Recently, we wrote about a survey that put “safety” as the No. 6 most annoying thing in the workplace. So, we asked you what is most annoying about workers when it comes to safety. Here are your answers:
One of the most common complaints was workers who say things like, “I’ve been doing that this way for 20 years and have never gotten hurt.” A slight variation on the theme: “I have 20 years experience. Don’t tell me how to do my job.”
When it comes to one specific worker action that is annoying, “wearing safety glasses/goggles on top of their heads” was mentioned the most.
Some other annoying worker practices when it comes to safety:
- Supervisors who walk right by obvious safety violations.
- “Safety is the safety manager’s job, not mine.”
- Employees who say they don’t have time for safety.
- Safety costs too much.
- Managers who require workers to attend safety meetings and then don’t show up themselves.
- Workers who prefer not to know about safety rules and then say they were out of the loop.
- Not reporting injuries. “It happened a month ago, but I thought it would quit hurting, so I didn’t tell anyone.”
- “I’m the engineer. I get the thing to run. You’re the safety person. You figure out how to do it safely.”
- Upper management that won’t get serious about safety.
- “Where does it say that I have to _____?”
- Blocking exits, aisles, fire extinguishers, eyewash stations, etc.
After reading all of those (and probably recognizing many, if not all of them), are you really annoyed?
We don’t want you to spend the rest of the day that way. So, we’ll note that a number of you seemed to have a good sense of humor while writing about these annoyances. And while safety is, of course, very serious business, it can help you get through the day to have a sense of humor about it.
Here are some worker annoyances from safety pros that show that they’re not about to let the few employees who ignore safety get them down:
- “We are safety-ed to death.” (The workers who said that obvious didn’t think about their statement.)
- “Safety, safety, safety. All we ever talk about is safety, and we don’t even have any accidents around here.” (Well, must be working, right? )
- “We never had all this safety s*** before,” from the guy missing part of his thumb because it was ripped off in a drill press.
- Right out of the childhood playbook: “They’re not doing it, so why should I?”
- “That wouldn’t be in the aisle for someone to trip over if we didn’t have to participate in this Safety Tour during our clean-up time.”
- When people open a meeting by saying, “Let’s get this party started.” If it were a party, there’d be more beer and hot people in the room.
And some of you really liked one comment and requested a copy of the so-called “Dumb-ass Certificate”:
Deviation Under Modified Basis—Agreement Support Sheet (DUMB-ASS Certificate)
I understand that there are identified rules and procedures in place but I cannot accomplish the task on the basis of those rules. I am applying for this Dumb-Ass certificate so I can get an exemption to perform (name task) without following the following safety procedures.
The reason that I want the Dumb-Ass exemption is (check all that apply)…
You get the picture.
When it comes right down to it, a one-word comment we received sums it all up. The most annoying worker habit when it comes to safety: Excuses.
How do you counter workers’ excuses? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
