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

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

Discover More on this Site

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • 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
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY & RISK
    • 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
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long 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!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2020
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) 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
    • 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

Ways in Which the Workplace Harms Us

July 21, 2018 by Admin Leave a Comment

Ways in Which the Workplace Harms Us

Guest post by one of the USA based students in The Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk (CLLR) online program https://cllr.com.au/online-courses-overseas-students/

 

imageimage

There is an old phrase, “No man is an island”, that expresses the idea that human beings do better in a community than they do when separated from others. It is true that humans feel more secure and complete when we are interdependent and in community. From the first moments we enter this world we are rely on others to care for us. In return, those we call friends and family receive this same dynamic from us as we grow and mature.

It has been conceived by philosopher Martin Buber that we are only fully human when we are in the state of “I-Thou”. This is a state of being in the presence of another human with no agenda other than see and hear them for who they are. In I-Thou, a person knows themselves in relation to others. According to Buber, there is no such thing as a single human person.

The other state of being is when we interact with objects. This is called living in a state of “I-it”. “I-it” is not necessarily bad; we live most of the time in this state. An “it” can be an inanimate object, animal or person. For example, in a courtroom, the judge is “I” and the person on trial is the “it”. When painting a house, working on an essay or organizing a closet, the person is “I” and the objects are “it”. Living in this state is a reality to be functional in society. Living entirely in one state or the other is just not sustainable.

The problem comes if we are only in a state of “I-it” relationships. If we do that, we become alienated from others and ourselves. Alienation is one of the primary activators that fuels harm in the workplace.

The geniuses for alienation in the workplace can be found in the foundations of the industrial revolution. In 1911, a US industrial engineer named Frederick Taylor wrote a book called ‘Principles Of Scientific Management’. In it, he laid down the fundamental principles of large-scale manufacturing through assembly-line factories. This approach to production proved to increase production and profits like never before. This system came to be known as “Taylorism”.

On the surface, it may be hard to imagine why a system so influential in re-defining an era that saw huge increases in production and profit is harmful to people. However one only need to understand that central to the success of Taylorism is a reductionist world view. Reductionism in itself is not the cause for harm. It is a material world view that breaks down complex tasks into smaller portions to be understood, measured, and (the aim is) controlled. The harm begins to creep in because Western culture uses this reductionist way of thinking to analyse not only material things and processes but people.

One of the by-products of that is people’s “effectiveness”, choices and behaviours get broken down into smaller parts to find “root causes”. This way of thinking views humans as a collection of parts (I-It) vs as a whole (I-Thou). When the essence of a person is divided and sub-divided into smaller parts like a mechanistic device, it deprives people of being fully human.

On a macro level, humans have intellectual, emotional, social, cultural and spiritual sides that make them much more than the sum of their parts. A lens of reductionism fails to see the whole person and alienates who they are in an effort to control them. Reductionism may be of value if you are taking apart an engine, but humans are not meant to be “taken apart’; it ends up harming people.

The language of Taylorism has a discourse of standardization, efficiency and perfection. The trajectory of that is dehumanization and punishment. The by-product of pursuing perfection and efficiency is a loss of personhood, fallibility, and freedom.

As an example of how work based on Taylorism can lead to alienation, imagine a man who makes custom motorcycles. He fabricates the metal, designs the paint job, assembles and tightens the engine, then puts it all together with the proper fluids in place. He puts the bike in neutral, flips on the starter, pushes the “Start” button and hears and feels that beautifully tuned V-twin engine rumble just right. This bike maker has ownership in this bike, he feels connected to it because he made it from start to finish. If he chooses to sell the bike he will do so with love for the machine and an authentic relationship with a buyer because talking about this bike he created gives him genuine pleasure; it represents part of him. It is a joy for him to show and talk about his bike.

