Below are your safety meeting topics for July. This month, I would like to discuss the, “Not my job” mentality. This month’s topic came to me after I had just returned from the ASSP (American Society of Safety Professionals) PDC conference in New Orleans where a few of the sessions I sat through were about taking ownership of safety and making safety personal for everyone. When I got home, my family and I needed to go grocery shopping. We had started walking down the soda aisle to grab a few things and when we got to the end, we came upon the mess shown in the photo above.

Now, the employee had taken the time to set out the wet floor sign from the spill kit but walked away from it and left it. Another employee had to come over and clean it up. Just shortly after this spill had happened, I heard over the speaker that there was a “wet cleanup in Aisle 18”. Now, the wet floor sign was in the spill kit mounted on one of the load bearing posts. In that kit was also a mop and some absorbent material to help clean it up. Instead of seeing an issue and taking care of it, this young man decided it wasn’t his job to do it. That was maintenance’s job. Luckily, no patrons or employees were injured due to this wet spot, but it got me thinking how many other employees are out there with the same mentality and how can we combat that mentality to make safety everyone’s job?

I was fortunate enough to sit through some outstanding presentations in New Orleans with some of the safety industries greatest thought leaders. One of their resounding messages has been you need to make safety personal so that everyone takes on the responsibility of it. It’s not just one person’s or one committee’s job, it’s everyone’s job.

In order to achieve that mentality, we may have to change our approach. Stop putting things in “silos” as they called it. Just because you have a safety committee or safety director does not mean that all employees shouldn’t be charged with ensuring the safety of their workplace and their fellow man. In order to achieve this, there needs to be a conversation between you and your employees that safety is everyone’s job. Just because it isn’t their area or it doesn’t directly affect them, they still need to address it because there may come a time that it is them in that situation and they would appreciate someone stopping an unsafe act or pointing out an unsafe condition BEFORE they were injured.

Take a few minutes to address the “Not my job” mentality this month with your employees and let them know it is everyone’s responsibility and not just a select few. If you need any help with this or any resources, head on over to our resource portal or call your local loss control rep for assistance or login information.

This Month's Safety Meeting Topics Personal Protective Equipment Preventing Hearing Loss Preventing Workplace Violence Set a Good Example