Posted By Gordon Thelwell

If you can keep your hard hat when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all managers doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting for budgets,
Or being whispered about, don't deal in whispers,
Or being hated, don't give way to bullying reports,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise at IOSH meetings:
If you can assess--and not make assessments your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two reportable incidents just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by reps to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your method statement to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tool box talks:
If you can make one heap of all your written warnings
And risk it all on one turn of a risk matrix,
And lose, and start again at your S.O.P
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "It’s not safe!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your hi viz jacket,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common sense,
If neither EHO’s nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minutes of a H&S meeting
With sixty seconds' worth of fire escape route distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Health and Safety inspector my son!