My father worked for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. He built the transmission lines that deliver the electrical power to the substations and then spread through out the cities to deliver the power to industry and to homes. He spent the last part of his career as a serviceman in the small town of Carnegie. He read meters, changed out the street lights when they would fail, trimmed trees out of the power lines, and maintained the local substations. During storms he would respond to reset the fuses to restore power to whole sections of town. Most of the time he worked alone. He would call in for a crew from Hobart a town about 30 miles away if the task was too extensive for him to cover by himself.
After he retired, I realized that he had never had an accident, and none of his crews had ever had an accident. Being a safety professional I was curious to find out how he had managed to have a career working with high voltage power and never suffer the injuries that so many others have had. He explained it to me in his straight forward manner.
To Be Safe:
#1 Know how to do the job the Right Way.
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It is the obligation of the company to provide the training, the written procedures, the drawings, blueprints, the educational materials and the time for an employee to be able to gain the knowledge required to be able to do the job the right way.
#2 Have the proper tools to do the job the Right Way.
The proper tools are the ordinary hand tools and the specialized tools that have been developed to do limited but specific tasks. To improvise and try to ‘make do’ by using the wrong tool is an open invitation for disaster. You may get away with using the wrong tool but the odds stack up against you when you try to substitute even though you know better. A screwdriver is only to be used to drive and remove screws; it is not a pry bar, a scraper, or a chisel. A ladder is the proper tool to use for gaining height to reach the work instead of climbing on equipment or trying to stand on crates or chairs.
The right tools also include personnel and time. Your pride needs to be reigned in when it takes two people to do the job the right way. The company likes for its employees to be efficient and to work hard but it does not want an employee to over extend himself and to damage equipment or to suffer injury because of not asking for help or trying to do the task too quickly. Pressure imposed by trying to meet unrealistic time schedules may cause forgetfulness and risk taking that the company does not want.
It is the obligation of the company to provide the specialized tools, the required personnel and the time for an employee to do the job the right way.
#3 Have the attitude to not take shortcuts and only do the job the Right Way.
The proper attitude is something that is hard to measure. It comes from the full history of the individual including childhood, influence from fathers and mothers, community spirit, past work experience, peers, and company influence. The attitude can be modified and changed by daily events, pressures, current events and distractions, but the main portion of the proper attitude is a more stable presence or resolve. It is the person consciously talking to himself and making that interpersonal promise that shortcuts are not acceptable. The promise is, “I know how to do the job the right way, I have the tools to do it the right way, and I am not going to accept doing it any way other than the right way.”
The company may attempt to set the culture of the workforce with safety programs, awards, threats, posters, and other methods. These program efforts of the company are to be applauded but they are largely ineffective.
What does work to change the culture of an organization is for the managers and supervisors to get out of the false role they have created for themselves as boss and follow the lead of Mr. Walton of WalMart fame. He declared that his first duty as a manager was to get out of the office and to see and interact with the workers. “If you’re a supervisor, get out of the office and into the plant and learn about employees’ and contractors’ work, their lives, their families, what drives them. Make it safe for them to express doubts. Ask them where and how the next injury can occur. My dad said to be a good safety man that I should ask a question of a worker and then shut up and listen to the expert. Remember, safety is not about score cards or numbers. It is about people.”
This appearance and direct contact establishes the credibility that management cares. That management wants the workers to be safe and not be injured. That management knows that to be profitable that injuries must be eliminated. That management only wants the workers to to do the job the right way and will no accept shortcuts.
Only if the workforce truly knows that the only way acceptable is the right way without shortcuts can the culture be changed. This interpersonal reflection and acceptance is critical to cast the “Only the Right Way” mindset.
Charles Morrison, Certified Safety Professional has published several articles and has presented papers at professional safety conferences while he has worked for major oil & gas companies and has created his own company, Safety Consulting Services. Charles holds a patent for a cold weather gas measuring device using body heat. He is active in the American Society of Safety Engineers.
Tags: book learning, high voltage power, jsas, learning on the job, owners manuals, practice sessions, proper steps, restore power, right the first time, room sessions, safety professional, straight forward manner, substations, written procedures
