An Awesome Safety Motivator or Pure Evil?
Safety Officers around the world have latched onto this piece of prose (below) for use in tool box talks and safety flyers, one describing it as “An awesome motivator to use when the crew needs a good pick me up”. The current manifestation of this, floating around the net in various forms, is a reincarnation of an article, “Who Am I – I am Carelessness” published in The Pittsburg Press in 1917! . You would think we had come a long way since then as far as understanding what semiotics “do” to people. It was also resurrected in the 70’s to create fear over the abuse of alcohol.
When I questioned the effectiveness of this “fire and brimstone” and suggested it could cause more harm than good I was asked something like whether I “had ever wrapped up a bloody, mangled arm or told someone their loved one would not be coming home after they did something stupid”! Wow – is this what safety is all about and how safety people want to be perceived? I am told this safety “technique” is rife in the Oil and Gas Industry?
What do you think? Motivator or Harmful? How effective would this be in reality?
Some related articles: Anxiety and Fear Professionals / Why Cant Safety Be a Positive Thing?
Transcript:
WHO AM I? (Sometimes titled “OUR ENEMY”)
I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world. I have destroyed more than all wars of the nations. I sear, dismember, maim and massacre thousands of people every year. I am more deadly than bullets or missiles, tornadoes or hurricanes and I have wrecked more homes and jobs than the mightiest siege of guns. I steal billions every year from hard workers like you. I spare no one. I find my victims among the rich and poor alike, among the young and old, the strong and weak, the high level and low level workers. Widows and orphans know me well. I rise to such proportions that I cast my shadows over every field of professional as well as non-professional, from the humblest labourer to the nuclear scientist. I kill thousands of employees each year. I lurk unseen and do my best work silently. You have been warned against me. Yet you heed me not. I am relentless, merciless and cruel. I am everywhere. On land and sea and in the air, in the home, on the job, on the streets and highways. I bring sickness, degradation and death. Yet few people make a real effort to seek me out to destroy me, avoid me or even take me seriously. I destroy, poison, crush, maim, mangle, cave in, engulf, cut, burn and tear. I give nothing but take all you have. I am your worst enemy.
I AM CARELESSNESS.
(sometimes ended “I am the UNSAFE ACT” or “I am ALCOHOL”)
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below