Workplace Safety Culture

RSS

Several years ago, I was having lunch for the first time at a new and now very popular Pittsburgh restaurant.

When I look at the landscape of health and safety today in the U.S. and globally, it reminds me of a Henry Ford quote I heard long ago — “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Managers are typically accountable for outcome numbers.

The idea – and the complaint – that safety and health departments operate out of organizational “silos” has been around for decades.

Safety managers have a complicated job that juggles engineering, psychiatry, and life success coaching.

Safety culture” and “positive safety culture” are manifestly not the same.

With the summer season officially here, backyard chefs everywhere are dusting off their grills, eager to spring into the long-awaited barbeque season. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends that grillers pay particular attention to safety in the spring and summer months when home fires involving grilling incidents occur most often.

As a young child, I would occasionally ask my parents why I had to do something (OK, maybe more than just occasionally). I remember at a very early age the reason they gave me was, “Because I’m the parent and I say so.” It didn’t matter that they didn’t seem to be brushing their teeth when I did or making their bed when I was told to; even though I knew that they did those things too.