Robert Long

The Horrors of Hyper-Safety

santa safety Whenever Hyper-Safety is on the scene, you can expect the suppression of any sense-making, intelligence or learning. We see this yet again, in another clanger from New Zealand.

Yet, we know from all the research (Amaberti, Taleb etc) that hyper-safety is not just unachievable but dangerous.

Hyper-safety makes people more vulnerable and fragile to risk. Hyper-safety is anti-safety.

There’s nothing worse than an ignorant safety crusader who thinks they are safety (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-is-not-your-life/).

When safety people start talking about safety as their identity and ‘safety as their life’, someone needs to quickly tell them to: ‘get a life’.

Not so on LinkedIn, such nonsense language gets applauded.

There’s nothing more dangerous to safety than a safety crusader! (https://safetyrisk.net/wowzers-and-crusaders-in-risk/).

What we learn from this article about seatbelts for Santa is, just how alienating and stupid Safety is. I wonder how many Santa’s in the past have fallen off floats going 3 kms an hour? None!

And, all of this nonsense came from a ‘’safety audit’!

Goodness me, sack the auditor and get in someone with some risk intelligence. Preferably NOT an engineer.

Hyper-safety is toxic for safety. Hyper-safety is lunacy for the industry that espouses that safety=zero (https://safetyrisk.net/safetyzero-culture/). When zero is your mantra, such ideology (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-risk/) is toxic for society.

When no injury is acceptable and safety is defined as injury rates, Safety becomes known as the moronic industry that can’t think. But make sure Safety that you keep repeating the word ‘professional’ as often as you can. That way people will identify the industry as professionally stupid.

This kind of safety on show at a Christmas parade is NOT about safety but rather, the political power of a small group seeking power through hyper-safety. Any consideration about an ethic of personhood for just a second, would throw out such nonsense for what it is – Safety trying to be relevant when it is not.

Examples of this kind of hyper-safety demonstrates that safety has a long way to before it can every claim to be professional or relevant.

Prof. Robert Long

Prof. Robert Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Prof. Robert Long

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Prof. Robert Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

4 Comments

  1. You are rigth in this paper but, jajaja!!!, I suspect some woman engineer make you many danger in the past. You can say or write all you want of course, but data are strong: Engineering has saved but a lot of more lives in occupational settings than Psychology along the time, and it is still the case. Happy Hollidays

    1. Ricardo, you can’t compare disciplines and there is no evidence for such a comparison. You could also argue that Engineering in war has killed more people in comparison to propaganda. Such comparisons are pointless.
      The message of the blog is not about Engineering but the problem of hyper-safety.

  2. This is “fabulous” (ridiculous) idea; however, in my opinion they missed a couple of things. I just conducted a risk assessment and believe that in order to keep safety and engineers happy, they should do the following:
    – there should be a defibrillator with an occupational health nurse present at every vehicle,
    – clocking in station to know how many elfs are on the job,
    – induction training before start,
    – steal-toe cap shoes, helmets, earplugs (to protect from kids screaming for joy) and of course cut-proof gloves (as unwrapping gifts can be a very dangerous activity and a possible TRC),
    – safety shower in case of diesel spillage on every vehicle,
    – a large poster of Swiss Cheese Model and the Bradley Curve displayed on every platform,
    – exit signs above all the entrances,
    – and finally a consultant present on every vehicle measuring everyone’s culture and bringing “Zero Harm” into Christmas

    Happy Holidays everyone,
    Aneta

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