- You feel mentally exhausted at work.
- You struggle to feel enthusiastic about your job.
- You have trouble concentrating when working.
- You sometimes overreact at work without meaning to.
These are explained recent research (https://neurosciencenews.com/burnout-psychology-25624/) into burnout.
Rosa Carrillo is one of our workshop presenters at the SPoR Conference in May (https://spor.com.au/canberra-convention/) where we will focus on Personhood and Everyday Social Resilience.
One of the strongest stressors on people who work in safety is role conflict. This was borne out in many of Rosa’s interviews. Role conflict emerges when people enter the safety industry thinking they will be able to care and help people but instead, are required to police regulation, count hazards and enforce compliance, mostly with being petty about PPE.
Similarly, when engaged in study of the safety curriculum, people soon learn there is no help or upskilling in: pastoral care, counselling skills, helping skills or people skills. And so, after gaining a safety qualification, a safety advisor enters the workforce with none of the critical skills they need to do their job. The same applies to learning about culture or human decision making.
What a strange industry, where one has to step outside the confines of the safety curriculum to learn any of the critical skills needed to practice safety! Indeed, there is no emphasis either on the development of resilience for the communities in which the safety person will work.
How strange to be asked to count injuries and harm yet, receive no skills in what do about it or how to help those who suffer?
How distressing to be in situations of loss and harm and not being skilled in being able to help! Simply return to the office, prepare a report, find out who to blame and move on. This is a recipe for burnout and psychosocial distress. And there is no help in all the nonsense about ‘psychosocial hazards’ either (https://safetyrisk.net/mental-health/psychosocial-safety/). All that is happening now is that this initiative is driving under-reporting and a silent scourge of harm sent elsewhere.
And the solution to all this coming from Safety is, more engineering and behaviourism, more slogans, hype and marketing.
However, there is something you can do about it that is practical, positive and doable. If this interests you then just email: admin@spor.com.au and you can start a new journey of learning about helping, methods to help and how to build resilience in your community.
Selective Harm says
It is 100% true orthodox safety cannot break free from the Heinrich-DuPont curve-Zero ideology now or anytime soon. This is why working for an organization like that means one must understand there are 2 very different people you must serve 1) the orthodox safety, corporate elites – they cannot soil their high heels or wingtips with the dirt and grease that the boots on the ground, real world employees deal with everyday. The competing goals of defining safety by a number vs “caring” for the employee’s well being (yes, there are some “zero” orgs that use the language of care, but they are clueless or don’t care for the double speak of that discourse) discredit safety people trying to do real good and create despair for all involved. 2) the people who actually do the work or manage those directly that do the work. I personally open up to this second group by having real talk about the BS of Zero harm, that it dehumanizes and objectifies people and I, like them, am a fallible person living in random world. It will not surprise you that revealing this about my worldview creates a different and deeper dynamic than they are used to having with normal “safety people”. The challenge is, we cannot open up about this beyond the dialogue we have, but the good news is there is a trusting, caring relationship that is built which is really a more proactive approach to tackling risk, in addition to just being the right way to treat people. I also know if you talk to some of those involved in the elite circles, they will be honest and tell you they know it foolishness; but that paycheck is large enough and the power they enjoy means they are willing to live with the cognitive dissonance for a certain amount of time. This also explains why it can be useful to maintain a world view of humans as “cogs in a machine” because when you admit you are dealing with human beings and understand what that means, it makes sleep almost impossible.
Jack says
Hi Rob this post resonates with me very much. I spent many uncomfortable years in a zero company, (what most on the tools staff expressed as B/S) threatened if you voiced a different view & where the four dot points were part of the culture. Where one of the employers EAP persons told me, as I had been a soldier I was a killer with the baggage that carries. It threw me. Little support from safety players where unless you were office bound & theoretical you didn’t rate.
I constantly wondered what was I missing, the four dot points solves that.
Rob Long says
Thanks Jack. Many suffer wondering why. The power of many silences in safety helps sustain this. Safety makes sure it never discusses stuff that matters even when it makes a song and dance about innovation.
This way people are isolated and they blame their distress on themselves. How convenient.
Keeps the engineers happy and the behaviourists with lots of promises to make with no outcome.
Matt Thorne says
Hi Rob, Rosa is correct, i was talking to a Safety person in a large Government organisation and one their first day of work was put to investigating a fatality. They do not expose nurses to death on their first day!
In an industry that is high on ‘intelligence’ and low on ‘wisdom’ this shows another chink in the armour and doing anything so the ends justifies the means.
Rob Long says
Matt, I was a birthday party on the weekend for a mate in construction and met a person who said his current site simply runs of safety bullying. He talked about condescending ‘wankers’ who belittle workers for minor PPE who then don’t do what they say themselves. This same company has had fatalities recently.
Who on earth would want to speak to a thug who polices safety? Who would trust anyone who treats people like this? Of course they don’t, which is why he’s called ‘the wanker’. and this is the industry that wants to claim the word ‘professional’.
rosa antonia carrillo says
Dr. Long you’ve described it so well. It is sad! Last week I interviewed two women in VP safety positions who said they are ready to quit because they didn’t feel heard. I encourage them to ask for what they need. If they can’t get it where they are, they need to trust they can do better. Staying is very bad for your health!
Rob Long says
Who is Dr Long? Anyway, I hear from safety people everyday, they trust me because I don’t play the games of the safety sector or its silly nonsense of zero. They confide in me about how things are in safety and many just stay for the money but have no meaning or purpose in their work. In the end, no amount of money compensates for the distress they suffer. Trouble is, they are locked in safety. They apply for many jobs but the moment an employer sees they are a safety person, they can’t move sideways. In many cases I help them build a new profile and help them to leave the industry. Some succeed, some don’t. For those who are able to practice SPoR and iCue at their work, it all changes. This is when safety can actually work. No hype, no slogans, just skills to listen, care and help and an organisation that realises that tackling risk is better than counting hazards.
BTW, thanks for your book. It is a wake up call to an industry that doesn’t want to listen but would rather do more of the same with slick marketing. Meanwhile, it keeps harming people in the name of zero harm and injures people because of its nonsense of psychosocial hazards. and when any of this gets to court, it all falls over. Slogans and marketing don’t look that good when a sharp lawyer starts looking for substance and all they find is hype.