Regard.

Also, remember that a safety culture might take years to integrate into your company but you should never give up!

Regards Les

Asif Khan
khan_hse@yahoo.com

The struggle for existence….

I feel your pain. Whilst I haven’t lost anyone as a WHS Advisor, I did lose several workmates in an earlier life as a fitter machinist. And I have had to deal with the aftermath of some serious incidents in my current career in WHS. In many ways that’s what keeps me doing what I do. I got into health & Safety because I believe that Australia can, and must, do better and I want/need to contribute to that.
In twenty plus years of this ‘game’ I’ve touched a lot of lives and I’d like to think that I’m making a difference. But I’m also aware that we’ve still got a long way to go because even one injury is one too many.
I’m currenlty in the disability services industry and my best outcome so far is to change the perspective of some operational managers from ‘expecting that carers will be injured by clients with challenging behaviours’. If we ‘expect’ injuries, we won’t act to prevent them.
I’m with you – we can’t get complacent because we’ve made some significant gains. I believe we should celebrate significant ‘wins’ but at the same time we musn’t take our eyes off the ‘main game’.
Thanks for giving us a ‘reality check’.
Les

Rob:
I know my style isn’t for everybody and I knew that this particular work would shock and upset people. But last month I made two speeches at a regional conference and last October I spoke at the National Safety Council. I was really disappointed in the attitudes of so many of the safety professionals I met who acted as if we had won some big victory and had eliminated workplace fatalities. I have been trying ever since to wake people up to the fact that believing that we are somehow “safe enough” is going to get people killed. The worst tragedies happen when we are complacent and forget that risk is always with us. Trust me when I am subtle nobody pays much attention.

But sincerest thanks to both of you for reading and your comments.

p.s. Rob, I am teaching a two day Just Culture course at Johns Hopkins and will be recommending your book as a good source for understanding why people engage in at-risk behavior.

I don’t take offence at what you write in this article but I do question some of your logic – as follows:

“You see, I trusted you and you failed me”. If you trusted me – why did you not follow the safety advice I have been giving?
“You get no thanks because there is nothing you’ve done that deserves the smallest modicum of gratitude”. I don’t do what I do to obtain your thanks – but I continue to do what I do AGAINST all the opposition from operations managers, workers and union reps because I care that you should not die.

“Does it make you uncomfortable for me to hold you accountable?” I am not uncomfortable being held accountable for what I am in a position to affect – where I have authority to enforce decisions and apply resources to make the workplace safe I do so.

“But it was your job to keep me alive.” I disagree – it was my job to make you and your immediate supervisor and your managers aware of how to work safely and manage the risks of the work you do. It was your job and your supervisors job to ensure you followed appropriate safety procedures in order to stay alive.

“I counted on you to anticipate and correct the things that would kill me before I got hurt; where were you when I died?” It is unreasonable and unjust to expect an individual, who is not even a member of your immediate work team, to anticipate all the things you will do. You cannot reasonably hold me accountable to ‘read your mind’ and the minds of every other employee at every moment of every day, much less to be in a position to affect every employee’s actions at every moment of every day.

“I sure loved the extra money when we got as a bonus for zero injury days…… I knew what you were doing was wrong but I wasn’t about to turn the whole company against me and speak up.” You were not willing to take any responsibility for what you saw as wrong but you want me to be responsible for the results of your actions????

“That management put profits before safety; that the Union shut down what you wanted to do; that you can’t protect people when they won’t listen to you, …… Before you blame management… the last time I checked most of you ARE management.” Despite all these odds standing against what I am trying to do, I continue to act to bring change in your workplace – I continue to seek to protect you with the limited resource and authority that is afforded me in my role.

“The same goes for leadership—isn’t that what you are supposed to be, a leader?” A leader is only a leader if people will follow where he wants to take them. A leader cannot force anyone to follow. I will not apologise that I may not be charismatic enough to capture your imagination. But I did, and do, try to encourage you to follow – for your own best interests.

“Your best gets people killed.” NO, my best keeps people alive – if they are prepared to take advice and direction. I will not be responsible if they refuse to follow my advice.

“And I don’t believe for a second that you were doing your best when I died…. it was YOUR job to make sure my job didn’t kill me.” Until you’ve ‘walked a mile in my shoes’ don’t presume to assess my performance And it wasn’t my job to make sure your job didn’t kill you – as above it was my job to make you and your immediate supervisor and your managers aware of how to work safely and manage the risks of the work you do. It was your job and your supervisor’s job to ensure you followed appropriate safety procedures in order to stay alive.

“Well if you continued to take a pay check in a hopeless environment where leaders didn’t care about the safety of the workers I decry you as a craven and fool”. If I left this ‘hopeless environment’, far more people would be dying, maimed, made ill, diseased. If I thought it was hopeless why would I continue to put up with the thankless crap and blame that you and others subject me to?
A Safety Guy