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

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • 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
  • PSYCH. OF SAFETY & RISK
    • What is Psychological 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
  • Robert Long
    • 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!
  • Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • 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 2022
    • 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
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
  • Psychological Safety
You are here: Home / Workers Compensation / The workers compensation discourse

The workers compensation discourse

March 11, 2015 by James Ellis 4 Comments

The workers compensation discourse

filling up a work injury claim formA friend that I study with visited me recently with his wife. Cheekily, she chastised us for overusing the word ‘discourse’. “Why don’t you just say conversation or talking” she suggested? Almost simultaneously, and defensively, we responded by stating our position…..that discourse is so much more than the spoken words.

According to Iara Lessa[1] who summarizes French social theorist Michel Foucault’s notion, discourse is “systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak.” Foucault maintained that discourse is about the transference of knowledge and power. In fact he argued that power and knowledge are inter-related and therefore every human relationship is a negotiation of power.[2] Power, he said, is always present and can both produce and constrain the truth.[3]

Lately I’ve been thinking about the power differential amongst the many stakeholders in workers compensation.

For example, those letters that workers receive from the insurer soon after becoming a claimant. The ones that refer to the legislation and even quote from it. The reference to compliance and the vague but implicitly threatening consequences of non-compliance. The notion of provisional liability and reference to entitlements under the act. If discourse is about transferring knowledge and power, I wonder how this kind of language affects a newly injured worker’s sense of empowerment?

I also wonder about the sudden world of paperwork a worker is thrust into. We need a Workcover certificate of capacity, a return to work plan and an injury management plan. Often there’s a treatment plan as well. They sign various informed consent templates and a declaration that they aren’t working elsewhere. The conventional wisdom seems to be that it’s all necessary. But even if we set aside the argument of the necessity of all of this paperwork, we can’t ignore the fact that it has an effect.

In my conversations with insurers and employers I often hear the argument that they wish the worker would take more initiative or be more proactive. If the written component of the discourse is overwhelming, if they’re flooded with information, how does this impact on the worker’s level of empowerment? When a worker is provided with a letter explaining an organisation’s privacy policy, complete with references to the relevant legislation, and then asked to sign an ‘informed consent’, are they really informed? Or does the social context make it very hard for them to ask, ‘what does this mean?’

It seems to me that the argument put forward around paperwork is well intended and is an attempt to provide the worker with knowledge. However, are we delivering this information, in large slabs, because we want to inform and empower, or because we want to be able to prove we provided them with all of the necessary information? In Foucault’s language, are we producing or constraining the truth? Are we so myopically focused on ‘telling’ that we’re constraining the injured workers’ capacity to learn and understand?

Discourse, according to Foucault (1977, 1980, 2003), is “related to power as it operates by rules of exclusion. Discourse therefore is controlled by objects, what can be spoken of; ritual, where and how one may speak; and the privileged, who may speak.”[1]

One of the shortcuts we all take within a sub culture is to use acronyms and jargon. They fall into common usage and we become desensitized to their use. However, in the context of discourse operating by rules of exclusion, I think it’s easy to see how we can fall into the trap of dis-empowering those that are new to the process of recovery from work related injury. I wonder how workers feel when they learn they have spondylosis or lateral epicondylitis? Or when they’re told to get a ‘certificate of capacity’? One worker I spoke with this week, mis-heard her insurer and thought she needed to get a ‘certificate of competency’.

I recently assisted two injured workers who worked, side by side, in the same store. One was a young lady who had been in the workforce for less than 5 years and the other was a store manager who had over 25 years of work under his belt. The young lady had never had an experience with workers compensation but the store manager had well established “systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices…” about workers compensation. Both were offered ‘early intervention’ in the form of treatment. The young lady jumped at the opportunity and recovered quickly but when the same offer was made to the store manager, and his wife subsequently opened a letter from the insurer – and she asked him “are you on compo?” – he had a very strong reaction and refused all offers of treatment and assistance.

If discourse isn’t just talking, if discourse is about the transfer of power, I wonder how we can use this understanding to create a more empowering experience for both workers and employers?

 

 

[1] I. Lessa (2006). “Discursive struggles within social welfare: Restaging teen motherhood”. British Journal of Social Work 36 (2): 283–298. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch256

[2] Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. M Foucault. Selected interviews and other writings 1972,1977, 1980 – Pantheon

[3] S. Strega (2005). The view from the poststructural margins: Epistemology and methodology reconsidered. In L. Brown, & S. Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance (pp. 199–235). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

[4] M. Foucault (1972). Archaeology of knowledge. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-415-28752-9.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about James
James Ellis

James Ellis

Managing Director at The Framework Group
James Ellis

Latest posts by James Ellis (see all)

