Study Explains All The Crappy Drivers

A recent study by the Alberta Motor Association Foundation For Traffic Safety had me scratching my head and being a little more vigilant in my defensive driving:

• 89% of Alberta drivers on the road today couldn't pass the written Learner's test if they had to write it today.
• 82.3% of survey participants reported having more than 10 years experience

Umm, that's not good news. That means that 89% of your drivers, driving their own vehicles and likely some company vehicles couldn't pass the Learner's Permit Written Test.

How about over the next week or so, you ask each of your drivers on-staff to take the Class 7 Driver’s License Free Online Practice Test Questions. I jumped the gun a little on a few questions and didn't think them through and scored a 94%. What would happen if, for just a moment, one of your people jumped the gun and wasn't thinking clearly about what they were doing in the moment?

Let's make sure that basic safety is instilled. Don't ever assume that your people know the rules of the road just because they have a driver's license already. A lifetime of bad habits can make a bad driver forget the rules.

Parents Influence With Unsafe Actions

Safety Attitude extends beyond the company walls and far beyond the 8-4 workday. Safety Attitude is what you need to help your people develop so that they can go home and stress the importance of a Safety Attitude amongst their family members.

I followed a car on the highway for about 20 miles last weekend. The car had originally passed me while a 30-something female driver was text messaging on her phone. Once past me, she pulled into the lane in front of me and drove the same speed as I was driving. I watched her SUV sway from side-to-side in the lane, occasionally hitting the shoulder or putting two wheels over the line. After witnessing this stupid behavior for some 20 miles, I pulled alongside (never exceeding the speed limit since in addition to side-to-side driving, her speed was erratic) and finally blew my horn while wagging my finger at her. She finally put her phone down because she knew what she was doing was wrong and she had been caught.

Yep, she's going to be a great mom - showing her children the unsafe way to drive. Any advice she gave to her children to the contrary would be hypocritical.

Please, please, please start an initiative at your workplace to educate your people about the dangers of texting while driving as well as the dangers of talking on the phone while driving. Teenagers don't normally use their phones for talking - unless they're driving. If they need to talk with someone so badly, encourage them to travel with a friend who can text for them. Do something to help the kids understand that they're flirting with disaster.

Suggest to your employees to check their kid's phones and to be diligent about matching up texting times with driving times and to take their phones and car privileges away if they break the rules. 

The last thing your workplace needs is to be attending the funeral of a co-worker whose child was tragically killed while texting or talking on the cell phone in the car.

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Highest Workplace Suicide Professions

Think that dentists have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions? No so fast.

According to a new report from the Institute for Work & Health, heavy equipment operators and truck drivers are taking their lives more now than ever. Also, skilled/technical/supervisory workers along with semi-skilled workers account for two-thirds of all suicides among Canadian men in the workplace.

Men commit suicide four times as often as women.

Several other occupations are associated with “protective effects” against suicide for men (which means occupations to watch for signs of suicidal tendencies). They include:

• management and administration,
• mathematics,
• systems analysis,
• architects,
• engineers,
• community planners,
• elementary school teachers
• commodities traders.

No equivalent occupations for women were identified.

You can read the report yourself. What's your strategy to continue to foster a Culture of Safety at your workplace?

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

The Bully Is About To Be Bullied

So what do you think happens when a high-school bully enters the work world and has a bully for a boss? The bully learns how the business world works through the eyes of another bully. In fact, the bully becomes just like his boss - so much so that he becomes almost a mirror of his boss. So when it comes time for succession, guess who gets the nod? The guy just like the last guy.

The province of Ontario is set to pass a bill (Bill 168) making workplace harassment illegal. The new law will come into effect this month. It requires employers to develop and communicate workplace violence prevention policies, assess the risks of workplace violence, and take reasonable precautions to protect workers from domestic violence in the workplace. Ontario will be the third province to legislate against workplace violence and harassment, along with Quebec and Saskatchewan.

New research from Queen's University's School of Business indicates that workplace bullying can be more damaging than racial or gender harassment.

"While ethnic harassment and gender harassment can both be attributed to prejudice, general workplace harassment is a subtle form of mistreatment that masks underlying motives, and is not as easily attributed to bias," say report authors Jana Raver of Queen's School of Business and Lisa Nishii of Cornell University,

Caucasians reported higher levels of general workplace harassment than minorities, and women were not more likely than men to experience either gender harassment or general workplace harassment.

