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I have been involved in health and safety for 20 years now...that is what my IOSH membership renewal pointed out. I stopped and thought, in all that time how many accidents must I have stopped happening, how many potential near misses have I avoided, how many people have I turned into health and safety people and have I actually stopped people dying at work?? Strange thought but most health and safety professionals do under value themselves.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Originally Posted by: Birchall31628  I have been involved in health and safety for 20 years now...that is what my IOSH membership renewal pointed out. I stopped and thought, in all that time how many accidents must I have stopped happening, how many potential near misses have I avoided, how many people have I turned into health and safety people and have I actually stopped people dying at work?? Strange thought but most health and safety professionals do under value themselves.
If no one has died in a company that you have been H&S bod, then you've done a great job, that's how I look at it.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Originally Posted by: Birchall31628 Strange thought but most health and safety professionals do under value themselves.
And their employers (yes as per Ray I intended this to mean employers undervalued H&S professionals) Fantastic - message "you can't post for the next 0 seconds" it must be Friday and now the security message has changed to something unreadable. Edited by user 03 March 2017 10:30:06(UTC)
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Originally Posted by: Birchall31628 I have been involved in health and safety for 20 years now...that is what my IOSH membership renewal pointed out. I stopped and thought, in all that time how many accidents must I have stopped happening, how many potential near misses have I avoided, how many people have I turned into health and safety people and have I actually stopped people dying at work?? Strange thought but most health and safety professionals do under value themselves.
I disagree...most employers under value health and safety professionals.
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 1 user thanked RayRapp for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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One of the great imponderables of life: how can we measure what we have prevented from happening? From memory I joined in 1994 but prior to that I was heavily involved in industrial and commercial fire prevention since the mid-1970's. Instictively I know that there are people alive and healthy because of my work and I therefore have great personal pride and satisfaction from my career. My current employer thinks very highly of me but refuses a pay-rise (I'm self-employed) because he says he can't afford it, but keep doing the good work!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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As David says, one never knows, but after 35 years in H&S I would say that there is a good chance that somebody did act on my advice during that time!
There is however one incident that I remember well after we had run a "safety roadshow" visiting various locations & one of the themes was the benefits of using an RCD.
Weeks later, one guy approached me & asked to shake my hand. It transpired that following his visit he purchased a second-hand soldering kit & an RCD. He then told me that there was a defect in the electrical kit & the RCD had kicked in. Afterwards he was told by a qualified sparks that the RCD
had probably saved his life.
Whether this was the case or not I will never know, but his warm expression of gratitude was something I remember to this day.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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It is near impossible to prove a negative.
I guess if you work at a company and the number of accidents decreases you could say you prevented that many accidents...
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1 user thanked WatsonD for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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This year i've bitten the bullet and decided if companies don't take your advice and your just there to plug a gap in their management structure then its time to move on. And what a relief its been, my main aim on a daily basis is to get every single guy on a construction home safe to their families, if i can do that on a daily level then it makes all the years training worthwhile, despite what i get called sometimes!!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Strange thought indeed. Self aggrandisement is unlikely to win the profession any favour.
"Health and Safety" is everyone's responsibility. I've been 'involved' all my working life (and I've had many jobs).
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Rank: Super forum user
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Originally Posted by: Ron Hunter Strange thought indeed. Self aggrandisement is unlikely to win the profession any favour.
"Health and Safety" is everyone's responsibility. I've been 'involved' all my working life (and I've had many jobs).
Self-aggrandisement is a harsh term.
Our profession currently is not looked on with great public admiration due to a combination of over-zealous paper-pushers, sarcastic and sometimes hostile media and too few of us shouting what good work we do. Why should we be on the defensive all the time? Most of the professions have been "guilty" of poor practices at some time but are largely well thought-of (perhaps not all!) whilst we have failed miserably to put right what has been negatively said of us. Perhaps IOSH should shoulder some of the responsibility for this failure but it must be down to each of us to promote the good we do. Sadly, we can rarely produce measurememnts that prove our worth.
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2 users thanked David Bannister for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I am proud to have had a career in OH&S
I am proud to have worked with a number of teams to promote OH&S
I am proud to have assisted employees through occupational health & counselling schemes.
I am proud to have had the privilege to tutor students on a variety of courses & taken pride in their achievements.
I guess I am just proud to have been involved in such a worthwhile vocation....
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1 user thanked Zyggy for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Whenever I am asked what field I work in, and respond, if I encounter the the groans that emanate from some people, I usually counter this by saying that the work I do, and thousands like me, helps in some way to save lives, and I'm not about to apologise for this.
It is hard to quantify the results of our work, though, as these are often 'negative' results rather than an identifiable positive outcome.
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2 users thanked biker1 for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I think we should have a version of the Health and Safety Oscars, only we'll get someone else apart from PWc to do the votes
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3 users thanked gerrysharpe for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Not sure about that, it looks like it would generate a lot of WRULD's, if that picture is anything to go by. (caveat - providing the attendance was made compusory by your employer, and so not just on a frolic of your own)
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1 user thanked chris42 for this useful post.
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