Occupational safety used to be so simple and I believe we were better off then than where we are now. When I started in the chemical industry in 1993, safety was a condition of employment. What does that mean… you don’t follow the safety procedures and practices you will not be employed at the facility! With OSHA’s PSM standard came a very formal “employee participation” requirement for the safety process. And this single PSM element has resulted in my abundance of learnings from engineers, operators and maintenance staff – of which they just don’t teach in formal curriculums at any ABET-accredited university program or and OSHA 10/30 hour courses. We, as safety professionals, would write (usually we “borrowed” it from another safety professional) and this was the canvas which the operators, maintenance techs, and engineers would have their way. My role was to ensure that we ALWAYS met, and ALWAYS tried to exceed, the OSHA standards; but it was the people who were going to have to follow the procedure/practice that had the loudest voice in the development of the procedure/practice. And once the debates and revisions were all done, the procedure/practice was implemented and the expectation was it would be followed 100% of the time by 100% of those required to follow it. Some companies called this 10,000% compliance. If anyone was caught in violation of the safety procedure/practice, there was a progressive disciplinary policy in place; however, many of the safety procedures/practices were considered “cardinal rule” or “life-safety rules” and the facility could skip directly to termination if the situation warranted.
In this world, safety was successful and I loved my work. Today, safety is just watered down politically correct speech with the hopes the masses will believe it. In my early years, I was a sucker for the safety banners and posters as I really knew of no other tools. The banners and posters worked, but largely because the workers had no doubt that safety was indeed #1 because of the plant manager and his actions and direct involvement in safety. Heck I can remember people complaining about how safety had so much authority and how processes were getting shut down and making operators angry. I am not kidding or exaggerating one bit!
When I went to my next job I had a plant manager that forbid banners and posters. Within my first month at this new plant, I created a nice banner board at the entrance to the plant. It was done in stainless steel and had landscaping and lighting – so it was nicely done. The first morning the PM saw it, I was summoned to his office for a friendly chat about safety, culture, and “propaganda”. Needless to say, the banners were removed from all points in the facility by sundown. Dale’s approach, one that I still subscribe to today was that our actions and words are what we should be judged on in our commitment to safety – not some $50 dollar banner we hang at the front gate. God how I loved working for this man – he and Claude (my first PM) really set the tone for how safety should be managed. I then went on to work for Dan and Jim, which were also amazing years and solidified my impression of how safety and health must be managed.
jobs – I only left each job for a bigger role and personal growth. All of my old bosses still contact me about safety and my consulting business thrived because of all my former colleagues hire me for their safety needs. But as these colleagues went to work for new businesses in different industries I quickly realized how sheltered of a safety life I had led. I came to realize why so many safety engineers I went to school with had left the profession to sell pharmaceuticals or start their own business which had zero to do with their safety education and training. My 14 years in the chemical and semi-conductor did just the opposite for me – I learned there was nothing else I would rather do than occupational safety and health, especially process safety and all the high-risk practices that go along with it. All but one (1) of bosses were absolutely, unquestionably committed to safety. They pushed me and supported me in becoming the best safety professional I could be. They invested a lot of time and energy and money in me and every one of them knew I would be moving on – so they invested in me, as a person working for them, so they could get all they could from me for the time I was there. And in return, I lear