Safety Supervisors Have The Toughest Job

The Safety Supervisor has the toughest job. The Safety Supervisor is responsible for upholding the safety procedures at every moment of every day. And the job can be thankless.

Not only is the Safety Supervisor in a leadership position, but he or she is being watched like a hawk – by the people whose responsibility it is for the Safety Supervisor to watch over. The Safety Supervisor is the ultimate example of leading by example because people are watching. And if the Safety Supervisor does it differently than how the manual reads, he or she has set a new rule and procedure on the job.

For example:

• If a Safety Supervisor exceeds the speed limit by just one mile per hour - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor talks on the cell phone while driving and doesn’t pull over - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor rolls through a stop sign and continues driving - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor steps over a hazard on a job site and doesn’t address it - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor forgets his or her safety glasses in the truck and enters the job site anyway - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor overlooks just one procedure - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor is not courteous in traffic - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor sees a worker without full PPE and turns the other way - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor’s paperwork isn’t meticulous - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor is hung over at work - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor overlooks just one worker’s safety (especially the guy that the Safety Supervisor doesn’t much care for personally) – new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor doesn’t pull his entire crew out of an unsafe job site - new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor doesn’t address a renegade worker’s challenge and remove him from the job site immediately – new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor doesn’t stand up to the job site bully – new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor doesn’t fire a worker who purposely created a hazard on the job site – new rule.
• If a Safety Supervisor has a bad day and takes it out on the crew – new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor doesn’t foster an Attitude of “watch each others’ backs” on the job site – new rule.
• If the Safety Supervisor leaves a job site before all safety concerns have been addressed – new rule and a new Safety Supervisor I would hope.

SAFETY ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The job of the Safety Supervisor is not easy. In fact, out of all of the jobs in your organization, I would hazard a guess (pardon the pun there) that the job of the Safety Supervisor is the toughest, most thankless and most difficult of all of the jobs.

Being a company policeman is not easy. People don’t like to have their work inspected and worse yet; don’t like to be told that it’s not good enough. Workers don’t like to be told to put on their gloves – it makes some feel like they’re being treated like little kids.

But it can also be incredibly rewarding. Getting a crew to buy into a Safety Attitude and achieving “zero” as a result has got to be one of the best feelings in the world. But the job is still tough. Because while the full crew gets to share in the celebration of “zero,” anything less than “zero” the Safety Supervisor faces alone.

It’s a tough gig and it requires a lot of mental toughness. But then a Safety Attitude is important and not everyone has what it takes to be a Safety Supervisor.