WHY DO WE WORK SAFE? Some people say they work safe because they - TopicsExpress

WHY DO WE WORK SAFE? Some people say they work safe because they don’t want to get hurt while others say they work safe because they don’t want the Company/job to loose its’ safe work days. Some people say they work safe so they can get their safety bonus or safety award and others say they work safe because if they don’t they will get fired. What you don’t hear people say very often is that they work safe for themselves and for their families. When someone gets hurt at work who suffers? The first level of suffering is the injured person suffers the physical pain of the injury. The next level of suffering is emotional pain and suffering. The injured worker worries if they will be able to return to their job in the same capacity. The injured worker worries if over the long run if they will still be able to provide for their family as they did prior to their injury. The injured worker’s family suffers from having to see a loved one go through the physical pain. Although the worker and their family receives compensation benefits it’s probably not as much income as it would be if the worker was still working at their trade. As time passes the worker begins to lose their self-esteem and doubt their role as a provider to their family and their place in a productive society. The children see a Father or Mother who is not quite the same as prior to the injury and the wife or husband sees a spouse who is uncertain about their future. The quality of life can decrease depending on the limitations the injury presents. Pre injury activities such as playing ball with the kids, hiking, camping, fishing, golfing can all be lost to an injury. The preceding dialogue is pretty depressing, but it represents real life situations that can and do develop from work place injuries. Just look at the provincial and national statistics on how many workers are injured each and every day in this country, it’s staggering. The injuries range from minor to serious to crippling/disabling and yes, even fatal. The word statistic was used, statistics don’t have families or loved ones, statistics don’t suffer physical and emotional pain, people do. You are not just a number on a payroll or a statistic in a file; you are a person who in the course of your employment has the right to expect a safe work environment. Part of the expectation and probably the largest part of that expectation are your own actions. You and you alone have the greatest impact on your own personal safety. That means that each and every day that you go to work you are committed to do everything possible to ensure that at the end of the shift you return home to your family the same way that you left. You have to think about each and every thing that you do. Follow all safe work practices and procedures, wear all the required PPE and never take short cuts with your safety, not even for a second. When something goes wrong it happens in a heartbeat and there are hundreds and hundreds of injured workers out there that say to themselves every day “if I had only done it the way that I was supposed to”. In closing just remember that when you work safe don’t do it for a safety trinket or a safety bonus or to maintain a company safety statistic, you are more than a statistic you are a person. Work safe for yourself and for your family, because that’s who is most important in your life. Take it one day at a time, let’s all get home tonight without any injuries or incidents, tomorrow we can start all over again and get through that day safe. When you get home just take a look at your kids and your family playing, happy, smiling, enjoying life and then you can say to yourself: “That’s Why I Work safe