Hi all,
I am not an IOSH member, so I have to post in the Public Forum. I would like some advice regarding Safety Culture. At the moment I work as a Senior Engineer for an undisclosed renewables offshore company, but finished my NVQ3 and continue training to become H&S professional. In my job description I have some HSE duties, like making sure that all people in the areas under my responsibility wear full PPE. Apparently this only applies to operators, but not some of the senior staff. One person in particular refuses systematically to wear PPE. For more than one year I asked him to do so, until a few days ago I decided to report it to the site management. All process was done without mention to names or positions according to our “no blame policy”, but I opened the Pandora Box!
I was assigned my own observation card to solve it myself (a mistake from the Safety Officer in my opinion) and my line of action was to have a safety conversation with the person involved, something friendly and informal. He refused to talk to me and laugh. As he holds a higher position in the company I had no authority to do anything else.
This person and others stopped talking to me, and I even had some lonely coffee breaks for a few days. Obviously he continues to be everywhere without the minimum PPE and no action (to my knowledge) have been taken. In other hand, if one of the operators under my supervision works without PPE or buy their own PPE I am reminded to solve that situation and happy to so.
How would you handle this situation? Do I have to look to another side when senior staff breach the rules or put myself in a worse situation with my colleagues?

"The only reason forums like this exist is because no-one at work likes us safety professionals and we need people to talk to :)"

Tough skin is often required for the H&S role! I do think you/we need to take our own satisfaction from knowing that we have kept people safe, so far as is reasonably practicable, because of course it's somewhat difficult to point to the accident that did not happen and use that as an example of your good work.

Keep up the good work.

Regards.

Thanks all of you for your great advice. He thinks I encourage H&S because is what I study, but the truth is I study and do training on my free time because I believe in safer jobs.

Is your organisation signed up to the renewableUK H&S Accord? If so, what it says about Leadership (point 1) is relevant.

Also, is the H&S advisor you mention and IOSH member? If so they should be able to react appropriately to a confidential discussion, not just your observation card.

Does this person have a family? A possible 'way in' is to ask whether they would expect their son/daughter to comply if they were on site, and develop the conversation from there.

Good luck, keep looking for opportunities, including finding out why others are so reluctant to work with you. Allies are very useful, even if they are less ready than you to try to improve things.

Awful position to be in, I sympathise!

Slightly different take on the other good and sound posts if I may.

You are a Senior Engineer with some H&S responsibilities. You are accountable to a section or department head, any they will hold you accountable for what you are responsible for, including it seems H&S.

Email your line manager and copy the Safety Adviser each time it happens, not your responsibility to do something about, its theirs, it is your responsibility to report it.

You mentioned Safety Culture - your problem is that the "attitude" of this person, as demonstrated by their behaviour (not wearing PPE) is poor, and that detracts from the Safety Culture, one element of which is visible positive and exemplary behaviours (like wearing PPE etc.). Coach your email in those terms and if that doesn't ring alarm bells in the organisation I don't know what will!

Just my take.

Good luck.....And don't let it put you off pursuing a highly rewarding career in H&S.

Jorge

This title explains practical ways of sidestepping many of the problems you outline:
'The New Psychology of Leadership. Identity, Influence and Power'., S A Haslam, S D Reicher, M J Platow', Psychology Press, 2011

If you'd like a summary of a conference presentation account of contrasting applications of the 'social identity' approach these authors analyse, simply email me.

Jorge

What you outline is known as 'asymmetric conflict', where perceptions of conflict differ between you and at least one other, and possibly more, in your situation.

If you want access to lot of research-based information on your options, you can read; 'Conflict in Workgroups', in Social Psychology and Organizations, edited by D de Cremer, R van Dick and J K Murnighan, Routledge, 2012.

It's available at a modest price at www.amazon.co.uk

Good advice here.

Taking it a step further, the offender's line manager also has a responsibility for the offenders well being, so copy your emails to the line manager also. Keep records of your observations and conversations.

I assume your company has a director responsible for health & safety, is he aware because if something goes wrong he will the one in the dock if there is a HSE prosecution or having to explain a fee for intervention should the erstwhile member of management get caught during an HSE visit.

More I think about this, the more I don't like it. Sounds like a clear case of having the responsibility but no authority. I'd play holy hell with your Line Manager and his!

Jorge,

Sounds like an extreme version of what will happen to every safety professional at some point.

I would suggest that you record the issue and keep a record for the future. Also escalate the issue to your line management (or his) and make sure that it is clear you are passing the problem over because you do not have the means to deal with it.

After you have done this move onto something more productive and have some successes.

Chin up!