By contrast the exact same motorcycle could be designed on an assembly line with hundreds of different people doing one or two small tasks over and over. The motorcycle will look the same, perform the same, but the people that make it do not have the same sense of connection to it. Why? Because they have only done one small, low skilled task repeatedly to assemble hundreds of bikes. These assembly line workers are alienated from the experience of craftsmanship and connectedness that the single bike maker had. They are drones doing meaningless work for nothing more than a paycheck. This builds contempt for the company because they feel like prisoners doing the monotonous task all day purely to make a paycheck.

Once the bike is shipped to the warehouse it is off off to the dealer. Those selling the bike on the showroom floor have less of a connection to it than those on the assembly line did. Those salesmen on the showroom floor view the bike as strictly a commodity to be sold quickly. When that does not happen, they develop contempt for the customers who make them beg to make a deal or just waste their time by not buying the bike. They want to sell the bike fast so they can get on to the next sale.

The sales manager has no time or patience for anyone not selling. If the bike was crafted with care or made in an assembly line is irrelevant to him; his concern is to employ salesmen that move product as soon as possible or push them to find other employment. The manager gets stressed by his competitors selling more bike for more profit and impatient with his salesman not moving the bikes quickly enough.

When the bike is sold, the shareholders of the motorcycle company’s stock are the most alienated from the process of production; their main concern is that the profit from the sale was maximized and costs minimized so the stock continues to go up. They have no concern for the makers of the bike, those who stored it or sold it. If their stock is not rising, they would just as soon see the company “clean house” and fire everyone. All this contempt and unease from every level of production are a direct relation to the culture created by Taylorism.

Taylorism and society uses atomistic thinking and is disconnected from being human. With Taylorism, nobody ever feels like they have done or created anything, they are just another piece of the production line. So not only are people isolated socially, they are isolated creatively.

We need money to function in modern society, so money itself it not inherently harmful. It is the process of quantification and abstractification that has gone beyond being economically viable to help society function and people live. It has spread to the way people view things, other people and themselves (Fromm 1991). Furthermore, the workers on the assembly line, the salesman or the office manager all operate under the false belief that they are acting according to their own interests. Their actions and anonymous economic law of the market are actually working behind their back to determine their fate. Additionally, those who own and run the business are forced by these economic laws to grow the business more because they have to, not because they want to. This gives the market its own life and rules over man. (Fromm 1991).

Man has now become a cog in the machine and a thing. Look at the language used to describe a man who has done well economically. When we say a man is worth “a million dollars”, we are no longer talking about him as a man. He is an abstraction and a thing (I-it). Since he is now a thing and not a man, it is easier to alienate him. “We can harm anyone whom we alienate through language, symbols and grammar.” (Long 2018)

Evidence of the scope of harm caused by alienation can be seen by looking closely at the experiment carried out by Elton Mayo at the Chicago Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. According to Eric Fromm that experiment showed “…that sickness, fatigue and a resulting low output are NOT caused primarily by the monotonous technical aspect of the work but by the alienation of the worker from the total work situation in its social aspects. As soon as this alienation was decreased to a certain extent by having the worker participate in something that was meaningful to him, and in which he had a voice, his whole psychological reaction to the work changed, although technically he was still doing the same kind of work. (Fromm 1991).

Alienation in the work place cannot ever be totally eliminated. Especially in light of the fact that much of western civilization still functions under a reductionist, positivism type of thinking. But just because it can’t be “fixed” does not mean there are not things we can do to tackle the issue and promote less alienation and more engagement in the workplace.

One idea is to ask employees what topics they would like to discuss in safety meetings. The typical, monthly topics can still be discussed, but reserve just as much time (if not more) in addressing issues they are seeing in the field. Having an open, honest conversation about the layers of risk that are seen (workspace) and unseen (headspace, groupspace) will generate more creative thought and engage employees to put more into learning from one another vs. sitting quietly while they watch a video over a pre-selected topic they have seen more than twice in a calendar year. Doing this will decrease the alienation they feel to a degree because they are now an active participant in something meaningful to them. One important element for this to work is absolute trust; employees must know they can say what they think without fear of being disciplined or this will be a waste of time.