Raver and Nishii also found that general workplace harassment may be especially detrimental because unlike gender and ethnic harassment, it is not illegal in most of North America. A study released by Queen's University in 2008 also found workplace harassment to be more harmful than sexual harassment because of a lack of recourse for victims.

So, even if you're not in one of the three provinces affected by the new legislation, are you ahead of this or will you wait until the very last minute - until your legislated to do something about it? You can help your own Corporate Safety & Wellness Culture by being ahead of the legislation.

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Self Absorbed Drivers and Optional Signal Lights

Spend a little time in malls these days and you will no doubt hear it too: the cacophony of whiny children crying when they want something, crying when they are denied something, crying because it gets them attention. See the parents of children trying to control their kids (or not) at Starbucks as they attempt to enjoy their lattes while their kids, who need constant stimulation, get bored with a grown-up's coffee shop.

It exactly the way the parents of these children were raised too. They were told they were special and that the world revolves around them. Now they drive. Now they influence how their kids will drive. There are no consequences when they see their kids behind the wheel with phone glued to their ear, or worse, texting while they drive.

Signal lights have become an option in cars or maybe it just seems that way since it's impossible to signal a lane change while holding a phone in your left hand. Courtesy for other drivers is not taught. Hell, courtesy for others is not taught to these little self-absorbed teen and twenty-something drivers who have never been given consequences.

Perhaps mandatory sentences of one year license suspensions to any driver caught texting while driving and perhaps 3-5 demerit points to the parents of new drivers (under 21). Safety on the road is EVERYONE's responsibility, especially the parents of new drivers. Maybe it's time to get tough to ensure parents get their priorities straight, intervene and force courtesy and safety in their children and stop being so self-absorbed themselves.

If it were a job-site and a worker was injured due to the negligence of another worker, that second worker would face charges. So should parents of cell-phone-talking and texting teens while they drive.

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Overtime Or Heart Attack - You Decide

Who knew that working overtime could kill you? An 11-year study of 6,000 British civil servants doesn't provide absolute proof that overtime causes heart attacks but it does show a clear link - likely due to stress.

According to the report, "In all, there were 369 cases of death due to heart disease, non-fatal heart attacks and angina among the London-based study group -- and the risk of having an adverse event was 60 percent higher for those who worked three to four hours overtime. Working an extra one to two hours beyond a normal seven-hour day was not associated with increased risk."

Work/Life Balance is a key to health in the workplace. Giving every waking moment to your job is a lousy way of maintaining your physical and mental health. In fact, long hours creates other issues: poor diet choices leading to weight gain, improper sleep patterns leading to burnout and increased alcohol consumption in an attempt to wind down. And if you're a smoker, well it gets even worse.

As a manager, asking your employees to work an additional four hours of overtime is creating a health risk. Instead, perhaps offer some telecommuting time (a couple of days working from home where the boundaries between work and home are blurred giving a better sense of not feeling as much like work) or offering your people a chance to come in for a few hours on a weekend during the day so it's not a marathon time stretch.

Oh, and I suppose you might consider one more option instead of overtime: hire more people so you're not so short-staffed.

Feel free to show the news story to your bosses to get a budget bump for more people. Think about what could happen if an Injury Lawyer reads this story and can show that you worked your people too much overtime. It's going to cost you either way. Right now, you decide though.

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Worker Charged In Co-Worker's Death

I have said it time and again at each and every Safety Attitude presentation: workers are just as responsible as employers for the safety of their fellow workers.

Reading in the Calgary Herald today that the death of a worker in High River two years ago has created a new charge to be filed against the deceased's co-worker for failing to ensure the safety of his co-worker.

Pay attention Safety Supervisors. This has dire effects on how your crews look out for each other. In Alberta, the OH&S Act clearly states that a worker can be held responsible for the safety of their co-workers. Failure to do so will result in a charge. And the fine cannot be paid by the employer - the employee is on the hook for fines and jail time.

If you want to get the message across at your tailgate meeting today, here's the link to the story. Print it, make as many copies as there are crew members and make them read it in front of you. Then talk about it.

