Worker habits that annoy safety pros the most
April 12, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: Lighter Side of Safety, Safety training, Special Report, What Would You Do?, What's Working in Safety, Workers' attitudes about safety
PDF 
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.
SafetyNewsAlert.com delivers the latest Safety news once a week to the inboxes of over 270,000 Safety professionals.
Click here to sign up and start your FREE subscription to SafetyNewsAlert!
Tags: annoying worker habits, common complaints, excuses, no time for safety, we always did it that way
Loading ...
April 13th, 2010 at 8:15 am
We recently had someone put a roller table on the floor in front of an eye wash station. Can you imagine stepping on that with your eyes closed.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:33 am
I read this comment at a colleague’s work location… I don’t know if it is copyrighted material or not:
“Asking me to overlook a simple safety violation would be asking me to compromise my entire attitude toward the value of your life.”
I paraphrase that message when I encounter someone who has an ‘excuse’. It may not immediately change their outlook, but it gives them something to think about… especially when co-workers hear the message and reinforce that concept.
April 13th, 2010 at 9:26 am
…counter workers’ excuses…that’s a hard one. I take the route of trying to explain to the individual/crew how these issues will affect them or their families on a personal level. From a splinter to a fatality, how will it affect their income? Will their family be able to survive as they are right now? Will their kids or spouse be able to cope without them around or incapacitated in some way? As any safety professional knows, getting the men to “Buy-In” to a good safety culture is the hardest part of the job but the rewards are HUGE. The battle is fought everyday on the front lines of the construction industry by training, monitoring, and enforcement of compliance. We don’t do this for the money, we do this so we can sleep at night knowing that we have taught, instilled, and hopefully ingrained a belief in our workers to protect themselves and others. I find that if you give them a clear understanding of “Why” this will protect them, “Why” it will make their job easier, “Why” it will benefit their families, the buy in comes extremely fast. I try to convince them thta we are our brothers keepers.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:32 am
As someone who once broke every safety rule in the book, and lived to tell about it, to Rich: we have that same message posted in our facility and it works with getting the point across. And, to Shane: WELL PUT, and yes, we are our brother’s keeper. I’ll add that if they don’t care about their own well-being, at least care enough not to put the other guy in danger… and then write ‘em up!
April 13th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Last year we started a hearing protection program. Getting people to wear earplugs and getting the Supervision to support the program was the hardest thing to do. The most used excuse was that the plugs hurt thier ears. I would say ” you mean this soft little piece of foam hurts your ears?” I went through about 6 different kinds of plugs before I got some they would wear. I had a meeting with my safety committee and had a program that would generate sounds, so I played a 10,000 hrz sound(really high pitched) for about 10 minutes, it drove them crazy. then I told them that I have tinutis, ringing in the ears, mostly because I worked in cotton mills when I was younger and no one told us we needed ear plugs, how would you like to have to hear that sound 24/7. I think they got the message, I now have about 99% or the people following the rule. Sometimes you just need something to make the “light” go on.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Rich: I have seen that phrase in numerous different places around the country and my company even put it on stickers a while ago…good saying.
Robert: I, too, have broken pretty much every safety rule/regulation and still have all of my fingers and toes! I guess we make the best safety men! As an old scaffold erector, now safety man, the constant reminders are always there. I am amazed that I have lasted this long!
EVERYONE: I have recently lost my Safety Manager position with a major U.S. scaffold company. If you have any leads on employment please pass on any info you might have. All responses will be appreciated. shane.ryck@yahoo.com
April 13th, 2010 at 11:26 am
The one that irritates me the most is “they told me to do it and I did not want to get fired.”
I fire the employee anyway since at orientation I tell them exactly what should happen at that scenario. And yes, the boss/leadman gets disciplined as well.
April 13th, 2010 at 11:35 am
After hours of continuous documented training, our company has very little tolerance. If someone is caught knowingly commiting a safety violation, its three days off without pay along with taking a drug test. Second offence, 10 days off and third offence is unemployment. So far in my 9 years here, I have only seen a few people go home for the first offence. One person did fail a drug test. We have Zero Tolerance for drugs and alcohol.
April 13th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
What annoys me are safety coordinators who send out annoying email with “safety alerts” from a website, rather than coming up with an original idea and stating it clearly and concisely.
Make “safety alerts” meaningful by applying the info to our specific work environment, rather than generic workplaces.
April 13th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
What annoys me is when managers give glowing performance reviews to highly productive employees that often extend themselves beyond good judgment and take calculated risks. One employee received the highest review scores for 3 years which gave him the highest compensation increases. The Safety Manager in charge at that time took no actions to recognize that this employee had the highest accident and recordable injury rate of any employee. The role was assigned to me after the Safety Manager’s so I investigated and recorded all accidents in a spreadsheet showing the amount and types of injuries. Several of the productive employee injuries were either bad judgment or infractions to safety procedures. I issued him a warning that identified his actions and cautioned that future acts of this nature would result in Suspension up to Termination. Later the employee made a bad judgment that resulted in a recordable injury, he was written up, Suspended and told the next occurrence would be Termination. He has since worked over 2 years without an accident, (nothing hidden under the table mind you). You have to get serious and let the employees know you will follow through with discipline and termination if they knowingly put themselves and others at risk.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Linda; That’s where its at. Your company has very little tolerance - that is the way to go. I can’t believe how supervisors allow their employees to work unsafely. They will even stand there and watch them… They have no clue that they are personally liable, be it on the MSHA or OSHA side - in Canada if a supervisor knows of a safety violation and ignores it and the employee gets killed - guess where they go…? An employee who can’t, or won’t, comply with the regulations? - down the road… We had 5 people in mining get killed last year because they didn’t wear their seat belt as required, and has been for many years - and many of them were very experienced. Who on earth let them get by with that…? Supervisors, get off your butts and tend to your responsibilities - you are in charge. Linda, your company is handling it correct. You can be proud that you have support like that. Many companies ignore their liability. I dread to hear of fatal accidents - like the coal mine explosion in W. Va. Been there, and seen it all - it should not have happened, if they were in compliance with the regulations.
