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You are here: Home / Safety Photos / To laugh or not to laugh

To laugh or not to laugh

December 19, 2020 by James Parkinson 6 Comments

Having been actively reading posts on a couple of the social media sites that deal with safety, I have noticed a lot of posts on things that have gone wrong.

As so-called professionals a lot are quick to start laughing and saying they lack sense in making a choice. When there is a workplace incident there is nothing funny about it. Or they jump in and say well if they would have done this or that it would not have happened. What is the old saying hindsight is always 20/20?

Why do we need these types of clips other then to make the person posting them feel they have done a great deed by making fun of someone else’s? Or is that perhaps they know a lot of humans like to laugh at someone’s misfortune but would be terribly upset if it was their misfortune and others made fun of them. Or maybe the person posting it is getting higher regards on their social platform because of the comments or thumbs up emoji.

There is rarely solution offered such as maybe to do some more training. Or should we even say that we have no control over a lot of things. I can say that there are three things in the world I can not control, (1) People, (2) places, and (3) things.

Just maybe instead of all the clips of things that go wrong why not look at ways to help people understand how it could maybe be done a little differently. The world is full of news every day of things that go wrong. Do we really need to make someone a laughing post because of an incident?

I know myself I have made mistakes and have also taken risk. We all have, and we learn from them. We need to continue to learn and the way we do that is sometimes through taking a risk.

I have seen post of people using a knife to cut apples to feed horses and when some one asked about it the (Safety Person) said oh the point is blunt, and the cutting edge is dull. Like a blunt point or a dull knife can not hurt you.

A job site was not allowed to use 1mil cutting disk because they will break and cause damage if not used properly. So rather then train the people on a correct usage we need to take the tool away from them. This stops the problem. I have seen ¼ inch thick blades break, maybe we should take them away. I have seen tires blow out on cars, maybe we should stop making tires they can be dangerous.

We must look at different ways to get the messages across rather then using an incident to laugh at and make fun of someone. There is no value or learnings that will come from doing it that way.

James Parkinson

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Latest posts by James Parkinson (see all)

  • To laugh or not to laugh - December 19, 2020
  • People and Safety - November 29, 2019
  • Safety Caring - November 23, 2019
  • WE NEED YOU BACK? - May 26, 2019
  • Comply - September 11, 2018

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Filed Under: Safety Photos Tagged With: social media

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Comments

  1. Rob Long says

    December 21, 2020 at 6:31 PM

    Linkedin is a toilet and I don’t recommend seeking to quench your thirst for water there.

    Reply
  2. James Parkinson says

    December 19, 2020 at 12:32 PM

    Thanks for the comment and yes could very well be the same bloke

    Reply
  3. James Parkinson says

    December 19, 2020 at 12:31 PM

    Thanks Rob for the comment

    Reply
  4. Rob Long says

    December 19, 2020 at 11:44 AM

    Probably the same ‘thought leader’ who hasn’t got a clue about safety.

    Reply
  5. Admin says

    December 19, 2020 at 11:15 AM

    That could be the same person who was recently voted as the number 1 safety influencer on LinkedIn by some mediocre safety software peddler

    Reply
  6. Rob Long says

    December 19, 2020 at 8:20 AM

    Good post James. Nothing is more mindless than safety regulators posting ‘shocker of the week’ or similar stuff that perpetuates the mythology that events are related to poor cognition. If one is looking for a root cause of dysfunction in safety look no further than the associations and regulators. The rubbish they invent is the real evidence of a lack of cognition.

    Reply

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