Never Say "Goodbye" but rather say "See you later"
Alex Kasengo AIOSH,IIRSM - SHEQ Expert.Coach.Mentor
Regional SHEQ Manager - East & Central Africa
When I conduct general site HSE induction to new employees either employed by my company or contractor , I tell them this: In this plant there is nothing more important than the health and safety of our employees, contractors and visitors not our products, mobile equipment, buildings etc, these will be repaired if they are damaged, if they are burnt to ashes, insurance companies will give us another may be even better than the current one. We have well stocked warehouse of spare parts but we have no single human spare part. If you lose your hand, leg or eyes, that will be end of it, remember the company employed you because you have all necessary physical body parts to do your job. For example if the operator loses his arm he will not be able to operate a loader etc. Also many of you have dependents like myself, as we all know, Africans have extended families, your father's uncle is your relative, your wife's cousin is your relative too. How many of us support our families? Some of us here don't use even a quarter of what we earn, everything goes to our families. If we get injured or die, our children , siblings and other relatives will not go to school because they will not have school fees, if they cannot got to school, they will go into the streets and start stealing, they will be caught and burnt down. Keep something in mind, when you leave your home for work every morning, tell them that " See you later" don't tell them "goodbye". When you tell them "see you later" that is a promise, make sure that you fulfill it by going back home safe and healthy everyday. Remember, when you drop a rock in the the pond, people who are around the pond fill the most cold splashes, when you die, people around you, will fill the most pain. We can make the difference!! We all know that there are three reasons why we management safety, they are , moral, legal and economic implications. To me "moral" should be the first, the pain we feel when we lose the loved ones!!