The history of the COVID-19 pandemic is still being written. When this pandemic ends – and it will end – a new normal may last for months, years, or forever. Planning for the after-effects of a pandemic is necessary.
Typically, anxiety disorders are chronic. Often, there is a waxing and waning course. The severity of the anxiety condition(s) depends upon several factors including adequate treatment, absence of precipitating factors, etc.
Google “safety culture” and you get about 1,600,000,000 results in 0.95 seconds. Safety and health managers have long known the importance of culture – the organization’s values, beliefs and leadership - on safety, morale, productivity, engagement, presenteeism and absenteeism. Culture has been at the top of safety and health issues for the past ten years at least.
Our safety programs, if they exist at all, tend to focus on participation and completion, rather than transformation. To be fair, the chief obstacle stems from a preponderance of wrong assumptions and dangerous misconceptions. Identifying some of these (see below) may help us as safety professionals become more effective in our mission.
There are many things about the workplace that we think are current but are, in fact, already grossly outdated. Gone are the days when decisions were bellowed from the top of the ladder, subjecting those of us languishing on the lower rungs to simply accept whatever a superior inflicts upon us.
