St. John’s Cemetary, New Orleans
Note: I thought long and hard about writing what you are about to read. Whenever I have taken issue with the self-congratulatory tone and self-righteous complacency that I see dangerously prevalent among safety professionals the ensuing storm of bile and abuse heaped on me has, at times, made me consider bagging it—stopping the blog, ending the speeches, and retiring from my gigs as a safety columnist. But after more than a decade of decline the workplace death toll in the U.S. has risen. In 2010, while some of you were jetting off to Brazil on your citizen diplomat boon-doggle an average of 13 workers died a day. If you get offended by the truth; stop reading. If you do read on, save us both time and aggravation and spare me your outraged venomous hate mail, I don’t want to hear it and all it does is convince me of the veracity of my message. What follows is perhaps my magnum opus of provocative work. I dedicate it to my father who died of me, my brother-in-law who died of lung cancer after working for decades on Zug Island, once listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the dirtiest square mile on the planet Earth, my brother who suffered permanent memory loss after an industrial accident, my many friends who died in industrial accidents but most especially to Patrick Burger (and others like him) who has taken such extraordinary measures to try attack and insult me in an effort to silence my message.
Dear Safety Guy:
I hope you are doing well and are enjoying this lovely weather with family and friends. I don’t want to your harsh buzz or bust up the barbecue, but I died in the workplace this week and I want you to know that I am deeply disappointed in you. You see, I trusted you and you failed me. And not just me, 12 other guys died along side me and 13 of us died yesterday, and another 13 tomorrow, in fact, every day; day in and day out. 4,690 of us in all…wait that’s not quite right another 50,000 or so died from illnesses caused by working waste deep in poisons or breathing in chemicals that would kill us slowly, horribly.
Some of us died because we did stupid things, some of us weren’t adequately trained, some of us under estimated the dangers we faced, and some of us over estimated our skills, but none of us expected to die. None of reported for work expecting to get killed. None of our lives were any less valuable than yours and before you get all self righteous it wasn’t my job not to die, it was YOUR job to make sure my job didn’t kill me. But I DID die, and I doubt you will ever get a verbal warning.
As I write this I can see you squirm. Does it make you uncomfortable for me to hold you accountable? Is it unfair that I blame you for something that I did that killed me? After all, how—you ask—can I hold you accountable for my own stupidity? You didn’t tell me to do the things that I did to day that ultimately got me killed. But it was your job to keep me alive. I certainly didn’t do those things that I did because I wanted more butt time (as I’ve heard you describe to your colleagues at conferences or huddled around a coffee talking about how stupid we all are). I screwed up, and that screw up got me killed. Everyone makes mistakes, but nobody should have to die because of a mistake made at work. I counted on you to anticipate and correct the things that would kill me before I got hurt; where were you when I died?
I really liked the safety BINGO, and I sure loved the extra money when we got as a bonus for zero injury days. Were you too stupid to know that these things created an environment where we were essentially bribed to stay quiet about injuries? Or did you just recklessly disregard the fact that you were creating incident statistics that lulled the decision makers into a false sense of security regarding our risk level? I knew what you were doing was wrong but I wasn’t about to turn the whole company against me and speak up. Congratulations on having such a great safety record; how does my death look on your resume?
I can only imagine how disappointed you were to learn that worker fatalities in the U.S. has spiked—I think we all figured that when we sourced all that the really dangerous work out to the Third World that we were home free. I feel kind of bad about it now—the after life is full Third World workers who bought it because their lives were thought to be so much cheaper than mine. It turns out they weren’t that much different from me. They had families who loved them, wives and children who counted on them. All they wanted to do was go to work, make a buck, and come home safe. They had lives snatched away from them same as me; just cause we showed up for work.
