One way to avoid this is to talk it over with a senior manager first. They will often then think it's their idea. No rapped knuckles then!

Good points already by Jane and Zimmy, and perhaps a sad reflection on how some/many British managers feel that openly recognising initiative and good ideas from their employees somehow undermines their status and self-importance! Over the years I've encountered/observed various examples of this managerial attitude and guess that other forum users have done likewise. In one case while inspecting a factory for HSE I met a safety rep who was very alert and knowledgeable about practical solutions to problems regarding safety and other issues. However, he had an arrogant manager who couldn't accept any suggestions from what he evidently perceived to be a lowly employee. If it had been possible to swap the men's roles I suspect that safety and production at the factory would have improved. However, to avoid anyone thinking I've got a jaundiced view about managers, I'd better add that I've also encountered and heard of some good/excellent managers who do listen to their employees, irrespective of their role and status, and give recognition to constructive ideas and initiative, etc. Daisy - You'd better not ask your boss/es if they thought that the adverse wintry weather conditions yesterday would somehow prompt a surge in customers to showrooms selling furniture! If your company has showrooms in South Wales perhaps the boss/es somehow missed the 'red' warning of unusually severe weather for that area which had been issued in advance by the Met. Office and widely publicised on UK news channels!

This is quite common for managers in 'low risk' (their perception not mine) environments. Especially, in my life, with sales staff who seem to have some difficulty in accepting that they have any duties, or indeed any need for them, with regard to H&S. So a response from a manager that they don't have time for this 'safety stuff', or it is simply an unnecessary distraction, must be expected. On the face of it you seem to be suggesting that required controls from an approved risk assessment were not put in place simply because they are seen as getting in the way of selling? You will understand the implications of that but does your line manager and or the sales staff? Who approved the risk assessment? Or maybe the r.a. is simply too onerous or requires the wrong people to do the tasks thus proving their point? Or is it simply the content, method and timing of your message that has caused the problem? You need to be talking this one out with your line manager to determine which of those it is. As to any solution, one might ask does the risk assessment need changing or do managers need to be reminded by their line bosses of their safety duties? Or do you need to find a better way to send out safety messages to the managers? Seems to me those are some obvious choices. Whatever the outcome you have obviously recognised that you do have to overcome the setback of any suggestion that selling is more important than selling safely. In my experience that not only means the standard search for a mutual understanding but also occasionally getting it wrong along the way and sometimes even having your wrists slapped. Good luck.

You can guarantee though that as soon as someone has an accident it will be YOUR fault! Just take the rapped knuckle and next time you can email the "boss", put the suggestion to him/her that they send out the safety information and if they decline to do this then you will at least have a copy on your file to cover your backside. Don't not do it, just do it more covertly and make it their responsiblity with words like "I wouldn't want anyone to have an accident and sue us, at least if they are warned we have done everything that is reasonably practicable". The word "sue" is like a magic wand.

It sounds like they are upset not because you sent the email and they feel undermined. It sounds as if they didn’t like the message “don’t drive unless it is safe to do so” or words to that effect. If this is the case it makes you wonder if one or two days sales is worth risking the lives of their sales people (always good to feel valued). Personally if I had arranged for a salesperson to visit and they phoned to say they could not make it due to the very bad weather, I would not be bothered. If they turned up in the bad weather, I would think these people are put under a lot of pressure to make a sale, what is wrong with it they have to try so hard. But then I’m always suspicious of sales people. I bet the sales people do all they can to make a sale and get commission, so they will not make the decision not to drive lightly.