Safety Obstructionists- The Challenge of a Safety Professional.

Using a pseudonym but a true narrative, I quote: “James, I know they do not like you, but they know what you are doing is the right thing”. The aforesaid quote came from a former Global Senior Vice President for Health and Safety of one of the leading Gold Mines in the World. The precursor to this statement was a forceful shutdown of an underground Mine that was at its development stage. James was then a Health and Safety Specialist at this Mine. For several weeks James tried futilely, with resistance from the Underground Team, to ensure adequate radio communication underground. For those who have worked in underground Mines, communication is very imperative as communication systems play a crucial role for ensuring employee safety and maximizing the mining process. Again, accurate knowledge of the environmental conditions gives a great ease to rescue team at the time of emergency and this, again, is achievable by means of proper communication. So, loss in communication underground is a risk that should not be countenanced.

During the visit to the Underground Mine, James’ Global Boss immediately shut the Underground Development Project when it was brought to his attention that there was no radio communication signal underground. After the mandatory shutdown session with the Underground Leadership, the Senior Vice President called James and privately passed those comments. James even though had some relief with support from the top boss, he also felt he could not accomplish his role as a person who was supposed to drive observance of or compliance with safety rules.

A poor safety culture abounds where Safety obstructionists are empowered, and in such cultures the role of a Safety Professional becomes a ceremonial safety job. One may term it Safety Specialist Incognito who is seen as an albatross on the neck of safety obstructionist. I have shared instances where some few bad nuts in some organizations portrayed safety was not important.

I share with you a quote from Terry Mathis, founder, and CEO of ProAct Safety. It goes this way: “Many employees feel productivity pulls them in one direction while safety tugs in the other.”-Credit to Terry. Trust me, that employees look up to leadership. Thus, invariably, in such a poor safety culture, such “leaders” share same belief of safety being counterproductive. I have heard comments like: “The Safety Department is delaying the job because we have to fulfil certain requirements”. As a safety professional, one has to brace themselves with such detestable pronouncement. It is a wet blanket sort of statement. In a low safety culture organization, where there is no leadership commitment, Safety Obstructionist take advantage to intimidate the safety professional.

?Let me share a personal experience. During the early stages of my career in a typical Mine Construction as HSE Advisor, I was assigned a day-to-day infield advisory role at a Heavy Mine Equipment Workshop Steel Erection Project as part of the whole Mine Construction. It was the incipient stage of my career in HSE. On this fateful day, during the lifting of a 5ton H-Beam, my instinct told me the rigging was not done right. At a Pre-shift Information (PSI) meeting the next day, i.e., beginning of the morning shift, I spoke up about the rigging hitch and the Lead Structural Engineer in charge of the construction was upset. He went to talk to one of the Safety Leads and complained about my approach. I still agree my approach at the PSI Meeting was not proper. I should have approached him personally to raise the concern instead of waiting till the following day at a meeting. My boss called me for feedback, but it was more of a reprimand than telling me to improve. He said: “You see that man, he has over 21 years’ experience in building structures and has done this type of lifting severally”. That meant that I was just a beginner and thus I should just keep mute and allow the experienced Engineer to do the work. A part of me told me that was no Space Science, and my understanding of basic Mechanics told me something was not right. After the face-to-face engagement with my boss, I took some few days off work as part of my rostered off days. When I left site, there was a near-miss resulting from rigging failure and the 5-ton H-beam dropped to the ground. I was told the sound was an analogy of a thunderous clap. No one was in close proximity, otherwise it would result in a catastrophe. I strongly believe this man would never use number of years of experience to intimidate any person again. Later, I was told the same Engineer with so many years experience was part of a pipe rack team working at a different project site without fall protection and one of his team members fell from height resulting in a fatality. No wonder. It is said that coming events cast their shadows ahead of them.

I was a witness to another intimidating tactic to shut a Safety Trainer. A Process Manager asked a safety trainer and I quote: “What do you know about my process plant and how do you determine carbon density in a typical CIL Circuit?” It was a baptism of fire that day for the safety trainer and that was the Process Plant Manager's first-time meeting with the safety trainer assigned to the Process Plant. So, at your first meeting with the Plant Manager, he has already put some fear in you as a fresher Safety Professional. These were some of the motives that made my initial career style a rigid style type as I worked with Managers who were really tough and would do anything to achieve their daily targets if it meant to bypass any safety rule. I had a lot of resistance dealing with such challenging managers. This made my initial style a “do it per the rule”. ?As I matured through my career, going through a one-year mentorship programme to realign my style with modern safety practice, I got to know that one has to build bridges instead of burning them. There are difficult personalities, of course, but one needs to work with them to achieve the company’s objectives. There is a local adage that goes this way: “When you are in the bathroom and a mad man picks your towel, you do not go out chasing them to collect the towel or else you become more insane than them”. Building relationship and making people know why they need to work safely is the way to go but as a safety professional one needs to be firm. I still believe in the saying that “A little madness is necessary if?you want to stay sane in this world. It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane" Credit to Friedrich Nietzsche. It is however important that this madness does not set bridges or relationship ablaze. As a safety professional, building relationship is key to your success at workplace but ensure you keep up your firmness and not sternness. Also being cognizant of intimidating tactics used by such bad nuts can make the difference in driving safety at workplace.

So, as a safety professional you will face such challenges as you trudge along the balance of safety and productivity. The thought of ignoring safety in production is the analogy of saying that efficiency and the cost of production are negligible. A catastrophe resulting from ignoring safety can brutally impact both the volume and cost of production like few other things can. The shadow benefits made in production by using an alternative route that is shorter than the one usually taken to conform to safety, may seem to be worthwhile until the disaster sets in. These shadow benefits disappear or even become failures in many cases.

The cause of all these poor safety cultures comes from lack of leadership commitment resulting in conflicting company and safety strategies demands. Let me quote EHS Today: “In organizations that have safety strategies, all too often they were developed by the safety department while organizational leaders created the business strategies with no correlation between the two. Although strategy can create direction, conflicting strategies do not. In fact, when strategies conflict, the dichotomy is even more confusing for workers”-Credit to EHS Today.

In my previous article related to a Safety Professional who lost his job because he spoke up, a colleague asked that I spell out how a safety professional works around such difficult situations. Should they leave their job? It is a NO and YES depending on the gravity of the problem. Some years back, I wanted to leave a job because someone frustrated me to the core. I approached a friend, and his response was: “Karim, do no leave this job because someone is frustrating you. It is a sign of weakness on your part”. I agreed in principle on weakness of not facing challenges and still hold unto that depending on the situation at hand. One may also disagree with my friend’s assertion due to the following leadership quotes, i.e., “you will never outperform bad management” Credit to Carol Carter. “Stay away from negative people, as they have a problem with every solution”. Plato also said: “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth” Credit to Plato.

How do you go around bad leadership? Remember this saying: “Control the knobs on your side of the wall.” You cannot control other people. You can only control your response to it”. Some people obviously have very poor habits. Regardless, it is important to recognize this behaviour in situations where your rights, interests, and safety are at stake. Try to understand their way, build bridges, have the courage to be honest about what you really need from them as far as safety is concerned. You can apply the escalation approach when it goes beyond your control. Let people understand why they need to do what you expect from them in order to be safe.?