I know that as you read this you are tempted to excuse yourself and tell yourself that my death isn’t your fault. That management put profits before safety; that the Union shut down what you wanted to do; that you can’t protect people when they won’t listen to you, and all that other crap I’ve heard you say a thousand times. Stop feeling sorry for yourself; you aren’t the victim here. Before you blame management… the last time I checked most of you ARE management. The same goes for leadership—isn’t that what you are supposed to be, a leader? If a juggler can’t do his job guess what? he drops a couple of balls; no harm, no foul. If YOU are incompetent, people DIE; I DIED. 4,695 other people died. If you can’t hack it, get out of the game. Stop worrying about the condition of your 401K and retire or change careers; become a florist, that way the only thing at risk of dying because of your ineptitude is a dozen carnations.
Remember how much we all enjoyed your children’s safety poster contest? Now it just seems sad. How about all those pictures of people doing unsafe things? Remember how we’d laugh about how stupid they were? somehow it’s just not that funny anymore. Did you really think you were making a difference with that crap?
Think I’m being too hard on you? Think you deserve some credit for doing your best? Screw you, I can get a baboon in here to do its best. Your best doesn’t measure up. Your best gets people killed. And I don’t believe for a second that you were doing your best when I died. It’s not like you weren’t warned. When people posted things on blogs or magazines that were critical of your profession you chose to get indignant and hammered out a “how dare you insult the hard working men and women of the august profession of worker health and safety blah blah blah”, you remember that don’t you? It was a hell of a lot easier to write an indignant email telling your peers to tell that guy to shut up than it was to consider for one microsecond that you might have to do something different. And now even in the face of my death you are still too arrogant to consider that there might be a better way.
Was it the culture that killed me? Did you see all the signs that we were ripe for a fatality? Did you storm around the office saying if someone doesn’t do something that someone was going to die? Did “you tell the bastards”? Well if you continued to take a paycheck in a hopeless environment where leaders didn’t care about the safety of the workers I decry you as a craven and fool.
I know you see yourself as under appreciated and doing a thankless job. Well I’m dead and thanks for nothing. You aren’t a hero; you don’t even deserve a footnote in my obituary. You get no thanks because there is nothing you’ve done that deserves the smallest modicum of gratitude.
Before you wrap yourself in the blanket of “there was no way I could have prevented his death” there are plenty of people working for change and we NEED change. These people work against impossible odds against people just like you. You have a decision: you can either be on the side of change or be part of the forces lined up against it. You can either save lives or save your twisted sense of self righteousness; you choose, and for the first time in your life be prepared to live with the consequences of your choices; I doubt you have that in you.So what now? My role in this argument ends at the grave. What will you do next? Between now and Monday, 26 more workers will die in the U.S. and ten times that worldwide. Will it just be a statistic? Will it be a shame? What will you differently in response to my death? Do you care even a little bit? Are you more concerned about saving lives or saving your own ass?
Sincerely,
4,695 dead workers and counting
Filed under: Safety, 2010 worker fatalities, Safety, worker fatalities
Fear and disdain never had the power to motivate more than love and compassion. Charity never faileth.
Awesome writing………….
@ Hyte , love & compassion do not enter the work place. Those are fruits of the spirit, you cannot expect people to respond to your God factor. This is the real world, love & compassion is great, but it will not save lives in the work place. It hasn’t done it in all of these cases has it? Just sayin………….
It is my love and compassion that keeps me working every day to keep manufacturers from blowing up or burning down their plants, many times in the face of complacency. To do everything I can do every day to do my part to make sure the American worker goes home safely. To make sure I leave this industry safer than when I came into it. Just sayin…
Well said, Jeffrey, Tonight at midnight my answer to that letter will be published. I am traveling so I am hoping that it works as planned.
Jeffrey;
Well said. I believe if not most, certainly a substantial portion of safety professionals feel the same way you do. But there are others who do not, if everyone felt the way you do I doubt we would have many injuries.
Thanks, my guess is you will be in the minority in your thinking.
“Tell it to my boss, he was the one who ended up in court!!” A reply in the same tone as your open letter but never the less a sound bit of advice!!
I take no issue with your tone. But I doubt your boss went to jail, and speaking as someone who has lost people to workplace accidents and exposure, little comfort can be taken in legal action. Fines and even jail time won’t bring back those who came home from work on a gurney with a sheet over there face.
