November/December 2004
Nobody gets hurt on purpose—nobody who’s sane anyway.
That may seem like stating the obvious, but when you’ve read as many accident reports as I have, you’re led to believe that most workers are injured by choice.
What other conclusion can one draw when the majority of workers’ comp accident report forms list worker carelessness as the primary cause of accidents and some variation of “worker was instructed to pay closer attention to what he is doing” as the primary action to prevent future occurrences?
It’s silly. If only Charlie had concentrated hard enough to look away in time to avoid his eye injury. If only Janice had shifted her weight in time to avoid the fall. If only George hadn’t reached across the conveyor. If only …
Sorry, that’s just too easy for me. It’s like saying that the fault in a mugging lies with the victim for being foolish enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Are there places one shouldn’t go after dark? Of course, but what if you happen to live in that neighborhood or your car breaks down there? Even if I take an evening stroll carrying a wad of bills and wearing a Rolex watch, it’s still the mugger’s fault. As a citizen, I have a right to a safe walk home—even if I make some unfortunate choices.
Much as a worker has a right to a safe workplace even if he or she suffers a lapse in judgment. One could argue—as I do—that one of the primary duties of managers is to correct those lapses and thereby protect workers from their own misdeeds.
It’s my experience that many injuries involve workers who are engaged in unsafe work practices that are fully approved by management. Not on paper, of course, but with a wink and a nod. Is it idiotic to stick your hand into moving machinery? To me it is, but to the worker who’s done it every day with the tacit approval of coworkers and supervisors, it’s just a routine shortcut. The same can be said of workers who don’t wear their hardhats, safety glasses, or hearing protection. They’re fulfilling management’s expectations.
None of it becomes stupid or careless until someone gets hurt. That’s when management starts blowing the dust off of the official, written safety program.
I hear this all the time: “Safety is a losing battle. I give my people safety equipment, but they refuse to use it. They put on their safety glasses when they see me coming, then they take them off when I walk away. What am I supposed to do?” It’s purported to be a tough question.
What I never hear, though, is this: “Theft is a losing battle. I tell my people not to steal from me, but they won’t listen. They take their hand out of the till when they see me coming, but they start pocketing money again as soon as I walk away. What am I supposed to do?”
Why is one decision so obvious but the other one so elusive? Why is the message that management projects so clear in one case but so muddled in the other?
Maybe it’s carelessness.
—John Gilstrap, director of safety for ReMA