Posted By Nigel Hammond
I suspect you have started a long and controversial thread! I think all the descriptions you have given are correct!

I also think most people consider health & safety to be dull, tedious and something they would rather ignore. So, our role is to make it accessible, interesting and to persuade people to take ownership for managing risks at every level.

I also think it is our role to understand management systems such as OHSAS 18001, HSG65, BS8800 and to apply them within the management systems that already exist in the workplace. This way we can ensure continuous improvement.

Posted By david cairns
THE "SAFETY PROFESSIONAL"



Sandwiched tightly between Top Brass and the teaming masses sits a
wild-eyed individual madly singing a safety tune. He's the most misunderstood, maligned and unsung person in all the world of business. He's the proverbial "SAFETY PROFESSIONAL".

This fellow's a little bit of all strata's...A member of none. To the employee or worker he's a tool of management; to management, he's just another employee.

He finds his job interesting. He speaks for management from the "Ivory
Tower" and then runs out to the Production Area, Warehouse or Work Site
To hear how it sounds. He must keep his head in the "brass' board room", his feet in the muck.... a difficult position to keep from falling on his butt.

He has the curiosity of a cat...The tenacity of a mother in law...the determination of a taxi driver...the nervous system of a race car driver...the digestive capacity of a goat...the simplicity of a jackass...the diplomacy of a wayward husband...the hide of a rhinoceros...the speed of a rocket and the good humor of an idiot.

He has the busiest, shrewdest, plottingest, worryingest, most thoroughly washed brain of any human. His mail basket is always full, his desk is a constant mess and his calendar looks like cave drawings. Nobody has been given the run-around as often, has been passed so many bucks, is left holding so many bags, and has cut his way through so much red tape.

The SAFETY PROFESSIONAL keeps the coffee plantations, aspirin plants, liquor distilleries and the midnight oil companies in business. He must tread lightly over mountains of eggs, knowing where to tread and, more importantly, when and where NOT to tread. You'll find him everywhere...shouting loudly over the din of a bunch of roaring engines, whispering softly in the hallowed precincts of thick-carpeted offices.

Whenever there is an accident, the SAFETY PROFESSIONAL is often called in to explain why and how it happened. He's expected to pull rabbits out of nonexistent hats; when the job is thankless, he gets it. He must engender interests in good housekeeping to people who live in garage sale clutter ...promote wider responsibility to people who have a narrow focus ...Preach safety to people who think they don't need it. He must listen to the phrase, 'that's always the way we've done it," until he vomits.


Despite all the careful planning he is usually found dangling on a deadline...he's the original cat on the hot tin roof...in the middle of a muddle and of course LATE. The master of understatement, he must make fire protection sound as essential as religion and an accident cost sound like the national debt.

He's suppose to be a "specialist" who can breath new life into committees and meetings... leadership into management... cooperation into supervisory personnel... responsibility into employees/workers. He must inspire without propaganda... propagandize without being obvious. He parks his 1980's jalopy between the boss' new Mercedes and the janitor's SUV. When he's clever, it goes unnoticed...when he stubs his toe, the world is there to see and mock it.

To him a headache is normal; he'd have ulcers if he could afford them.
He has more critics than Harry Truman. He meets more people who think they know more about safety than the company has conveyor hooks.

He can never be right. When he simplifies, he's pandering. When he gets a little technical, he's over their head. Half the people wonder what he does... the other half know what he does but think he's doing it wrong!
When an idea turns out lousy and after the blame has been thoroughly kicked between the employee/worker, foreman and supervisor, it winds up in his lap.

More people bend his ear than anybody else's. Everybody thinks he always has time to stop and listen to a joke...hear a gripe...attend a meeting... serve on a committee. He does, and winds up taking most of his work home.

He has no peer in the realm of praise, propaganda and procrastination.
He knows he's right; only the world thinks he's wrong. If he has an idea, it was stolen. However, a stolen idea is research! Where else do you think the background material for this sad tale of woe about a Safety Professional originated?


Keep the Faith,


(Author Unknown)

Posted By Sean Fraser
David,

As Catbert once said "I like the cut of your giblets!"

:-)

Sean

Posted By Sean Fraser
Peter,

Can you elaborate on your answer? What is it that causes you such offence?

Posted By Sean Fraser
Peter,

You've possibly mistaken my intention as being the same as the post that appeared later in the day regarding a portrayal on the radio of the safety man as an object of pillory - that is a different debate.

What I am asking for is a reasoned debate on how we see ourselves as professionals, as I am currently doing an informal study on the subject out of my own curiosity. Perhaps it would be best at this point to enter my own view as an example.

I see myself as a professional, not a seat-filler. My purpose is two-fold:

* To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of the whole health and safety field (including engineering, occupational health, medecine, employee welfare and management systems among others) and compare and contrast it all against what my organisation does, interpret the requirements and guide appropriate (and proportionate) actions to address them through consultation and engagement of those involved, and

* Educate and lead by example on the application of the simplest yet most powerful message of all - hazard identification, risk perception and proportionate and effective action.

I don't see myself as a nit-picker - in fact, I am often having to challenge responses that I deem to be OTT or knee-jerk reactions that might "look good" at first but would create needless problems later. One important function is to act as a sense-checker - prompting others to seek sound knowledge to underpin their decisions and not simply act on gut instinct or what "looks good" or worse, done to offset the spectre of legal proceedings that will probably never happen. A well-run business that gets it's people involved shouldn't really get to that position anyway, should it?

My ultimate aim is that the personnel themselves are the safest tool we use - by encouraging them to understand the "why" and therefore generate their own "what". I don't see my position as a rule setter or enforcer.

Safety management has developed a poor image over time and this is a result of many things - but I'm not concerned with what the "average man on the street" currently thinks. That is something else that we debate here and it is a valuable contributor to us as a profession taking steps to remedy that image. If we ignore the issue, push it aside, summarily dismiss it - then we are not understanding why we have this image and hence what we can do to change it. My belief is that we need to take pride in what we do, believe we contribute and to present a consistently professional image that people can admire.

What I want to know is OUR own view of our own profession, for therein lies the future, not the past.