Reblogged this on EHS Safety News America and commented:
Another good insightful article on the safety profession by Phil LaDuke.
I think it is an appalling view of the Safety profession!! He quotes the 4690 that died but has no idea how many are saved each year by people who work in the difficult working environment he describes above with little or no recognition or support. Safety is not just the responsibility of the “Safety Professional it is the responsibility of everyone, we all get paid to work safely. We all need to ask what did I do to prevent death and harm to others how many lifes could I have saved and not point another wagging finger!!!
Tell that to the families of the dead.
And for the record that number (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) is only for the US and does not include an estimated 50,000 US workers who will die from work-related illnesses nor un calculated numbers of those crippled by ergonomic issues.
I wrote to this in response to the very type of self righteous “we can’t help workers who won’t help themselves”, “it’s not our fault”, “we did our best” simpering excuse making that you exhibit. If you want to hear what a good boy you are talk to you mother. I’m not buying it.
Anyone who ever has lost someone on his or her watch (including me) is haunted by every single death. We don’t hide behind platitudes like “safety is everyone’s responsibility” or “yeah but how many people did I save?”
What, in your twisted view, is the acceptable ratio of workers killed to workers spared? How many people have to die before you will acknowledge that just maybe you aren’t quite the superhero you think you are?
Appalling? Yes, if this is your best perhaps you are in the wrong line of work.
I still have no idea what you have done to save anyone??
The individual who died on your watch, what would they have wanted you to have done, on that day that would have stopped them from becoming one of the statistics you quote above, the same statistics a “Safety Profesional” quote!!
Would it be rant in a blog at a safety professional?
I doubt the people who die in the work place would want me ranting “in a blog at a safety professional” (sic). I’m sure they would much rather have post your pithy comments defending the sluggards who sit around congratulating themselves for a job well done.
What have I done to save lives? Well….I did lead a development team that resulted in 14,000 fewer injuries than were statistically predicted over five years. I also designed, developed, and implemented a safety system that lowered a heavy manufacturer’s recordable injuries one in 4 to one in 16 resulting in $6 million less than the year before (and $10 million less than the statistical model). I could go on (you do after all seem so deeply interested in what I have done to save lives) How many of these injuries would have been fatalities? Some? None? Nobody knows. That’s my point. For a decade the safety community has acted as if the decline in injuries and fatalities was because of the magic they have worked.
So does that clear it up for you? Does that satisfy you that I have done enough to save lives? Because frankly it doesn’t satisfy me. I am sick of safety professionals who are quick to claim credit but will never allow anyone to hold themselves accountable. And yes, this includes me. I was an active safety professional (why do people assume that because I write magazine articles and blog that I don’t work, actively in safety? Generally, I work cleaning up messes made by so-called safety professionals who have neglected their jobs to an almost criminal extent. So if I seem a bit critical of those who whine that they are trying, it’s because I don’t think they are, or if they are they had ought to find another job because their best efforts aren’t near good enough.)
I’m tired of having to explain that not every safety professional meets the description of people I have just described. I don’t think that most safety professionals need to wake up, but those who do are so steadfastly resistant to any criticism (in fact ANYTHING that doesn’t tell them what heroes they are for fighting the good fight) that not only will they not change but the will actively shout down anyone who tries to change anything.
So in closing, what are YOU going to change? Because your comments to me aren’t advancing anything than your own delusional sense of superiority.
This was awesome reading. I am not offended in any manner as I strive each day to keep my employees and family safe. I saw this writing as one that made me look in my leadership mirror, if I saw my refection (and I did), I have more work to do. As safety professionals, we are not in the popularity club because what we do take courage and tact. You do not have to like me, but as long as I know you went home today uninjured….I can sleep tonight. Tomorrow is a different story. Day by day and back to the basics…..we will maintain!
Thanks Angela for sharing what it is like to be a safety professional! No statistics quoted just good old fashioned caring, no bravado of provocative words, just getting on with the job and focusing on tomorrow………….have a good nights sleep!
[...] to Safety Professionals from the 4,690 Workers Who Died on the Job in the United States in 2010 – READ IT HERE Note: I thought long and hard about writing what you are about to read. Whenever I have [...]