  • Talking Risk Video–Anti-Fragility - July 8, 2022
  • Psychological Core Stability for Wellbeing in Workers Comp - June 24, 2022
  • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery - July 29, 2020
  • What and how should we measure to support recovery from injury? - May 24, 2017
  • Humanising Workers Compensation: the missed opportunity - April 24, 2017
James Ellis
B.App.Sc (Physio) After finishing High School I experimented with a range of vocations including 12 months as a midshipman in the Royal Australian Navy, a false start studying Engineering at UNSW and a very enjoyable 5 years as a gym instructor at a variety of gyms in Sydney. I graduated as a Physiotherapist from the University of Sydney in 1991. After 12 months as an intern in the public hospital system in NSW I travelled to Michigan, USA, where I obtained experience in an outpatient facility servicing the local community and the adjacent private hospital. I then returned to Australia and obtained a full time position at the Hills Street Sports Medicine Centre in Gosford, NSW, treating sports injuries. In 1995 I founded Hills Street Occupational Rehabilitation Service which later became Hills Street Group and, more recently, Framework Group. Over the past 19 years we have grown to have several franchised teams throughout NSW. I really enjoy the daily challenge of problem solving in the complex arena of workplace injury management. At Framework, we focus on humanising injury management. We've developed a unique model of injury management that allows our employer clients to maintain and enhance their relationships with their workers which, in turn, has very positive commercial implications. We believe that injury management provides employers with a portal through which they can demonstrate how much they care about their team. We believe that mistakes and injuries are inevitable, because people are fallible, but this same fallibility provides opportunities for learning and enrichment of relationships.

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: Workers Compensation Tagged With: compliance, discourse, power, Workers Compensation

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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 7,455 other subscribers

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brent Charlton on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Richard Brookes on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Ooker on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Rob Long on Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language
  • Manjit Handa on Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Ricardo Montero on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Admin on Culture Silences in Safety – Ritual
  • Anonymous on Culture Silences in Safety – Ritual
  • Rob Long on Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • Admin on Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • Rob Long on Doing Away With Health and Safety–Language and People
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Carsten Busch on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Carsten Busch on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Footer

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

  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • What Is Safety?
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • IDEAS FOR SAFETY TOOL BOX TALKS, HARD HAT CHATS and SAFETY MOMENTS
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat

Recent Posts

  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Keep Counting Every Time You Don’t Achieve Your Goal, That’s Professional
  • Safety and Non-Neuroscience
  • Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk
  • Safety as a Masculinist Activity
  • You Don’t Want a Compliance Culture
  • The Soul of Mental Health
  • Identity and Safety
  • Psychosocial Controls and Measures for Who?
  • Linguistics and Safety
  • Not a Profession’s Bootlace
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • History and Safety
  • What is Psychosocial Safety
  • A Guide to Psychosocial Safety Skills
  • Doing Away With Health and Safety–Language and People
  • The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious
  • Tape Down Those Leads
  • More Safety Code to Disguise Behaviourism
  • Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Understanding Safety as an Archetype
  • The Purpose of Safety
  • Learning Styles Matter
  • Due Diligence and Holistic Ergonomics Workshops
  • Having FUN in Safety FUNdamentalism
  • 80% of Safety Practitioners Are Idiots
  • Risk Homeostasis Theory–Why Safety Initiatives Go Wrong
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Semiotics
  • Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Aesthetics
  • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
  • Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk
  • Due Diligence Videos – 10000 downloads
  • Release the Safety Monster and Wreck a Good TV Show
  • Paper Safe
  • Safety Starts with Us
  • Investigations and Heuristics
  • Barry’s Latest Safety Innovation Discovery
  • The Human Race…
  • The ASSP Getting Complacency Completely Wrong
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • Understanding Safety Myths
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Empathy
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Trajectories
  • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation
  • What Are the Benefits Of Social Psychology of Risk?
  • Next Free Online Studies Introduction to Social Psychology of Risk
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Language
  • Dumb Down Safety on Full Show in Fake HSE UK Poster

FEATURED POSTS

Forecasting Safety

Social Media and Safety

Who is Responsible?

Safety is an Art

Social Psychology of Risk Workshop-Sydney

There is Another Ethic than Zero Accidents

Safety as Policing

20 Cognitive Biases That Affect Risk Decision Making

What Does Your Risk and Safety Icon Say?

The Safety Worldview

Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk

New Video Series on Safety

Understanding Safety Myths

The Sickness of Safetyism

Safety is not Just a Choice

The Measurement Mindset in Safety???

A Small Change and ‘Y’ it Matters?

THE INFLUENCE OF VISUAL STIMULI ON THE UNCONSCIOUS

The Sacred Bra Tree

It’s a Great Goal, it Just Doesn’t Work

Safety Entitlement and Compulsory Safety Mis-Education

I’m biased, but that’s ok!

The Village Effect

None so Blind as Those That Don’t Want to See – Due Diligence

Mapping Social Influence Strategies

Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

Could Understanding Grey Be The Silver Bullet

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

Coping With Paradox and Ambiguity in Safety

What Are Observation-Conversation Skills?

Is Risk and Safety Perfectionism a Disorder?

Real Risk – Free Download

The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time

How I Feel About Risk

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

The Dynamics of Dehumanisation

The Great Safety is a Choice Delusion

The Reason Safety Has Gone So Crazy

Sticks and Stones and the Nonsense of Zero Harm

Human Dymensions Newsletter September 2016

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 7,455 other subscribers

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