For the record, if you are new to the SAFTENG family, I despise the mantras “Safety is #1”, “Safety is our top priority”, etc. It is a nice thing to say, and most of us know it is said often; but what does it mean?
My favorite example of how these mantras cause confusion, which leads to loss of credibility and trust in the workplace, is when a legitimate hazard gets identified; safety assigns a high-risk to the hazard and then provides sound safety engineering options to control the hazard through the Hierarchy of Controls (e.g., using science in safety) and then management then decries it is not within the budget. Wait – so safety is not #1? Budgeting trumps safety? Impacts on operations/production have to be considered?
This is the real world – this is WHAT WE ARE PAID TO DO – MANAGE safety so that the business can be SUCCESSFUL in its core purpose, which is NOT safety.
Risk is everywhere, and we are paid to manage that risk(s) without putting the business out of business. For us, as safety professionals, our professional careers revolve around the following:
