Someone's Been Killed

I worked for a corporation that had many jobs considered high risk. That's a gentle way of saying, "People get hurt and killed doing their work." We worked very hard at safety, better than most companies. As I picked up the company news journal today, I read one of our linemen was killed while working at restoring power following the two huge storms that ripped through the St. Louis area last month. I don't know the circumstances of this deadly accident, but the bottom line is a husband and father will no longer go home to his family when the work day is done.

I was blessed during my twenty years at this company to never have had to knock on the door of my employee's home with the tragic news of lost life. There were injuries but not fatalities. I was also blessed by having my career start in an area where employees felt personally responsible for everyone's safety and they held each other accountable. This was remarkable for the fact we were a union shop. Not remarkable that union employees choose to work safe - after all it is their lives on the line. Remarkable that both local union and management chose to work in tandem on the safety program.

Remarkable does not mean it just happened with no give and take, no conflict, no accidents, no discipline, and no rewards. I grant you, our employees were more mature and intelligent on what it takes to work safe. They thought things through, they called each other on the carpet when things got lax. They put the pressure on each other when stupid mistakes led to near misses. They got really mad when someone put another's safety in jeopardy. Although top company management sometimes made it difficult for supervisors to run a tight ship on safety and union management sometimes wanted to tinker with their members successful way of accomplishing safety - we all held firm.

We were often asked how our gas and electric departments had company records for years without a lost time accident. I'd say it was mutual respect, mutual accountability and we cared about each other. You can not have a successful safety program without those three things on the part of management and on the part of the those you supervise. I did not enforce any safety rule that I was not willing to do myself. I followed all company safety rules. Simple. If you allow one safety rule to slip, you have just told your employees, "Safety doesn't really matter." If I did not obey one safety rule, I had just said, "Safety is just talk." We may have thought a rule was silly or poorly orchestrated but we all knew we would obey the entire safety manual. Again, it made it simple.

I believe in rewarding good safety. I'd scrape up every cent I could find to bring celebrations to safe employees. And celebrations we had! You reward employees with things that mean something to them. In our case, it was food; lots of it and high quality. "Don't give me an engraved crystal vase; give me a big juicy steak or pork chop.", was the motto. We also celebrated during company time because a few hours of celebrating working safe meant we would not be taking many hours to handle accident claims. Rewarding safety is like balancing the budget. You have things that keep safety on everyone's mind in a good way which is a credit. Or, you can handle the many hours of making reports, investigating, disciplining, or visiting the funeral home which makes a debit. Pretty simple and very effective. Spend time keeping safety in front of your employees and it increases the company's bottom line.

That doesn't mean it was all fun and games. It is just as important to discipline poor safety work habits. There are accidents (things that could not be prevented by the employee) and there are mistakes (things contributed by the employee). All should be reviewed in detail, documented, and shared with everyone who performs that kind of work. If an employee does something against company safety rules and there is a near miss or an actual injury, someone needs to be disciplined. Even if the person making the mistake is injured, they still need some kind of discipline. It is cause and effect every time that holds employees to a higher standard. Your employees are talented and intelligent human beings (if not, why do you have them on your payroll). If you perform your supervisory duties with compassion and fairness every time, your employees will know you care about their well being. If you play favorites, skip some steps, don't follow through on all the rules, don't hold employees accountable, you may as well kiss your safety records good-bye.

A few suggestions: Don't jump to conclusions without a complete investigation. Always document everything you see and hear. Always let the employee know you are happy they were not injured or sad they were injured no matter who is at fault. Realize if you are in a union shop and there is a grievance filed on safety discipline, it only means they are doing their union job. If you have been fair and have all your facts, there is no employee or union member that doesn't understand that kind of discipline. After all, your working very hard at protecting and educating their members so they may be physically able to come to work the next day, go home to their families, and work until retirement. Plus, no supervisor, no union agent, no fellow employee wants to go to calling hours and face that person's family knowing they didn't do everything possible to prevent that situation.

Proverbs 3:21- "My son let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble."

I dedicate this message to all the employees who have lost their lives through on-the-job accidents. May their families, friends and fellow employees hold on to God for strength and care.