April 14th, 2010 at 7:17 am
We start from the very first day - Induction - to promote the message that Safety is everyone’s job and that ‘you’ the employee are the most important person in the company.
A review of our Hazard/Incident register showed that none of the employees inducted since we started a comprehensive Safety Induction a year ago, had been involved in any Incidents. It was consistently the ‘older’ workers.
So, we have now re-inducted every single person and explained the rationale to them…they thought it was a great idea. Feedback has been good
April 15th, 2010 at 9:31 am
[...] Worker habits that annoy safety pros the most … [...]
April 16th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Rich: Thanks for passing along such a simple, yet powerful statement. I will be sharing this with our Safety Committee and Supervisors where I work, and I would like to incorporate it into our orientation training (anyone know if copyright is involved?). It will be a nice phrase to use when met with resistance from employees as well.
Eric: Demonstration is always more powerful than lecture. Great idea!
A.M.: I would favor equal punishment for both supervisor and worker in that case, if the supervisor knowingly directed the circumvention of safety practices. We once had a supervisor that saw me coming down the aisle and he was motioning frantically to one of his workers. The worker didn’t understand what he meant, and I rounded the corner to find him grinding on steel without wearing the required PPE. The supervisor is no longer a supervisor with us, but since he was promoted as a supervisor trainee, he was offered his worker position back. For the record, we did a great deal of supervisor training with him, but he didn’t seem willing to enforce the rules with others.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:58 am
I think that coming up through the ranks as a female in this field has taught me many valuable lessons.
One: Safety brings me home daily and I am grateful for it.
Secondly: My ability to relate easily to the workers and managers (from being on both sides) has given me a clear view of the obstacles faced by both .
Thirdly: Being the safety manager and the only woman on site make life a little of both easier and harder. People tend to look for mother figures but love to rebel, so it is almost a catch 22 depending on how far you allow it to go.
Fourth and last: I am a leader, not a follower and that being mostly a great trait, also makes it difficult for me to hear and accept excuses.
I try to bring out the leader in everyone I encounter. I ask the employees on my sites these 3 questions regularly.
Do you want to be the guy that your crew believes in or fears?
Do you want to be the employee that is referred to as the weak link on the team?
Do you want to be the one that people come to for answers because they believe you know what you are doing and will teach them?
I want to be the one that people count on to be able to provide them with the guidance and support they need to become great journeymen with excellent safety behavior. I believe safety culture can be contagious given the right growing environment and outside support. I also believe and teach that safety is fundamental, without it we not only put ourselves at risk unnecessarily but project the wrong image to the younger generation that will and do follow behind us.
April 28th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I will never forget one episode during the first year of my being the safety manager. I saw the CEO (my boss) of the company bypassing a broken safety switch to make a machine run. I asked him to stop, he didn’t, I unplugged the machine and locked it out right in front of him. I gave him a warning and I thought I was about to be fired, but being fired for doing that was better than keeping the job and letting him bypass the safety.
Life was fairly miserable for a while. He took it all the way to the board of directors. The board issued him a stronger warning and I know that the warning remains in his personnel file to this day (18 years later). We talked and talked and talked… and he saw how his actions gave silent permission.
Now we have a really good preventative maintenance program, employee’s actions are part of the manager’s salary review (including the CEO), and there is no tolerance for that type of behavior. He’s a strong person to have understood and changed, he’s folded safety and profitability together and now he’s leading the company down a profitable and safe road. Sometimes the best safety leaders are the converts.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Everything annoys me about unsafe behaviors and normal disciplinary and incentive consequences. Making it about the effects on the family seems to work well, consider a “Note From Home” and a “Note To The Family.” A Note From Home is having the person write a short description of the unsafe behavior, add photo where possible and have their family members review and sign the statement. A Note To The Family is a shrot description of safe behaviors and actions above the normal expectations sent to the family.
June 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 am
I’ve had employees tell they didn’t have time to lock out or get a trecnch box or any number of other things. I try to say something like, “you know, its a shame that I care more about your life than you do.”
August 4th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Rich Ferrell Says:
April 13th, 2010 at 8:33 am
I read this comment at a colleague’s work location… I don’t know if it is copyrighted material or not:
“Asking me to overlook a simple safety violation would be asking me to compromise my entire attitude toward the value of your life.”
Rich, I have this framed and hanging by my desk. When I get an employee in my office complaining about too much safety etc I ask them to read it. After they read it I ask them to come back tomorrow when they have put a value on their life. I tell them that mine is priceless.
Regarding a snappy comeback to groans about safety…..Dying is Not an Option!
John