Do you wear the safety hat at your company, too? Ever wonder whether your efforts are hitting home? A satirical piece in the mock-newspaper, The Onion, may have a kernel of truth when it comes to how employees view company safety programs.
Hiring, firing, retention, benefits. Oh, can you head up our safety program, too? It’s not an unusual situation for HR pros, specifically at smaller companies.
If that’s the case, you’re working hard enough keeping up with safety program needs, let alone gauging worker reaction.
So you have to wonder whether there’s a bit of truth in a satire from the mock-newspaper, The Onion.
For those not familiar with the faux-news source with the vegetable nickname, it’s meant to be taken lightly. But still …
With that in mind, author “Gary Krumenacher” responds to the fictitious Red River plant’s posting of signs that read, “On-The-Job Safety Is No Laughing Matter.”
Au contraire says Krumemacher: “The funny thing about on-the-job safety is how the higher-ups act like its importance never crosses the minds of the actual on-the-job people.”
Example: A sign says: WARNING! MOLTEN STEEL! “As if we weren’t aware,” says the made-up factory worker. “Excuse me, but I’d been working here three seconds when I noticed the searing wall of heat coming off the vat of liquid steel.”
On the other hand, Krumemacher says he’d been working at the plant for a month before he noticed the safety signs.
What else does catch the worker’s attention? Not the “safety experts” who show up with “intact sets of fingers and toes.”
It’s real-life accidents that get their attention, like “a machine that squeezed Bob Atherton’s left arm like a zit until his fingers popped off.”
