Just Ask For Help...and other safety tips...

I have been away all week at meetings and tonight was the first evening that I was able to put my kids to bed and catch up on a little bit of reading.  When I started reading Safety Culture, I was immediately struck by the You Tube video posted on the site.  It was a hilarious recording of a four year-old boy calling 911 for help with his math problems.  During the call you could hear his mother yelling at him in the background and the child's response being, "You said when I needed help ....to call somebody".  

After chuckling to myself about this video I thought about the parallels to the workplace safety message in this 30 second clip.  Oftentimes, just telling students to be safe at work is not a clear enough message.  

Two weeks ago I was at my favorite place to buy a four dollar coffee and while I was sitting in the cafe one of the employees started to change light bulbs on a shaky ladder with the power still on.  Everyone in the restaurant was obviously nervous as this young employee ventured to keep the place looking good - but all of a sudden a young woman sitting by herself shouted to the teenager- "Either you go and ask someone for help with that task or I will personally take you off that ladder!"  To say the least I was shocked by the woman's quick and courageous response, but I almost fell off my chair when I heard the employee's response.  "I am being safe, he said, I secured the ladder and if I fall off at least I won't land on you."  Call it teenager bravado, but somehow I wonder if he wasn't a lot like the boy in the video.  

For years now, we have told young employees to be safe at work but we haven't quite explicity shared with them the subtle nuances of safety.  They may understand WHMIS but most of them probably don't know how to confront the macho culture that pervades most workplaces.  They may understand what questions to ask at the interview, but we haven't taught them how to stand up for themselves when the safety culture of the workplace fails to live up to expectations.  

As an observer in a drama, I never imagined being a part of I was left with two thoughts.  The first was that I was glad that a young person was able to speak up about workplace safety; it tells me that the safety message is beginning to permeate a younger generation.  The second thought was this, just telling kids to be safe is not enough we must define exactly what it looks like to be safe.  In the end that will do more than create safety rhetoric - it will produce safe workplaces.