Another idea is to give Safety committees a limited agenda and instead discuss what went well or did not go well for them since the last meeting. Invite them to share any kind of learning to the group or recognize anyone from their teams that did something positive. Promotion of higher order goals like trust, collaboration and caring vs talking about lagging indicators can help promote more discussion around what it means to be human vs. trying to reduce safety performance to a number. Again without absolute trust and freedom to speak, this will not be effective.

The following ideas are more radical but it would help reduce alienation; Change the artifacts in an office or work place to promote higher order goals vs lagging metrics. Correct the massive difference in design of office spaces based on hierarchy. Probably the most unrealistic but maybe most effective ways to reduce alienation is a correction in the exorbitant salaries paid to high level CEOs while jobs and benefits are cut for field employees. Few things are more offensive and alienating than seeing those who do the work in the field have their jobs or benefits cut while a CEO who is so disconnected from the process of production enjoys a heated pool and maid service at his home.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: CLLR, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: Taylorism

Reader Interactions

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

Primary Sidebar

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

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 21,611,952 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join over 30,000 other discerning safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on Why Safety Loves Covid-19
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Andrew Floyd on Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • Understanding-the-Social-psychology-of-Risk-and-Safety-3.docx (3127 downloads)
  • Event Risk Management (403 downloads)
  • Achieve A Safe Workplace (4161 downloads)
  • Falls-Risk-Assessment-Tool.pdf (1949 downloads)
  • WHO-recommended Handrub Formulations (1058 downloads)
  • Walking is Still Our Best Medicine (7490 downloads)
  • Real-Risk-Free-Copy.pdf (5582 downloads)
  • Covid-19 Construction Protocols (212 downloads)
  • Pre-Purchase-Risk-Assessment-Checklist.pdf (846 downloads)
  • Training-and-Development-Needs-of-OHS-Personnel-23.docx (2615 downloads)
  • Risk-Homeostasis-Target-Risk-3.pdf (1908 downloads)
  • WorkSafe_inspectors_guide_FINAL.pdf (414 downloads)
  • Broader-Management-Skills.docx (3165 downloads)
  • Supervisor-Induction-Checklist.docx (369 downloads)
  • Workplace Checklist Covid-19 (6790 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • Greater or Lesser Harm
  • The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • What’s in a Safety Mantra?
  • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Spin, Nonsense Language and Propaganda in Safety
  • The Visionary Imagination – Margaret Atwood
  • The Visionary Imagination and Marion Mahoney Griffin
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • How Effective Are Your Conversations About Risk?
  • Traditional Safety

Footer

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
    • AHH$ Covid$afe Chri$tma$ New$letter
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
    • What and how should we measure to support recovery from injury?
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • Who is Responsible for This?
    • Who Are Your People?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • It was the SIA until someone wanted to swing from the Chandelier
    • Common Sense is Remarkably Uncommon
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
    • Misleading Indicators
  • Admin
    • Making Sense of Safety Management Systems
    • Happy New Year for 2021 and Theme
  • Dr Rob Long
    • Greater or Lesser Harm
    • The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Sams
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
    • Social ‘Resiliencing’
  • Barry Spud
    • Barry Spud’s Hazard Control Tips
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

FEATURED POSTS

The Curse of Dataism

Social Sensemaking–New Book Release

Disrupting the Methodology in Safety?

Defining Safety

The Mechanistic Worldview and the Dehumanisation of Risk

Tentative at Tooleybuc

It’s the –ism That Matters

Shock and Fear in Safety

Investigations and Power

cut finger

Confirmity in Conformity

New Video Available – Semiotics Walk Workshop

Safety People Don’t ‘Save Lives’

CLLR Christmas 2016 Newsletter and Competition

Chronic Unease is Not Enough

Safety Holistically a Case for Change

Toilet Roll Safety

Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?

An Ethical Psychology of Risk

The Triarchic Mind, Risk and Safety

Introduction to The Social Psychology of Risk – Free Online Module

More Posts from this Category

Paperwork

https://vimeo.com/162034157?loop=0

Due Diligence

https://vimeo.com/162493843?loop=0

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.