OK, I am the safety guy at work, so I think I can have a say here. Is safety #1. No. Is safety very important? Yes! Fortunatley at my work they do take safety important, so I rarely have to "sell" safety. However I have learned that you do have to sell safety. First of all to sell safety to management you can show that the indirects costs of an accident are much more than the direct costs of an accident. This is also wasted money to a company. Now don't take this the wrong way. Yes you do get an injured worker back, however if you prevent this injury than you do not have to spend this money in the first place.

Yes I also have to sell safety to the employees. Many of them will say that it will take too long to do what I recommend, or that it is a pain in the a$$ to do it. To the employees I tell them that sure the company will get a ding and have to spend some money. However they are the ones that are going to be in pain. Accidents hurt! No one should go home hurt. For example, hearing protection. We have some areas where employees have to wear hearing protection. Some people don't like to wear the ear plugs, so they will not put them in all the way. I tell these people that sure they can fool us and not wear the hearing protection properly, however they will be the ones when they are 50 going "What, what did you say, I cannot hear you." So they have to take care of themselves.

I think my messages are getting across, we had a good year last year. Then this year we had some problems. We had one day that 2 people got injured. I told my wife that I was having a bad day. She was talking to people at her work and someone said that they were having a bad day. She said sure when you have a bad day you break a part, when my husband has a bad day people get hurt. I called a special toolbox meeting the next day to focus their attention to safety and told them what my wife told me. Since then we have not had an accident. (Knock on wood)

I know that may job in to be a pain in the a$$. I try and do it with reason and not too much interference. I also know that I can NEVER come into work with a broken are or something like that. I think of this everytime I am on a ladder working on my house.

Well I have more to say, but I already think this has been too long.
Scott