A story: a classmate of mine in my master’s program in Human Factors and Systems Safety (@lunduniversity) who came from the world of safety in oil and gas construction told me a thing that new safety people were taught early on...(1/n)
“Always keep a bottle of Jack Daniels in your trunk.”
Why? Because sooner or later, someone will get hurt on the site and because it’s out in the middle of nowhere, you, the safety person, will offer to drive them to the nearest hospital. (2/n)
Why? Because sooner or later, someone will get hurt on the site and because it’s out in the middle of nowhere, you, the safety person, will offer to drive them to the nearest hospital. (2/n)
On the way, you say “hey, so it’s a bit of a long drive and you’re in some pain. If you want, you can take some swigs from this to at least help with the pain, it’s all I’ve got...”
Which, invariably, your passenger will take you up on.
Which, invariably, your passenger will take you up on.
Once you get to the hospital and they see alcohol in their blood, then guess what? You now no longer have an “accident” to report! It was ‘operating under the influence’, so the statistics will be unaffected...(3/n)
Which is great, because those stats greatly influences whether or not the company will get the next contract! And they won’t have to change the sign that says “it’s been X days since last accident”
This is how ‘gaming’ happens in non-tech safety contexts. (4/n)
This is how ‘gaming’ happens in non-tech safety contexts. (4/n)
My classmate said that this trick was (still is?) taught to newbie safety staff in construction. (fin)
