I have seen some crazy videos this year of just unreal worker behaviors. The ones that shock me to my core are what I would call “horseplay.” These are the times workers need to be terminated. I may go as far as issuing discipline to those watching/taping and even up the ladder to supervisors and managers responsible for the workers and/or where the behaviors occur. But I will spare the supervisor the same way I spare operators/maintenance for their behaviors/decision-making when we find LATENT ORGANIZATIONAL failures that led to the event.
One such video shows two workers wearing cardboard boxes, like mid-evil armor, driving PITs and jousting with broom handles.
And novices ask why we still have “no horseplay” comments in our safety/employee handbooks. Many will proclaim… “Treat them like adults, and they will behave like adults.” Unfortunately, that is not reality.
As the late great Claude Bloom taught me…
“Discipline will never change a culture; however, you will never change a culture without it.”
There is a time and place where it is needed. Still, that time is AFTER we have performed an unbiased causal analysis and verified the failures were not driven by LATENT ORGANIZATIONAL failures. Remember, even good employees can fall into the “shortcuts” under the right circumstances (hot day, cold day, understaffed day, etc). Their behaviors could reflect frustration and taking shortcuts after seeing coworkers (maybe even a supervisor) taking those shortcuts and getting the payback they want from those at-risk behaviors. If/When they receive the undesired consequence, RARELY will this shortcut/unsafe act be the first time they have done it.
This is why auditing, inspections, observations, and management safety contacts are critical to safety performance and culture. We must identify these deviations early so we can learn from them before we experience the undesired consequence(e.g., injury or property loss).
Suppose management is not engaged in the audit, inspection, observation, and safety contact elements of the SMS. In that case, I find it a bit hypocritical to hold the operator accountable for “routine” or “situational” violations (Reasons HF Model). Only when we arrived at the “exceptional” violation were we faced with considering discipline for the event; and dare I dare, regardless of the consequence(s) or lack of negative consequences! I have said this before (I think it came from Dale Fannin)
We do not disincline for the results of the act; we discipline for the act that led to the consequences. (Even when the consequence was a desired consequence)
If we only respond to events with an undesired consequence, we will NEVER change behaviors, culture, or decision-making.
So yes, the two fools who spent time cutting up cardboard boxes to make their armor and then used PITs as their horses to joust with broom handles are “exceptional” violations, and I would support their termination. If a supervisor was present, just as an observer, I would also terminate that individual. But the discipline could rise to the department or unit manager in my safety world.
As another late and great safety leader, Trevor Kletz, always said…
“In cases like this, managers have been known to say afterwards, “I didn’t know this sort of thing was going on. If I had known, I would have stopped it.” This is a poor excuse. It is a manager’s job to know what is going on and this knowledge cannot be learned by sitting in an office, but by visiting the site, carrying out audits, and generally keeping one’s eyes open. When an accident discloses a poor state of affairs, it is stretching credulity too far to claim that it was the first time that risks or shortcuts had been taken. They are usually taken many times before the result is an accident.” Trevor Kletz
But understand LATENT ORGANIZATIONAL failures can influence Dept/Unit Managers. Take the example where I mentioned “short staffed” led an operator to do a job that the SOP required two (2) trained operators to do; however, because of staffing cuts, the SOPs and Hazard Analyzes were not updated, a MOC was not performed on the staffing changes, and thus the Dept/Unit was left to do “the best they could under the circumstances.” Whether identified through an observation or audit or, God forbid, because of an accident, can we really hold the Dept/Unit manager accountable? Trust me, I have seen cuts so deep, that when these failures were found during an audit, the personnel said they were well aware of the issues, they just did not have the resources to go back and re-evaluate the task(s) staffing, update SOPs and training to reflect these changes. Everyone, all the way up to the PM, knew it was happening… “just do the best you can with what we have… but remember, Safety is #1!”.
