Few workers consider it their responsibility to help identify dangerous conditions or procedures, that is assumed to be the job of the safety staff. The problem with that logic is that the staff is not expert at every process in the company, they are risk managers who find problems and recommend mitigation strategies. By far the most successful example is the introduction of hard hats for construction workers.
When an employee first walks into a new work environment, they see the physical environment for the first time, and sometimes things jump out at them as unusual or even dangerous. An unlit corridor with uneven flooring is immediately obvious to someone knew, but to those traversing the corridor repeatedly, it is normal. This ability to incorporate unusual, even dangerous conditions is part of what makes risk management problematic.
No matter how vigilant, inspections can not find all the conditions in a work environment that can be dangerous to workers. The people who work in the area of a hazard have usually already assimilated the condition into their environment and no longer perceive it as a hazard. For this reason, real answers to not get put in place until after an accident has occurred.
The notion that rules, regulations and personal protective gear requirements follow mishaps which resulted in damage, injury or death is known to professional safety personnel as the concept of blood priority. Until someone gets hurt or something is broken, actions aimed at preventing such an event carry little weight. Even for preventive mechanisms adopted because of such an event must be accompanied by continuous reminders to be accepted by workers.
People simply do not believe that accidents and injuries will happen to them, that they are somehow immune for the possibility. In part, they think that the people who get hurt were doing something they should not have done, and should have known better. Further, people naturally consider themselves too smart to fall victim to a workplace injury of any kind with or without protective measures.
Reality bears proof that this is simply not the case, there is no evidence that any significant proportion of injured workers are incompetent or careless. Injuries happen to all manner of employee, because they are all human and are susceptible to the most dangerous of things--distraction. Anything that causes a distraction or alters the normal pattern of behavior can result in an injury.
No matter how experienced, skilled and professional one is, circumstances can combined to change the focus normally demonstrated by an individual. When even a single mistake can be disastrous, more extreme measures are in place, so airlines use multiple pilots, and they work exclusively by checklist, and even still there are occasional slips. While it is not yet universal, surgeons are beginning to use this method.
Over time most occupations have been analyzed and appropriate procedures put in place, and in addition personal protective gear has been developed for extra protection. But many employees find this equipment tedious and unnecessary and do not use it. The gold standard for such personal protective equipment overcame all forms of resistance and became a symbol of respected work on construction sites; hard hats.
When an employee first walks into a new work environment, they see the physical environment for the first time, and sometimes things jump out at them as unusual or even dangerous. An unlit corridor with uneven flooring is immediately obvious to someone knew, but to those traversing the corridor repeatedly, it is normal. This ability to incorporate unusual, even dangerous conditions is part of what makes risk management problematic.
No matter how vigilant, inspections can not find all the conditions in a work environment that can be dangerous to workers. The people who work in the area of a hazard have usually already assimilated the condition into their environment and no longer perceive it as a hazard. For this reason, real answers to not get put in place until after an accident has occurred.
The notion that rules, regulations and personal protective gear requirements follow mishaps which resulted in damage, injury or death is known to professional safety personnel as the concept of blood priority. Until someone gets hurt or something is broken, actions aimed at preventing such an event carry little weight. Even for preventive mechanisms adopted because of such an event must be accompanied by continuous reminders to be accepted by workers.
People simply do not believe that accidents and injuries will happen to them, that they are somehow immune for the possibility. In part, they think that the people who get hurt were doing something they should not have done, and should have known better. Further, people naturally consider themselves too smart to fall victim to a workplace injury of any kind with or without protective measures.
Reality bears proof that this is simply not the case, there is no evidence that any significant proportion of injured workers are incompetent or careless. Injuries happen to all manner of employee, because they are all human and are susceptible to the most dangerous of things--distraction. Anything that causes a distraction or alters the normal pattern of behavior can result in an injury.
No matter how experienced, skilled and professional one is, circumstances can combined to change the focus normally demonstrated by an individual. When even a single mistake can be disastrous, more extreme measures are in place, so airlines use multiple pilots, and they work exclusively by checklist, and even still there are occasional slips. While it is not yet universal, surgeons are beginning to use this method.
Over time most occupations have been analyzed and appropriate procedures put in place, and in addition personal protective gear has been developed for extra protection. But many employees find this equipment tedious and unnecessary and do not use it. The gold standard for such personal protective equipment overcame all forms of resistance and became a symbol of respected work on construction sites; hard hats.
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