Does your workplace care about your safety? This blog post considers the warning signs. No matter what kind of professional you are, you’re a human being first. That means you’re vulnerable, as we all are. You shouldn’t have to accept a dangerous job unless you are explicitly made aware of the risks. You must be fairly compensated for the added challenge, and full safety measures have been integrated to mitigate any threat. This is how oil workers on independent sea stations, law enforcement, or even chefs in a blisteringly hot kitchen all day are prepared, to various degrees, and against various threats.
Does your workplace care about your safety? They might be saying all the right things, of course, as they have to pass the auditing checks. But the truth is that safety isn’t just a vocal commitment or even a policy change, it’s a practiced reality. Safety can be considered or disregarded at any moment. From a boss asking you to lift a heavy object without proper safety training, or failing to restore your safety equipment. On the flipside your manager might let you go home early if there’s a sweltering heatwave.
How do you assess if your managers and workplace are genuinely interested in your safety or not? In this post, I cover all of that and more:
Does Your Workplace Care About Your Safety? Infrequent To Rare Safety Training
Safety is not just a luxury process you voluntarily engage in. It has to be baked into every working process you engage in during an average shift. If you’re only getting a quick rundown in training when you start, that’s not great.
After all, what may require safety planning now could change in a little while. Often, threats change and new risks pop up.
Usually, this involves refresher courses or sending out updates. It could involve excellent, process-specific measures such as ADR courses to properly handle chemicals while keeping everyone protected. If you’ve been at a workplace for a while with no safety training, or your colleagues can’t remember the last time they had a course, this is a sign safety is hardly a top priority within that space.
Does Your Workplace Care About Your Safety? Slow Reactions To Safety Reporting
The truth is that even in a perfectly trained workforce and a well-curated building, safety issues can and do occur. Maybe the shutter doors are caught, black ice is present outside on the driveway, or there are no longer safe places in a warehouse to store materials.
If you find that reporting these issues is commonly met with silence or even an accusatory tone, that’s a deeply worrying prospect. Putting it simply – when you point out a safety issue, it shouldn’t disappear into a black hole. Good workplaces take that seriously. look into it, let you know what’s happening and even thank you for your communication and responsibility.
You should see some action, even if it’s just a temporary fix. If you’re getting brushed off or told “We’ll look into it” over and over, it might be worth checking just how much of a pattern this has become. Every day, safety reports save lives. That’s why having them ignored is so dangerous.
Improper Safety Equipment Replacement
Safety gear is great, and its presence is encouraging. However, time goes by and that equipment is no longer as protective or capable as it once was. Wear and tear affects safety equipment over time. If a construction safety helmet is hit with an impact, replace it, You never know what hairline cracks might cause a safety failure next time.
Simply put – safety gear wears out. If you’re stuck with old, worn-out equipment that never gets replaced because of “operational costs,” that’s a problem. Good businesses keep on top of this and also perform daily checks on their safety gear to ensure an employee never has to find out about issues the hard way. If you’re always having to ask for new items, or if requests get ignored, it’s a sign that short-term savings are more important than you potentially being harmed.
Effective Punishment For Reporting Errors – Does Your Workplace Care About Your Safety?
Getting in trouble because you reported a safety issue shouldn’t happen. Anyone sidelined after whistleblowing will know consequences can be severe but also subtle.
Reporting a safety hazard is not “bad form”. People should never be penalised for reporting safety issues. If you hear about people getting shifted to worse shifts or passed over for promotions after speaking up, that’s bad news. If there’s a feeling that it’s better to keep your head down, safety’s not the priority in your workplace.
No Accountability Measures
There should be clear rules about who’s responsible for what when it comes to safety. A good workplace will, generally, allow the buck to stop with the manager on shift or those responsible for overseeing safety, not the worker who made a mistake.
This way, if something goes wrong, it shouldn’t be a big mystery about who dropped the ball. Good workplaces have systems in place and care little about their reputation if it means they can avoid an injury. They also invest in good standards, such as regular audits or clear reporting lines. If it feels like safety is “everybody’s job but nobody’s responsibility,” then who will take charge if an issue happens? A common misconception is that accountability is more focused on pointing fingers than implementing lasting change, but that’s certainly not the case in good workplaces.
Does Your Workplace Care About Your Safety?
With this advice, we hope you can more easily identify the warning signs that your health and potential safety is not being prioritised as it should. We can’t determine your professional choices for you, but in these cases, prudent advice would be to find other opportunities and escalate the issue externally.
