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09/01/2005
OSHA Relations Committee Update
Sometimes a Simple Call Can Make All the Difference
We find ourselves in the middle of another typical summer; resources pushed to the maximum, customers calling for updates on progress and office staff scrambling to provide reasonable answers. Everyone is busy.
In all the usual hustling, we pause to take a telephone call from the crewmember that remembers what the boss said one time and he wonders to himself, “Did he really mean it?” Said caller asks; “I hope I’m not bothering you, but you said to call if I ever had questions or a concern. Did you mean it?” “Yes” is the reply. “Why do you ask?” What followed was a series of questions and answers that brings into crystal clarity that a potential safety issue has been spotted by a junior employee. Someone who hadn’t had years of experience, but paid attention in safety training classes and made an observation that the other members of the crew had not considered an issue. The senior members had been trained a certain way, a school we call “hard knocks.” The subtleties of the new method may not have been clearly explained to a sufficient level to gain their “acceptance.”
Old ways are the hardest to change. Change is not so hard to accomplish when the advantages or simple math prove the new ways to be better. But when you cannot clearly define or explain the difference, a scowl or a dismissive look can result.
I’ve always heard that changes come in generations, not simply because we want them to change. Of course the experience of an accident brings attention to old and young alike. “I never would’ve believed it” or “unless I’d seen with my own eyes…” are expressions that both chill and acknowledge that change must occur. Not just in the policies, procedures or manuals, but in the minds.
To use a computer analogy, “we must reboot the hard drive.” We must change our rigging DNA. This can be very difficult stuff.
We all learn in different ways but the ones we learn from touch have the biggest impact and are least likely to be forgotten. You tell a child to stay away from a hot barbeque and they might listen. But touch it once and they never forget. On towers, I learned “old school”. There were no universities, colleges or training classes of any type. You learned from the ones who had gone before you. Some good techniques and some bad ones, but you always seemed to be able to tell the difference. “Keep your hands away from a running block” was a good one.
“Yeah, yeah,” you’d think to yourself. But let a hand get too close ONE time, nipping your glove and tweaking your finger and you gained a whole new appreciation for the warning.
Unfortunately many lessons have no such warning. Mistakes in the tower business can be fatal.
Take the call. Listen to the implication. Heed the warning! Second chances rarely happen. When safety knocks, or calls, we must answer or face the consequences. Those consequences probably won’t be good.
Don Doty serves as Chairman of the NATE OSHA Relations Committee as well as Vice Chairman of the Association. He is the Vice President of Doty Moore Tower Services, LLC of Cedar Hill, Texas and can be reached at 215-631-1300 or Don.Doty@StainlessLLC.com
Don Doty, Chairman of the NATE OSHA Relations Committee
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