Woodworking Network: Every organization regardless of the industry needs to manage its health and safety aspects. Morally, over my 30 years in the field of health and safety I have never worked with or for a management team that did not care about the health and safety of their employees. The difference has been in how much they were committed to make that happen. You have probably heard of the term “walk the talk,” which represents going beyond just lip service by demonstrating commitment by taking action.
7 comments:
I like the way the writer breaks down the loop on the process of implementing safety precautions and standards to a woodshop. I agree that every shop will say they prioritize the safety of their workers/students, but to what extent varies drastically depending on where you are. I think the only unclear thing in the diagram of enforcing safe working practices is the consequences to playing it too loose with the rules and regulations. What is the consequence (despite being unsafe and potentially harming others) that will prevent the person from doing the same offense twice? I think in relation to CMU’s scene shop there is a high level of safety enforced despite a few slips here and there. I think where the scene shop struggles the most in keeping the shop a safe environment is when people who don’t know what they’re doing come in for non production assignments and start using tools they’re not familiar with. It puts them and the people around them in a dangerous position.
Safety in a woodworking shop is key to make sure you can continue woodworking. At first glance, everything we work with is terrifying. Big spinning blades everywhere, loud pneumatic staplers, and enough sawdust to completely kill your lungs. Of course, as you get more experience, it all gets less scary as you start understanding what the proper procedures are when using tools, but that should never turn into complacency. All it takes is one wrong move to lose a finger, so it's necessary to keep a little bit of fear when you're working with the tools and give them the respect that they will cut through you with no secind thoughts. Shop safety in a school setting is always hard to make sure everyone fully understands, but it's helpful to have people who have worked in shops around to answer questions. In my undergrad, when I was the head carp, I would explain that some things might seem scary and if anyone was uncomfortable I would complete the task while walking them through what I was doing. It's a great feeling to see someone who was scared to walk into the shop start making cuts and seeing that it isn't all scary, but is just about knowing how to properly use the tools to ensure the safety of yourself and those around you.
I think it't really important to maintain a culture of safety in shop environments. I have worked in both wood shops and scene shops in the past that sometimes have an air of reckless abandon, and when people are relying on those ideals for training, it can get very dangerous when an inexperienced person tried to replicate someone they see an expert do, when it's not a safe practice. I'm skeptical sometimes as to why people think that they have enough skill to avoid accidents, and I think that breeds complacency. I think that the chain of due diligence is something that I'm going to try to implement in places that I work that I'm able to exercise some measure of control over, I think its a really good idea to improve safety. Oversight is probably the most important thing to make sure that everyone is being safe and following the proper procedures and guidelines.
Safety is obviously so vital but I feel like it can also be disregarded rather easily because, similar to things like health insurance, you do not really need it until that horrific moment when you realize you NEED it. I am always glad to see articles like this come out because it shows to me that there are people who care about ensuring that safety is present in our productions, and it also gives me the space and opportunity to learn about what to look for in an environment in terms of safety, and also what I need to do in order to facilitate a safe working environment in my own spaces. I think that this can very easily be applied to spaces outside of shops, especially things like the chain of due diligence that can be easily translated into things like the structure of intimacy coordination in rehearsal rooms and such.
Safety is pretty awesome, and I am a big fan of safety, particularly in a woodworking shop. As they say, when you’re in a woodworking shop, it’s always better to be cutting wood and not your fingers. I thought it was quite interesting how the information from this article was presented in a particularly business-style way, explaining how workplace injuries are not great because they can increase insurance costs (versus injuries are not great because it means somebody is injured, which I guess is kind of common sense, but I think it’s beneficial to emphasis that if someone gets a serious injury in a shop, that means that there is a person with a serious injury, and serious injuries are not awesome). Regardless, I think that the very business-style approach to this article was beneficial in creating a distinct list of steps for someone looking to build a better safety system to follow. I really liked how the graphic version of the steps was presented in a circle, since I think it is important to note how safety measures and SOPs are always needing to be reviewed and revised in order to ensure everything is up-to-date and as safe as needed.
Creating a culture of safety as it were sounds like sort of the kind of things that they say at orientations and lectures where you have to make sure to keep the environment safe and keep everyone safe in it which yes you do but in practice it's very difficult two actually encourage people to be safe when the safe options take more effort. There's something to say though about creating a “culture of safety” because if you can get people to on their own choose to be safe then you already made it. The teaching people how to be safe has never been an issue people know how to be safe people just don't want to be safe because it takes more time. I have been in many environments where safety was necessarily a thing everyone cared about and so neither did we. It's only when everyone around you cares about being safe that you will too.
This article was incredibly helpful in truly underlining and highlighting why Safety Management in the workplace is so integral to a successful, productive and safe space. the visual guide to steps in managing health and safety was helpful in understanding the order in which to carry out these practices. It is interesting to note that this article specifies that this is a development process of standards and procedures, with the integration of implementing them and maintaining these procedures to ensure that Improvement is continued. the job of managing health and safety is probably no easy one, but I'm sure over time, like 30 years with Mr Edidia, it gets much more clear. The breaking down of why it's important to manage these business aspects, and then how to do so in a safe and successful way is an important distinction that makes this article much clearer and easier to break down.
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