How would you feel about a loved one or friend if they told you they were going to work in an environment in which the following sentiments characterize the workplace?
“Management really didn't care; grunts are replaceable.”
“Smaller companies don’t tend to care as much.”
“The company man has a beard, doesn't wear FRs, doesn't wear a hardhat and doesn't wear safety glasses.”
“Companies push workers to get two weeks of work done in four days."
Or a place where they might be subject to close calls and injuries like these?
“Seen minor injuries like broken bones, wounds needing stitches, etc.”
“I did work with a few guys missing fingers.”
“22-year-old lost his left hand.”
“Have driven home when I absolutely shouldn't have but had no option after working a 17.75 hour shift.”
“Sledge hammer head fractured sending pieces intro my chest that had to be surgically removed.”
“Employee from my company was electrocuted to death last year.”
“Lifting equipment that weighed many thousands of pounds with a strap that ended up snapping and came 4 feet away from smashing straight into someone.”
“Had a 15-foot chain fall from 50 feet and missed me by a foot.”
If that special person told you that the job was just too good to turn down and that they weren’t concerned about safety (After all, accidents and injuries only happen to the other guy, right?), what are the three most important pieces of advice you, the worry wart, would give them?
I pondered what advice I’d give for a long time, my mind almost shutting down under the stress overload of all that important stuff trying to percolate from every area of my brain and onto the written page. I finally settled on these three things:
- Think about your loved ones.
When you look yourself in the mirror first thing every morning and just before starting any work task, think about your loved ones and remind yourself that nothing you will do on the job is ever going to be worth the pain and suffering they’d feel if you were seriously hurt or worse.
- Plan your work/work your plan.
For every job you do each day, plan your work with safety in mind, identify and mitigate hazards/risks that could hurt you or your coworkers, work your plan and when – not if - things change, stop the job and go through that process again;
- Keep your head on a swivel.
Maintain a healthy dose of chronic unease on every job and leverage this to promote situational awareness, using all your senses to be on the lookout for things that could hurt you or your coworkers. Remember, if some task doesn’t feel right or look right or smell right or sound right, the likelihood is high that something is wrong.
What advice would you, the reader, give to your loved one under these circumstances? (keeping in mind the wit and wisdom of American humorist Josh Billings), “Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.”
The above description of work environments are purported to be real and provide a perspective on safety in the West Texas oil fields, from the viewpoint of some of the people who work there during recent boom times. They are reproduced from an article I read earlier this year in Fuel Fix and from its source - an “Ask Me Anything” thread on Reddit.