Stop using these Safety Excuses!

If you have been a safety professional for a while, you’ve probably heard all the safety excuses in the world. They can range from the most ignorant excuse to the absolute absurd. Yet we continue to hear them.

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Part of a safety professional’s job is to get these people to understand that by making excuses they are actually putting lives at risk. Here are some of the most common safety excuses.

   I’ve been doing it this way for xxx yearsOkay I’m pretty sure that every single person has heard this one before! Old-schoolers are very resistant to change, that’s why they believe that what they have been doing for all those years is okay. Just because a man has never died before from falling doesn’t mean he should never wear fall protection.

  Seemed like a good idea at the timeDid it? You should never buy into this excuse. This statement shows that certain employees never stopped to think before what they were about to do. One of your biggest tools in your toolbox should always be planning.

 I have a job to do / I wasn’t thinking / I forgotThis excuse shows that the worker does not take their own safety very seriously. If a worker has this attitude they have not been properly educated on the risks of their job, they probably need training and quickly!

 This is how I was told to do it / the boss said…If this excuse is accurate then you may have a problem and the supervision is putting the workforce in serious danger. First you have to get the employee to understand that they have a say in their own safety and they need to speak up, especially if they feel they have been forced into a dangerous situation.

 You caught me the ONE time I did this
This excuse is actually quite funny. How many times have you seen a worker the ONE time they weren’t wearing their safety goggles. The fact of the matter is, if you catch somebody during an inspection, odds are they’ve done the exact same thing before when you weren’t around.

Sometimes the worst thing about these safety excuses is that the companies or workers actually believe them. Part of being in the safety profession is to understand that an excuse is an excuse and it can lead to dangerous accidents.