Posted By Clare Gabriel
Is there anyone else out there who is becoming totally jaded by the continual knocking - and it is continual - we get from everyone from Terry Wogan, to Clarkson to heads of police forces?

Picking up on Chas' theme I am sure I am not alone in feeling that when you meet people for the first time you have to JUSTIFY whatyou do for a living. Along the lines of 'yes but this is about preventing workplace deaths not spoiling people's fun'. I had imagined that the knocking of the safety profession would eventually run out of steam but sadly it appears to have gathered more momentum as more ludicrous stories hit the media and in fact many get regurgitated (fireman not allowed up ladders, conkers bonkers etc).

I fully appreciate the responses from our President, the HSC Commissioners etc but has the time not come for us to fight back? Unfortunately this is where my creative juices run dry, but surely we deserve some good press for the good work we do? There seems to be little recognition for us grass roots professionals who get up day after day, take all sorts of flack but still continue to keep people safe at work - unsung heroes if you like (well if I don't say it no-one else will!!!)

Not really looking for responses just wanted to record my jaded feelings!!!

Posted By Raymond Rapp
Clare, don't get too disheartened. When the chips are down the media are very quick to point out health and safety failures. The concept is akin to 'there is no news like bad news...'

I can live with myself and sleep at night - that is the more important to me.

Ray

Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Clare

I can appreciate very much how you feel 'jaded' yet, while I respect your choice about not wanting any 'responses', I'm sad that you apparently chose the option of merely echoing the behaviour of 'knockers' by simply 'knocking' them.

If you want to move on from being 'jaded', may I respectfully suggest that you consider learning from the research of one of the world's leading researchers on ethical persuasion, Robert Cialdini.

His books 'Influence Science and Practice' and 'Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion' are clear summaries of experimental research directly relevant to the cynicism about which you complain, and illustrated with hundreds of practical examples. (Cialdini himself worked in advertising, selling and as a waiter in a smart Italian restaurant, in his early phase of research). They're available on Amazon.

If you listen carefully to a summary of his talk at The Royal Society of Arts on 12 November at www.rsa.org.uk, there's a good chance you'll see other options to remaining 'jaded'.

Posted By Bob Youel

In my opinion [x-sapper [9 para - 1968]] its a very recent situation; and positioned in a very small section of society; where squaddies are thought of as anything but the lowest of the low - it is still the situation that our lads have the poorest kit & conditions.

Unfortunately H&S is going the same way and worse as the squaddies; when there is little if any proof that adequate management costs £ and all all H&S is is adequate management!

Fight on regardless as a soldier would say or get out of the game

H&S advisers don't die they just fade away

Posted By Ghaam
Terry .... who?

Clarkson wears a suit jacket with jeans with a Pink Shirt and thinks he's cool!

Posted By David Bannister
I think it's the latest media game played by lazy journalists.

Now that politicians are boring (or hide it too well), estate agents are passé, Trade Unions have all but vanished, we appear to be the fashionable ones to knock.

Enjoy the limelight while it lasts. This is our Andy Warhol moment!

Use every opportunity to tell people what a good job we do, how bad the good old days really were and how each of us is motivated to improve the working conditions of our colleagues so they may die of old age, with all their bits intact.

Posted By Paul Duell
MT's response reminds me of a union H&S rep I used to work with:

"John, why do you care so much about Health and Safety?"

"Because my brother was killed in a workplace accident".

Thank God most of us don't have that kind of motivation, but he certainly always did a fine job on hearts and minds after that introduction.

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Clare

Nil illegitime carborundum!

Paul

Posted By Jonathan Breeze
Colin,

You obviously weren't listening to Today on Radio 4 at 8:45 this morning.

I heared a very spirited defence on the issue from the HSE.

You can listen again here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/

Posted By John Allen
If the question is about enjoyment in the job then it clearly still exists. However if it is “do I get despondent sometimes due to the continual uninformed flak that comes from the press” then the answer has to be yes. There does seem to have been an awful lot of it over the last few weeks to the extent that I haven’t bothered to read the "H&S Taliban" thread at all.

Here are some observations/comments:

If you need an antidote to our profession’s news coverage just read Private Eye occasionally, especially the “Street of Shame” section. It makes you realise how thoroughly disreputable, hypocritical and inconsistent our so-called national press are.

If you ever read the press coverage of an event you’ve been personally involved in, its usually wrong. Just remind people from time to time that this fact applies to everything they read, see or hear in the media.

Geoffrey Podger and Lisa Fowlie can write all the letters to the press they like to put the record straight but because of their position they will never exert enough influence on the media and thus the general public. What we need is a popular personality to take up the cause of safety in the way that Michael Palin and Jenny Augiter have for sustainable transport. The BBC are about to make geology “sexy” – surely someone can do the same for our profession?

The government’s chief medical adviser is a doctor; its chief legal adviser is a lawyer. I saw on TV the other day that the government’s adviser on fire safety is a former fire brigade chief. Why is safety the only profession which is not represented by a qualified practising professional at chief adviser level? There’s no point in complaining about lack of qualified professional advice being applied at grass roots level when the problem goes all the way to the top.

Posted By mark linton

Sorry to make a slight tangent on this discussion, but it was my understanding that the conkers and goggles decision was not made by an unqualified or inexperienced H&S Officer, it wasn't made by anyone at all. The story as reported was b******s, total fantasy (apologies to moderators).

I believe it was investigated during the writing of the TUC report '10 myths' and whilst two schools had banned conkers as an unspecified number of pupils had severe nut allergies and the potential for death was deemed unacceptably high - and I, for one am not going to argue with that. The goggles element had come in when a teacher at another school had tried to use it as a tongue in cheek example to his / her pupils of how compensation culture had changed how certain activities are done and the press missed the point entirely.

I love my job - remember the difference you make day to day and ignore what the papers, publish and be damned is my view.

Journalist's (columnist's most of all) like an easy life like the rest of us, so when a deadline is approaching and they have no story they think 'what will fill some column inches 'Ah health and safety' - so make up or exaggerate a couple of stories or write what some guy told you in the pub the night before and 500 words later, hey presto another myth is created, job done (ever noticed that the majority of these stories have limited, if any, facts attached to them)

Posted By DP
All professions get knocked - HR , Traffic Wardens the dreaded Estate Agents.

Look at yourself and the job you are doing and if? you are getting results and your place of work is safer because of your hard work then you'll do for me Clare for whats its worth.

DP.

Posted By Merv Newman
Tom,

I slightly disagree. if we are doing our job right nothing happens. Nobody dies, nobody breaks a leg.

That does not make the newspapers.

Now, if we could find a way of telling the press that British industry had saved umpteen billions of pounds and preserved thousands of jobs because of H&S ?

Would that make the headlines ? I doubt it. It's a naff subject.

Clare, stick with it. It really is a worthwhile job. Naff maybe, but it can be a lot of fun.

Merv

Posted By Pete48
Clare, it is the modern sickness. I watched a brief report this morning from the new St Pancras International Station. A triumph by any measure, a project on time and allegedly under budget; by all accounts a triumph of art and design (I haven't seen it in real life yet) and what does the reporter do??
He asks knocking questions about whether the money was well spent and whether it isn't just a huge great white elephant now that we have low cost air travel???!!! Imagine, for example, how the thousands who have worked hard to deliver this world class project felt about that?
Real cutting edge, investigative journalism? Nah. Designed to generate a scoop for 24 hour news channel and nothing more. Probably.

As long as you are proud of your profession and can remind yourself now and again of the real difference you make every day, what else matters?

philistines are philistines. (lower case spelling intentional) Their interest will pass onto other things soon enough.