are many reasons and answers to the question, “WHY do we knowingly do unsafe acts”. Over the next days and weeks, I’ll continue to write posts about this on my blog. One of the biggest answers to the WHY is:
See if you can come up with another 3 big reasons, and I’ll post again soon!