• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Safety Software / Are You a Safety Person or a Desk Jockey

Are You a Safety Person or a Desk Jockey

October 7, 2013 by Admin 1 Comment

Despite the the new efficiency afforded by technology it seems to be making us less effective?

Are You a Safety Person or a Desk JockeyConstruction contractor

sighhhh…. who remembers the good old days? no email, no mobile phones, no internet, nothing to do except go and meet face to face and chew the fat. Visit to the office was only to pick up your pay (cash). Then the Safety Bloke got his own computer and we called him "The Seagull" as he would sit up on his perch, would only come down when there was a free feed and then he would fly around, squawk a lot and crap all over everyone!

Is it just my twisted perception or are more and more safety people becoming slaves to the latest bit of software that they convinced the Board would make them more efficient and able to process and over analyse vast quantities of hitherto useless data and turn it into pie charts, calculate SIFR to 3 decimal places and save dozens of lives in the process! What’s that you say? "It’ll only take me six months to enter all the data and fine tune the parameters and then it will automatically send me an email telling me which site hasn’t been visited by me in over six months" – AWESOME!!! The late great George Robotham referred to this stuff as “displacement activities”.

Challenge for you – if you have the guts – each month stop producing and distributing 1 of the countless reports you are no doubt spinning out and see what happens – betcha no-one says a bloody thing! You only do these reports because you can and they only say they want them because they are too scared to say otherwise – they are more than likely filed directly in the round draw on the floor under the desk!

I was pretty impressed by the approach taken by Mark Jentsch on his Lunch Room Safety Consultant Blog

He started his unique consulting company after feeling that most consultants were polarising into “Zero Harm” vs “Buy my off-the-shelf safety management system“. Throw in a smattering of academics seeking to explain trends, but struggling to offer solutions. I felt that industry was rapidly become idealistic and overly risk averse. We have lost the plot”

His concept of The Lunch Room Safety Consultant harks back to when he achieved most of his biggest safety achievements: “These resulted from those casual conversations  that occurred in the lunch room. The unplanned, unstructured chats amongst colleagues that result in a problem, an idea and a practical solution. How very true is that – have a think about how many awesome solutions you have come up with sitting under a tree with a group of mates during a break or having a chat over coffee??

As Mark says: “keep in mind, it is easy to forget the wealth of knowledge that rests in our lunch rooms”.

Despite its power, Google cannot tell you what is going on at the coal face.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Safety Software, Zero Harm Tagged With: desk jockey, lunchroom safety, safety person, Safety Professional, Safety Software

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,500 other subscribers

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

A Leadership Worldview for Psychosocial Safety

Psychosocial Safety, Following-Leading in Risk

Not Just Another ‘Hazard’

Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?

How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety

ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do

The KISS of Death in Safety

Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health

The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’

The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Rob long on How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Rob Long on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Rob Long on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Matt Thorne on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Hurak Learning on How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Rob Long on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Paul Gentles on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Brent Charlton on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Rob Long on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • A Leadership Worldview for Psychosocial Safety
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators

Recent Posts

  • A Leadership Worldview for Psychosocial Safety
  • The Wisdom of the Beguines for Safety
  • How to Do the Best Risk Assessment
  • Tensions and Faultiness in Risk
  • Psychosocial Safety, Following-Leading in Risk
  • Free Program on Due Diligence
  • Not Just Another ‘Hazard’
  • Work-Life and Risk, Feminine Perspectives
  • Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Free Download – Real Risk – New Book by Dr Robert Long
  • Proving Safety
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • Harming People in the Name of Good
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Risk and Safety Maturity
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Is Safetyism Destroying a Generation?

Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts

The Soul of Mental Health

Stop the Train I Want to Get Off

The Dance of Death and Randomness

A Culture of Care (and sackings…)

Censorship and Taboos in Safety

International Workshops – Belgium

Selective Harm for Rio Tinto

Adversarialism and the Politicisation of Safety

Dumb Ways to Die Doesn’t Work

Is Complacency Evil?

Emotions, Bias and Heuristics in Risk

What’s Your Resilience Profile?

Unthinkable

Complacency and The Wayward Mind

A Critique of Pure Reason

The Allure of Submission

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Sensemaking and ‘Hapori’ – Essential for Tackling Risk in New Zealand

Anchoring Safety to Objects

Cognitive Dissonance and Safety Beliefs

The Tyranny of Metrics

How Workers Really Make Decisions

Blind Faith in Safety

I Don’t Serve Systems

SPoR and Disposing of Bad Myths

The Rational, aRational and Irrational in Safety

Why Safety is Inescapably Theological

Free Download – Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning

The Psychology of Blaming in Safety

Gesture in Risk Matters

Personhood and Risk

People Skills Are Not Soft Skills

Confirmity in Conformity

The Seduction of Measurement in Risk and Safety

All You Love is Need

Learning Styles Matter

Risk and Safety Starts with Being?

Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,500 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY