Yes, this is absolutely a problem, and yes, this absolutely needs to be addressed here too! But for starters, it’s just best to keep in mind here that a lot of businesses don’t ignore safety because they’re cartoonishly reckless or sitting there twirling a villain moustache. Sure, that’s a funny picture to paint in your mind, and sure, unfortunately, there are more than enough news stories about businesses (be it the owners or managers) who seem genuinely evil and careless, your average business at least isn’t trying to be like that. Wreckless, sure, but intentionally careless? Well, very rarely at least.
Now, most businesses are more than aware of all the benefits that safety skills offer to employees; that’s a known fact, but usually the place is busy, the orders keep coming in, somebody’s trying to sort staffing, somebody else is chasing costs, and the safety side gets pushed into that dangerous little category of “deal with it later”. Yes, that’s usually what’s happening here, and later shows up when things go wrong. Therefore, it’s not exactly good timing or anything.
That’s usually the real issue. Safety standards often slip because they get pushed to the back burner, but there’s more to that, though.
Nothing Bad Has Happened Yet, So Everybody Relaxes
You know that Simpsons opening gag of “X amount of days since accident”, well, those “scoreboards” used to be quite common to see at plants, construction sites, and factories. So, at least when visibility was good, seeing a sign with numbers it was a reminder. But nowadays, those are incredibly rare. Therefore, this one catches loads of businesses out. If nothing’s gone properly wrong yet, people start treating that like proof the current setup must be fine.
For example, maybe the floor’s a bit cluttered, maybe training’s a bit patchy, maybe some of the kit should’ve been replaced a while ago, but because disaster hasn’t arrived, well, everyone is fine, and it’s like being risky isn’t a big deal. So things get shrugged off when, in fact, they shouldn’t be.
Safety Spending Never Feels “Exciting”
It’s not fun and exciting to spend on compared to more staff, more equipment, more marketing, you get the idea here. But businesses love spending money on things that look like progress, and sure, technically, safety has progressed, but it’s just treated more as a tedious expense that nobody’s going to clap for. But just like in home/ personal life, it’s the “boring” spending that does the serious work.
For example, like replacing worn kit, sorting proper signage, improving procedures, investing in personal safety equipment for each staff member, and it’s true, it’s not fun or even remotely thrilling spending a penny on any of these. But in the long run, you’re saving money, you’re making more progress, less chance for fines, a lawsuit, and so on.
Sometimes, Growth Starts Outpacing Common Sense
Which, yes, it’s very unfortunate, but sometimes (not always), this can happen. So, think about it; a business grows, more people come in, more stock moves around, more jobs are happening at once, and so the old way of doing things doesn’t fit the place anymore. Basically, what felt manageable with five people starts feeling a lot shakier with fifteen, but nobody’s really stopped to catch up.
So it gets to a point where safety standards are left behind, training hasn’t even kept up, and sometimes even the physical environment is doing more than what it’s even set up for originally.
