Most days I read the Metro on my way work; it’s either that or read my emails. While the train was honking its way to Birmingham the other day, it hit me how depressing that most of the stories were.
And I don’t mean that flippantly; I mean seriously depressing. Such as loads of people in Syria being allegedly gassed by its ruling regime (I say ‘allegedly’ to keep both Putin and Obama on side). Someone getting stabbed to death on a London street on the way to a night out. A baby being thrown out of a window by its mother. It’s horrible stuff.
Nine hours later and, all my emails done, I get back home (hoping to see if tonight is the night that Cameron finally gets found out on Emmerdale), to find that SHP has arrived. I unwrap its plastic wrapping and eagerly flick through the pages in my mad dash to reach the jobs section (if my boss is reading this I obviously didn’t do that, it is added for comedy value). However, I don’t make it that far — the ‘In Court’ section gets my attention.
It is like reading the Metro: 10 stories of firms getting done for seriously hurting or killing people at work – and there are more out there that this illustrious title don’t put into the magazine. I never get to the job section because I’m too depressed (though I actually feel pretty similar when I’ve finished reading the job section).
Why my depressive mood? Well it’s 2013. So how is it, that in this wonderful (I do mean that, by the way) country in which we live and, with all the work that we as safety types do every day, we are still having people being killed or suffering life changing injuries when all they are trying to do is earn enough money to look after their families?
Is all the politics and the grief we have to put up with worth it? Will we ever get to ‘zero harm’? Should we just take the money and count down to retirement?
I know that I only get so wound up, so downbeat when I think about this, because I believe in what I’m doing. Luckily for me my mood doesn’t last long. I think I’m making headway in my job. Also, it seems that in Emmerdale, Cameron is about to get his comeuppance.
Have your say: are there times when you wonder if it’s worth all the effort?
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Hey stop giving academics a bad name! Anybody who does not have a PhD and does not work for a university is not an academic. 🙂
I agree that there are many H&S advisers who have never actually worked at the pointy end. They may write reports and procedures but many of them have no real idea about what is reasonably practical.
Well, rant is the word not the article but the responce! As with all jobs EH&S is a hard thankless slog, a stand alone job that we do because we believe in what we do. We may falter but we never break.
We all have down days.
Very well put together, something I could have written myself.
Given the continuation of incidents of H&S failure recorded in SHP regarding WAH failure, I imagine many of us bother our backside because the WAH Guidance fails to engage those it is aimed at? Similarily Asbestos is constantly highlighted herein. ACoP and Guidance are plentiful? And similar issue is repeatedly noted herein in regard to FLT incidents, and non machine guarding etc. Guidance again is plentiful? As is a mutitude of guidance for various trades and industries. And with 1 in 5 HSE Inspection Blitz interventions resulting in serious breaches, and reduced HSE intervention inspections accross the board, I imagine… Read more »
Richard,
Imagine the working world if it wasn’t for the efforts of dedicated safety professionals, it would then as you say resemble my desk (or Syria)
and yet another rant from a blue-blooded individual that doesn’t give a hoot for the working population! Let’s face it, if we lose one, there’s plenty more peole out there to replace them isn’t there? You’re right in saying that workplace incidents are not always related to a specific breach, but where you see the cause as stupidity of individuals or laziness of managers, I see lack of management controls, insufficient training or being production focussed. But then, so what – as long as we get the product out of the door eh? Go back to the dark ages whence… Read more »
Er, think he was referring to Emmerdale….
Why don’t we encourage SHP to add a “Staying Out of Court” section to the magazine. Give the directors, the clients, the actual man at the coal face an opportunity to write in and say that without the proactive work and sound advice offered (and then applied) there was a very fine chance X, Y, Z etc could or would have happened.
Good news, a well done and a thank you…now I’d read that with a smile
But how bad would it be if no one was bothered about H&S
Richard, I see exactly where you’re coming from. Everything does seem doom & gloom in 2013 – I think that generally thats the way we like it (I use ‘we’ in a broader sense).
Not too many years ago our main concern was if Seth upset Amos in the wool pack & wether Jackie Sugden had got that young girl ‘in the club’.
However I do wonder if todays Emmerdale writers have used Cameron (villian) as a subliminal refernce for our present PM.
Hi DMC, that’s definitely worth looking into. We definitely want to write some more positive pieces, and do a bit more on the people behind OSH. There’s a lot of silent and tireless work going on to save lives on a daily basis, and that’s definitely worth reporting on.
Steve Paul, to use the parlance of today’s youth, ‘Epic Fail’.
H&S is not based on any cost benefit analysis, there are endless ‘problems’ it claims to solve yet price is never factored in. Whether anyone likes it there is a price on peoples heads, resources diverted in the economy from one place to another, rules and regulations diaproportinatley hurting SMEs. And.. the vast majority of people do not take as much care of their own healthcarwle as H&S suggests. Would anyone sugest 30mph on motoway to save 2, 222 lives in 2011? Hardly, cost/benefit.
Steve Paul, I think you misread it. I’m not ranting and my politics is just that, which is why I make no reference to any political party. Between me and the ballot paper.
Dave, you were right!
DMC and Mark R – Top draw! So who do we send the good news stuff to??
scott Maitland (@ 1.06PM), no thank you!
I’m with the academic thing to a point. But if we didn’t have some ‘boffins’ somewhere doing some research where would the next advances in understanding and influencing behaviour come from? There is a time and place for everyone and everything. Academics and front line safety probably don’t mix??
I don’t know where the ‘veiled rant’ comment comes from…paranoia perhaps? Aren’t prosecutions always made under breached legislation? I think the conservatives plans to “overhaul” legislation are misguided, misplaced and driven by a media driven myth about “‘elf ‘n safety gone mad innit?” To simply remove legislation so that people are not committing an offence does not ‘improve’ health or safety. It simply takes us back to dark satanic mills run by bosses who care not a jot about workers safety. Or is that perhaps exactly what the conservatives want? Health and Safety in the UK has been an unparalleled… Read more »
“..academics who run round like headless chickens..”
Couldn’t agree more. I have to deal with ‘advisers’ with no practical experience and seemingly no common sense on a daily basis.
However, we STILL need legislation, rules and procedures. How else can we measure results or developments?
By lost limbs? Loss of a life?
Red tape may be the culprit, but legislation is not.
“Bureaucracy , the mighty power wielded by pygmies”
I try to take the approach that H+S is not to stop things happening, it’s to LET things happen.
another veiled rant from a left wing activist any chance of kicking the fine work MR Cameron is doing huh? What Mr Byrne has failed to notice or prefers not to notice is that the prosecutions are for breaches of current legislation. Not under any much needed ammendments The Conservative Party will hopefully soon enact. Also incidents in the workplace are not always directly related to a specific breach of legislation, more to the stupidity of individuals involved or the laziness of their managers. Ps is it so “right on” that you feel unable to address world leadres as “Mr”… Read more »
a maxim in industry used to be ” a job for life go work on the docks” now its “get a job in H&S”, it is attracting academics who run round like headless chickens screeching ” you cant do that , look look the law says, this book says, you cant do that ” Well man up because its a time for a return to sensible safety, one uncluttered by the frustrations of red tape and the academics screaming ” we need a piece of paper , I need to write you a procedure, we need more pieces of paper”..but… Read more »