Phil,
I enjoy your postings, and often use them to stimulate discussions within my department. Maybe I am not understanding your statements in the posting below, but in the first part of the statement, you tell what you have done to reduce injuries and fatalities, then in the last sentence, you seem to criticize the safety community for doing the same thing. Am I misunderstanding the points you are trying to make?
“What have I done to save lives? Well….I did lead a development team that resulted in 14,000 fewer injuries than were statistically predicted over five years. I also designed, developed, and implemented a safety system that lowered a heavy manufacturer’s recordable injuries one in 4 to one in 16 resulting in $6 million less than the year before (and $10 million less than the statistical model). I could go on (you do after all seem so deeply interested in what I have done to save lives) How many of these injuries would have been fatalities? Some? None? Nobody knows. That’s my point. For a decade the safety community has acted as if the decline in injuries and fatalities was because of the magic they have worked.”
Ron:
My point was poorly articulated. It was in response to one of my many detractors who imply that I don’t really work in safety but merely criticize those hard working so-and-sos who do. While we can infer that that many of the injuries that statistically would have happened would have been fatal, we really can’t show. So point one, yes I have been very successful in lowering risk and reducing injuries and point two, safety, as a profession really doesn’t have a clear understanding of WHY things changed. My point is that I have as much right to take credit as anyone, but in the final estimation there is no proof that anything that I deserves any more credit than anyone else. We don’t know why things got better (at least not with any scientific validity) so the charlatans have as much of a valid claim as the people with well thought out systems and tools. We are left with things got better and now they are getting worse (recognizing that one datum point does not a trend make.)
Will agree with you on many points, especially Safety Bingo, coloring contests, etc. Embarrasing stuff that reflects poorly on the profession.
But I find your comment about the recent ASSE networking trip to Brazil harsh. If ASSE did not delete your post from their Linkedin group page and you did instead, I would say you merely saved them the trouble. I am posting on my own behalf for whatever it is worth as I have no involvement with ASSE other than my chapter membership and one published article in Professional Safety, and did not hear about the trip until after the fact.
My objection to your comment about the trip hits three issues. First, at the ASSE leadership level, I believe few there are in a position to directly prevent a fatality at any one or even a few facilities: “My God, as ASSE president I must visit Acme and keep that coyote from wacking the box of TNT again!” You could argue sitting in national headquarters did little to protect that coyote, but I doubt no more or less than one could do in Brazil. Second, I think it was Covey who advised professionals to sharpen the saw. Having visited other facilities to benchmark and network, I have returned with ideas on doing my job at my facility a little better. One could argue seeing safety practiced in another country would be an even greater eye-opener, both in terms of problems others live with and what solutions they may offer. Finally, if the safety profession is in such poor shape as you routinely characterize, (and I agree with many of your examples) would not sharpening the saw at a leadership instead of an individual level offer learning opportunities to a wider group, bringing many of us closer to improvement? One could argue about the results of such a trip (e.g., a weak feedback loop to other professionals who did not go), but the very act of going? We can only plug so many fingers into so many holes in the dike; sometimes there is value in seeing how others plug holes, or better reinforce the dike. Too many metaphors tonight.
Otherwise, well said as usual.
Scott:
Respectfully I must disagree with the assessment of the officially sponsored and endorsed trip to Brazil. Your point that ASSE needs to get out in the field is well taken but one does not need to fly halfway across the world and spend several weeks off work and $10,000 of a company’s money to get a feel for the state of the industry. (I considered going on my own dime and that was my conservative estimate). I think my point is even more relevant to sharpening the ax. What were the training objectives of this trip. How much time was actually spent looking at the safety of the workplace versus site-seeing? This is co-sponsored by a tour company from what I can see.
I am concerned with your contention that ASSE was right to censor the post for being critical of its practices. Have LinkedIn groups become fan clubs? Can one truly sharpen the ax by seeking out only those opinions with which one agrees? And how does shouting down dissenting opinions further our field?
