Today I read in the news that a Police Chief of a metropolitan area announced his resignation amid a lot of turmoil in the city and within his Department. And in the news story, I was taken back by the Metro Council President…
“If the officers don’t feel in tune with their police chief, it displays itself on the street. And so, I think it’s very important for the police chief to recognize that they are responsible partially for the morale of their officers and for, you know, the morale of the city”
Did you catch it? The person who is 2nd in command of this metropolitan city says that the Police Chief, a person in charge of just a single department within the city’s government is responsible for the “morale of the city”. Sound familiar? As the safety professional, we are often looked upon as the single source of “safety morale” even though we may not even be part of the management team. Even when we are part of the management team, we are often at the whims of the management team’s decisions which impact culture much more than we could ever overcome.
For example, how many times has a safety professional been asked to shorten the “safety orientation” window in order to shorten the time-space of the entire new employee orientation, only to learn that you are the only person asked to shorten their presentation? What message does this send about the significance of safety? If not new employee orientation, have you ever been asked to reduce the training times for your sessions? How about knocking down your LOTO training for new “authorized employees” from 2 hours to 30 minutes, because “that is how the other plants do it”. What message does this send to workers?
So yes, WE PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE in shaping the “safety culture” but making us responsible for something that is not something we can control is quite silly – but it is done quite often.
We have to carry the torch – but we are not the race organizer, we do not fire the starting gun, we do not run the clock, or man the finish line – we just need to be out front setting the pace of the race and leading the way to make sure we all stay on course!