Do not let this opportunity to develop a Culture of Safety pass you by today. This is too important.

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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711
Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Necessary Part of Doing Business?

The recent West Virginia coal mine disaster has some serious implications - even more far-reaching than the deaths of the miners. The mine at Montcoal, West Virginia, is owned by Massey Energy. As reported recently by the New York Times, Massey Energy is one of the leading violators of safety procedures in the coal industry.

In fact, Massey CEO, Don Blankenship, was recently quoted as saying, "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process."

Did you get that? Safety violations are a normal part of mining? It is unbelievable that a CEO holds so little value in his people that he doesn't care that his operation will break safety rules? People die as a result - and yet he is still CEO and there seem to be no consequences.

According to Blankenship's words, if he has to risk lives to get the job done, he will choose chunks of rock over human life.

Is your safety program really based on protecting your people or are you just giving an illusion of safety?

Safety Attitude starts at the top and makes no room for "necessary" violations.

But it raises this question: how would you like to be the Supervisor of Safety working under this guy?


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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711

Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Embrace Life - Wear a Seatbelt - Video

Absolutely brilliant video for wearing a seatbelt. Safety Attitude begins at home - with family who want you to come home at the end of the day.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM
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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711

Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Security, Safety and Middle-Age

How old is Middle-Age? Is it 40 or 45 years-old or even 50? Isn't middle-age supposed to be the mid-point of your life? If you die in a car accident at age 40, was your middle-age then twenty years ago at age 20?

I ask this question because I was recently driving along a busy four-lane roadway with plenty of traffic signals and a lot of traffic. Traffic was moving at just under the posted speed of 60 kmh but there were lots of vehicles making lane changes, turning onto and out of side streets and, as a driver, you had to pay close attention.

Scanning my lane and the other westbound lane on my right, I caught a flash of a cell phone being used through the driver's window. As I pulled up alongside, the woman driving was texting on her phone. She was about 40 years-old - middle age.

I laid on the horn in an effort to scare her into paying attention to her driving. She got the message right away, dropped her phone into the passenger seat and shielded her face with her hand.

C'mon folks, safety isn't just a discussion for "boots" (people who wear work boots), safety is a discussion for "suits" too. Your family's future security depends upon your safety attitude in this moment.

How ironic would it be to be killed in a car wreck because you were texting new instructions to your Financial Planner about your retirement security?

Smarten up. Stop thinking safety doesn't affect you because you wear a suit to work.
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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711

Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!

Safety Culture By Fear is a Waste of Time

You will never achieve a Culture of Safety by attempting to scare the crap out of your people. That means that pictures of dismembered bodies, videos of workers with missing limbs and even bringing in speakers who have had terrible accidents happen (mostly through carelessness) does not create a Culture of Safety.

If you want to create a Culture of Safety you have to change the varying opinions of the workers. Culture is nothing more than a collection of attitudes within an organization. If you want to really develop a Culture of Safety, then you have got to change the attitudes that are driving your organization right now. Shocking and scaring your people into a safety mindset never lasts or ever takes off for that matter.

No safety program has had success because your employees were once shown a picture of a guy losing his arm in a machine. No safety program has ever had success because your employees watched a video of someone in the midst of a reportable incident. No safety program ever succeeded because you hired an accident-victim-turned-motivational-speaker to teach your people, "don't do what I did."

No, if you want to instill a Culture of Safety, you need to get the majority of your people on-side and create a self-policing, peer-based safety culture that looks out for each other, makes sure that everyone is working safely and chastises and ridicules those who chose to operate outside of the safety program. You need to find a way to get your people to make those who don't follow the safety culture to feel like outsiders and to be ostracized.

"We operate with a safety mindset around here," your people need to say. "If you don't want to play the way we play, then we don't want you around here. We're going to get you fired. Either get in line or get a new job."

That's the Culture of Safety you want. If that's not the culture you have right now, then your safety program isn't working.

Zero is real on every job site. There are no excuses - unless your culture accepts excuses.
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Kevin Burns - Corporate Safety Attitude/Culture Strategist
www.safety.kevburns.com
Toll Free 1-877-287-6711

Creator of the 90-Day System To Improve Safety Culture!