Forget About Luck

Safety is not a matter of luck; it has to be taken seriously. To begin with, you should understand that accidents do happen, and they happen to perfectly nice people like you and me. Yes, sometimes we are lucky enough not to get hurt, even when we do things that we shouldn’t do—like standing on the top rung of the ladder or trying to adjust a machine that hasn’t been de-energized, let alone locked out.

But we can’t and shouldn’t count on luck. We are too valuable to ourselves, our families, and our friends to trust our lives and limbs to plain dumb chance. Here are a few thoughts to keep in mind that will help us take safety seriously and make the effort to stay safe.

Observe and Obey Warning Signs

Every day we see safety signs in and out of the workplace that tell us that something may not be okay to do. The next time you see a sign that you may have passed many times without paying attention to, try reading the words. Think about the caution that the words convey. Then ask yourself if there might not be a very good reason that the warning sign has been posted. There probably is, so why not take the warning?

Many of us retain the somewhat childish habit of rejecting advice given to us by someone in authority. We know better, of course, because we aren’t children anymore, but that can be a hard habit to break. Break it we must, though, if we take safety seriously, since we are not only valuable human beings, but, like all human beings, we are vulnerable. A warning is worth paying attention to.

Be Willing to Ask for Help

Another thing we don’t really like to do, like listening to others, is relying on others for help. But sometimes, in order to stay safe, we have to accept the fact that we can’t do a particular job all alone. We have to say to a co-worker, "Will you give me a hand?s Are you too proud to say those words? Too shy? Reluctant to bother someone in the middle of that person’s own work?

Those are easy reasons to understand—but they aren’t worth getting hurt for. You don’t have to be too proud, because everyone needs help once in a while. You don’t need to feel shy, because your co-worker has the same problems that you do. And you don’t have to get hurt just to avoid interrupting someone else—after all, wouldn’t you be glad to give someone else a minute or two of your time in order to prevent an injury?

Appreciate Teamwork

It takes everyone working together cooperatively in the workplace for everyone to be really safe. You can do a lot to maintain your own safety, but you can’t be totally safe all by yourself. Why not? Because there’s always the possibility that someone else may cause the accident that will do harm to others—including you.

That’s why we all have to watch out for everybody, making safety a team effort. Teamwork means taking the time to show someone else the safe way to do the job, to point out a condition you think may represent a danger, to ask someone if they know the right way for you to do something new. Cooperation of this sort is necessary because we are all in this together—not just in the workplace but in life itself. And life, like work, is not only safer and more productive, but even more fun when we cooperate.

The essence of safety is the realization that we are too valuable to leave our well-being to chance. That makes us want to take care of ourselves—to take our jobs, and our safe performance of them, seriously—and also to protect those working at our side.