Deal with it – don’t walk on by

It is not unusual for people to walk passed and ignore serious and obvious hazards in the workplace.

We can become accustomed, or normalised to seeing situations which are unnecessarily dangerous. These can include:

• missing fall protection barriers
• blocked fire exits
• leaking pipes
• corroded storage tanks
• workers taking shortcuts
• precarious operations
• cables trailing across walkways
• etc.

Do we act? Do we do the right thing?

Tolerating small defects can lead to major incidents. Inaction is an all too typical response. Complacency is the enemy.

There are many reasons that people don’t do anything. These include thoughts such as:

• Someone else must have reported it; it’s been like that for ages

• It’s not up to me

• It must be okay as everyone else seems to think so
• It would mean more work for someone (or for me!)
• I might look stupid if I raise that as a problem
• I’m too busy to do something about this
• etc., etc.

Deal with it – don’t walk on by

There are many good reasons for doing something about the problem. We may need to help people to think differently and to be more willing to “step up.”