One does not have to fly to thirdworld countries in order to find out how highly (or underdeveloped) they might be in regards to environmental, safety and health issues. There are enough ESH professionals in the USA that were grown up in third world countries, who speak spanish or portuguese fluently, who can give advise on the progress made in these countries. However it is a nice site seeing trip to see the beautiful sites of Iguasu falls, sugar loaf, christ the redeemer, etc., or even the amazon river. Like Phil stated he spent hi sown money to fly to Brazil as I have done. I am fluent in technical spanish, english and portuguese, and in the fiedl of ESH. whta a waste of somebody”s money.
Robert:
Again, I cant thank you enough for supporting my points. As veteran of the safety profession who has first hand knowledge of the things I talk about I really value your opinion.
I do want to clarify something. I didn’t go to Brazil. I would have loved to and I was pricing it out because I knew I could not justify it to my employer. It would have cost me over $10,000 (when considering all my expenses above and beyond the cost they quoted). I was flabbergasted. In the heart of the worst economy in history ASSE was encouraging people to (presumably) ask their employers to pay their way to what I could only see as a wonderful vacation. Couple with that the the safety professionals would be off the job for 3-4 weeks and I don’t see how ASSE can justify its endorsement. I have worked in training for almost 30 years and I instinctively look for learning objectives for any conference and I concluded that if objectives were defined they were absolutely not communicated.
This signals a dangerous disconnection on the part of the national leadership of ASSE between their view of the industry and the hard reality most of us face. In a climate where safety positions are being rapidly eliminated, safety professionals are told to do more with less, and safety budgets are being slashed this boon-doggle smacks of a “let them eat cake” mentality.
Yes, I am being critical of ASSE, but I am critical because I believe that the ASSE (and other safety professional organizations) serve an important role in our industry and I want them to understand that decisions like that in support of these kinds of expensive boon-doggles erodes their credibility among employers and members. I think ASSE is better than the this.
But as I said in my response to Scott (who I believe IS in touch with the actual conditions in the workplace in the U.S.) I am alarmed at the attitude at ASSE (and a substantial portion of safety professionals) that the response to dissident speech is to squash it. Won’t someone tell me again how wrong I was to compare them to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and other enemies of free speech.
Phil, good evening. You haven’t completely pulled me in, but your reply to Robert below states your case very well. How I may have replied differently or not at all if much of this were in your original post. Well done and keep fighting the good fight.
Scott:
Worry when I have pulled you in completely. I certainly don’t have all the answers, and sincerely hope we as a profession can keep asking these questions and disagreeing. Out of disagreement comes change, and change happens one mind at a time. That’s why I find the censoring of unpopular opinions so disturbing. We may not like what people have to say, but irrespective of how it is said, we need to listen and before rejecting it in total ask ourselves if there might not be some kernel of truth. Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments.
Ron,
You make a great observation, no one likes to critised or have the finger point asking “what have you done”.
I am not a safety professional, never have been, never will be, never claimed to be!!
When it comes to safety I would rather try and motivate people in a positive manner, respect what they have done and bring to the table! We are all like kids easily demotivated by forceful negative feedback, some might call it bullying, not me mind you!! I see the comments from Phil borne out of frustration and concern that too much is being said and not enough done and like a concerned parent is sharing this in the best way he knows!!
I will continue to motivate everyone I meet and work with to work safely because one day I may need them to be motivated to intervene with me and potentially safe my life. The power in making an intervention that leads to change is not how you make the intervention but how it is recieved, we need to create a positive working environment for these interventions to take place!
