A Culture of Safety

I hate it when some big wig from a company further up the corporate chain comes into our trailer to talk safety with us. They inevitably have a heavy Yankee accent and a tone of voice that sounds less than genuine. This guy was classic. He said: "ah bin sent here from Esso because Esso is walkin' the tawk.' This obviously made very little sense to anyone but he went on anyway: "Ahm here as an extra set uv eyes on accounta your safety record has bin less'n stellar." After this the clown act blabbed for a few more minutes in his artificially sympathetic Yankee drawl about our families being dependent on our health. He even held up a photo of some kid in his Dad's work boots which for dramatic affect he finished off by tearing in two. We dubbed him the picture-ripper.

His Yankee chat got me thinking about a culture of safety. Theoretically he was there to reinforce or to build up our safety culture. But he went about it in the completely wrong way. I know this to be true as I studied organizational design in graduate school. It was pretty clear that coming in and criticizing our track record and then using a dramatic ploy to scare us would be similar to pouring boiling water on a seedling and hoping it would grow. Besides, he was misinformed about our safety record.

I work with the welders and our safety record actually is pretty stellar. One guy got one little burn and that's it. Multiple guys welding every day and no injuries. Multiple guys grinding every day and only 3 eye injuries in 18 months. I am not commenting on other crews but am simply pointing out that our crew has a great record and it is because of the solid culture of safety that we have developed.

For a safety culture to mean anything or to be successful it has to start at the grass roots level. Our trailer is a good example. First it begins with the Foremen and at the start of each day during the toolbox talks. Ours last a full half hour where some crews' last less than 10 minutes which we know because their guys come in to get gear from our trailer and in doing so interrupt our meeting. Our meetings are longer. Because our Foremen (Mario and Greg) really focus on the safety during our meeting. No matter which one leads the meeting it is sprinkled with anecdotes from their broad experience (both have over 30 years in the field and 'on the tools'). The message they give is sincere and it is echoed and reinforced by the senior Journeymen in the group. But it doesn't stop there.

The message from our toolbox talks is carried by the journeymen out to the site and they live it out on the job. Our crew had a big job welding hoisting lugs onto some pieces of heavy wear plate. These things weighed in the neighborhood of 100+ pounds each so the chances of getting pitched fingers or of dropping them on our toes was significant. Add to that the fact that we were outside and that it snowed heavily each day and there was a huge potential for injury. In the end there was none.

There were no injuries because we had the right reinforcement from above. At toolbox we went over all the potential problems with the Foremen and worked out solutions. In the field the Journeymen made sure we started with shovelling and putting down sand for traction. Whenever we carried a plate we talked over our route and in advance knew the process for putting it down without hurting each other. The Senior Journeyman on the job even led the way in picking up any warning tape or earplug packets that were on the ground and which represented trip hazards. As a result there were no injuries.

There is a lesson in all of this. For a successful culture to be developed the message must be genuine. It must be believed and lived by the senior crew level guys. It must be lived and practiced by the senior crew-level workers. And it must be looked at as having real value for the transfer of skills from senior guys to junior guys to take place. And it should be a point of pride with the crew as it is for us.

So parachuting in senior Yankees to put us down works against what our crew has worked so hard to achieve. I am just glad that our crew is tight enough to throw off the Yankee paper-ripper's bullshit. And I am even more glad that Foreman Greg said at a recent meeting how proud he was of our record. He added: "That paper-ripper doesn't know what he's talking about. Our record is stellar and it's because of all of you. I am so proud to be part of this crew!" What Greg didn't realize is that the picture-ripping Yank was standing at the end of the trailer and heard what we thought of both him and his detrimental approach. This time the Yankee didn't say a thing but simply stood there glowing red.