Phil, Again you are right on target, and I realize that your words sound harsh to safety professionals like us. During my eighteen years with Federal OSHA (ten as an instructor at OSHA/OTI), and eight as a compliance officer there was only one company that did not receive any citations and fines out of thousands of inspections that I made. So we might say that 99.9% of the companies that I inspected received stiff fines for not being in compliance with OSHA’s minimal stamdards.What does that tell me? It tells me that upper management could care less for safety and therefore did not allocate adequate money to remove the unsafe conditions, did not discipline their employees for unsafe behaviors, and failed to train their personnel. And the safety managers did not have the (pelotas) to either quit their job or try to convince management of their errors in increasing their profits through higher workmans compensation premiums, possible law suits, loss time of production or maintenance workers, down time, OSHA fines, etc.,
Well it really looks like you have a real problem in your part of the world! Not only are the safety professionals being ignored by upper management but it seems really easy to just pay the fines accept the citations and ignore the compliance officers as well!! 99.9 % of Upper management pay the fine and the compliance officers goes away is obviously just as effective as the safety professionals and I guess they kept taking the money as well?? What needs to happen before you start supporting and encouraging each other and stop point scoring, who will have the courage to make the first move? What do you think Phil, not heard from you lately?
Billy:
You haven’t heard from me for awhile because I get the sense that you just want to argue for the sake of arguing. I honestly don’t think you have a contribution to make, nor would any response to you’re comments add to the debate. Talking to you is like doing a card trick for a dog; it’s pointless; that’s what I think. So please, post your glorious triumph of having bested me in verbal sparring. Brag to your friends, make it the highlight of your family dinner conversations. Really, people read comments like yours and think, “zing! Boy he sure won that round! I wish he and I were friends!” Enjoy!
So, now I get it,………… to be heard you have to be a jaded, sarcastic, aggresive bully, I am sure there is wisdom in there somewhere?? Will I have to find some other way of communicating the message that safety needs to be a “win win” situation before anything will change! What happens when you communicate with a smile on your face instead of a scowl, how do people respond? Maybe, after listening to a message communicated in such away that it feels it is being “punched” in like data into a computer, people are speechless and wondering what is going on here? Let us all spend more time communicating in the polite and respectfull tone so that people are sure that is meant in good faith and not just a one off?
Billy:
You are doing a wonderful job. Your hard work and devotion is an inspiration to us all. When people die or suffer horrible debilitating injuries it’s just not your fault. You did all you could for them. Nobody could ask more of you. Don’t change a thing.
Thought provoking for sure, which is how I read the article.
Any professional who is asked to make changes to behavior and mindset is in a difficult position. We are charged with creating a paradigm shift in large organizations who are not typically like-minded, and to change attitudes and behavior at the individual level, which is challenging at best. Thus you imply that the Safety professional had the wherewithal to prevent that fatality, which simplifies a complex set of circumstances.
The bottom line is that we all need to continue to reinvent how to effectively convey the message and prevent harm. As times change, so must the medium, and the content of what needs to be delivered. So I gather from your writing that the safety professional should be thinking at al times what could have been done differently to have prevented a fatality? A workplace tragedy hits everyone hard, and maybe this question can best be used to elevate the discussion of what really works to create change.
To get the full effect one needs to also read the corresponding reply to the letter from the safety guy.
But in broad strokes safety professionals cannot claim credit for saving lives without accepting accountability for fatalities; the two are irrevocably linked.
Personally, I have never seen our jobs as to protect workers, rather it is to teach workers and employers to protect themselves.
Hi Randy, thanks for introducing an insightful observation! The blog above proves how difficult it is to create “a paradigm shift in large organizations who are not typically like-minded, and to change attitudes and behavior at the individual level, which is challenging at best”! I guess that the 4690 lost lifes were investigated and it would be interesting to know how many of these unfourtunate events had “the safety professionals failed to do thier job” as either immediate or a root causes! I would like to suggest we are more likely to see “poor decison making and lack of safety leadership by management” than “the safety professionals failed to do thier job”. Texas City and the Transocean Winner in the Gulf Of Mexico are examples of where the real problem lies, “the dollar is king”. To suggest different is dangerous, it deflects the attention from where it should be focused. BP ignored the findings of several audits and inspections at Texas City in an effort to boost or maintain profits. Time and time again the safety professionals did their job carried out an audit or invstigation, made their recommendations and management choose to ignore “bad news”. The real challenge we face, is how do we support management so that they can accept “bad news” and act accordingly. Promoting safety professionals, by building their reputation as a group of people who should be taken seriously by senior management would probably be a good place to start?