Attitude and Safety – Fostering Positive Attitude at Work

How does attitude affect your work and safety on the job?  What is your attitude today? We all have days where our overall attitude could improve, but how is yours towards your coworkers, boss, or safety on a day-to-day basis? If you are generally a negative person, what effects would a more positive attitude have on your personal life and on your professional life?

Positive Attitude and Health

There are many reasons to strive to have a positive attitude. Outside of the obvious reasons, such as improving your mood and being more enjoyable to be around, researchers have been studying how it can benefit our health. The Mayo Clinic mentions possible benefits such as:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

Attitude and Safety on the Job

A negative attitude can lead to carelessness, complacency, taking shortcuts, or even serving as a distraction from a work task. A bad attitude towards safety specifically will eventually result in unsafe behaviors. Unsafe behaviors lead to incidents occurring on the job that result in injury or property damage. Is your overall attitude as it relates to safety negative? If so, why is that?

How to Improve Your Attitude and Become a More Positive Person

1. Recognize it. The first step to improve it is to recognize if it is leaning towards the negative side. Ask yourself how your attitude is today and why it is in that state. If it is negative, then you need to try to improve it to be a safer, more efficient worker.

2. What is the source of the issue(s)? After you recognize the state of your attitude, you need to find the source of your issues that are giving you negative feelings. What is bothering you? Is it a coworker? A family situation? Whatever it may be, take note of the negative sources.

3. Address the issues. Take the time to address what is having a negative effect on your attitude. For example, if it is an issue with a coworker or boss, have a conversation with them. Most issues can be resolved with a constructive conversation. If the issue cannot be resolved with a conversation with a team member, go to another level of management to resolve it.

4. Remain aware of your attitude. It is important to do a daily self-check. A good way to do this is to monitor your thoughts or conversations with others. If you are having more negative conversations than positive ones, then it is a good indicator that you need to improve your attitude. It is easy for your attitude to begin to tip towards the negative side as stressors pile back on in your life. There are always going to be issues in your life, but it is important to not let them have a negative effect on you for an extended period of time.

Discussion points:

• Do you think a positive attitude at work has a large effect on safety?
• Think of a person you did not enjoy working with. How did it affect your job performance?

Attitude and Safety: Fostering Positive Attitude at Work – Safety Talk Ideas

Eye Injuries and Prevention

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Eye Injuries and Prevention Safety Talk

Our eyes are one of our greatest assets. They give us the ability to see the world around us. If we do not protect our eyes from injuries while at work, we could easily lose that ability. There are an estimated 2,000 eye injuries every single day on the job, according to the CDC. These incidents cost employers over $300 million dollars per year. It is important to eliminate or engineer out the hazards that could pose hazards to our eyes at work. Many hazards to our eyes on a worksite cannot be fully eliminated, so proper eye protection is also critical.

Common Hazards that Cause Eye Injuries on the Job

• Flying dust
• Flying debris
• Chemicals
• Blunt trauma to the eye
• Burns due to UV exposure, such as welder’s flash

Best Practices to Avoid Injuries to the Eyes

• Identify all of the potential eye hazards in your work area and for your specific work tasks. Ensure there are proper safeguards in place to prevent an eye injury. If there is a safeguard missing, stop the work task and correct the problem.
• Eliminate or lessen the chance of getting something into your eye by avoiding being in the line of fire. One quick example is standing upwind of debris or dust blowing around the work area.
• Always wear approved safety glasses, face shield, or goggles when needed. The type of PPE needed will depend on the work task. Three out of every five victims of eye injuries on the job were not wearing any eye protection.
• If there are welding activities going on, wear proper eye protection and ensure there is a protective barrier in place to protect other employees in the area from UV exposure.
• If you get something in your eye, do not rub or scratch it. Rubbing the eye can cause scratching of the cornea resulting in injury. Find an eyewash station or saline bottle to rinse out the object.
• If you get a chemical in your eyes, remove your contacts if there is any in and begin to rinse your eyes out.

Discussion points:

-What are some hazards we have onsite that can injure our eyes?

-How can protect ourselves from those hazards?

-What job tasks require us to wear a face shield onsite? What about goggles?

Hand Safety and Injury Prevention Safety Talk

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Hand Safety and Injury Prevention Safety Talk

We use our hands for virtually every task we do at work, and because of this fact, they are commonly injured on the job. Keeping our hands and fingers out of harm’s way at work is critical. A serious injury to an individual’s hands or fingers results in a huge negative impact on their ability to work and overall quality of life. While safety gloves are the most common form of personal protective equipment (PPE) found in the workplace, hand injuries are still the second leading type of injury on the job.

Hand Injury Statistics
(source: www.bls.gov)

• There are 110,000 lost time cases due to hand injuries annually.
• 1 million workers are treated in an ER for hand injuries annually.
• 70% of workers who experienced a hand injury were not wearing gloves.
• Another 30% of victims had gloves on, but they were damaged or inadequate for the work task.

Three Common Types of Hand Injuries

1. Lacerations are the most common type of hand injury. Lacerations are due to sharp objects or tools. Often, inadequate gloves are used during an activity that involves a sharp tool. A glove with Kevlar is effective in protecting the hand against a cutting or slicing motion. A straight stab motion can still easily penetrate these gloves. Caution needs to be used when using sharp objects and any tools that can easily penetrate the skin.
2. Crush injuries are usually due to employees placing their hands in the line of fire between two objects or on a rotating piece of equipment. Pinch points on equipment or tools also commonly lead to crush injuries.
3. Fractures occur when there is a sudden blow to the bones in the fingers or hands. Motor vehicle accidents often cause fractures to the hands. Another common cause of fractures is an individual extending out their hands to catch themselves from a fall.

Hand Safety Work Practices and Safety Procedures

• Use tools to remove your hands from the line of fire when doing a work task that could result in injury to your hands or fingers.
• Using tools such as push sticks when using a table saw is an example that removes your hands from the line of fire.
• Avoid using fixed open-blade knives. There are safety knives that limit the length of the blade exposed. They also have a safety feature that retracts the blade when pressure is let off the handle or switch that controls the blade.
• Never put your hand in an area where you cannot see it.
• Wear gloves and hand protection. But not just any gloves. Always wear the appropriate work gloves for whatever task you are doing. Understand the limitations of your gloves and what work tasks they are appropriate for.
• Never work on an energized piece of equipment. Lock and tag out the equipment to ensure there will not be an unintentional start-up while you are working on it.

Discussion points:

• What are some of the biggest hazards to our hands onsite?
• Next time you are doing a simple task at home, such as setting the table for dinner, getting ready in the morning, or cleaning, try doing the task with one or two less fingers. It sounds like a silly exercise, but this can help put into perspective how hard it would be to complete tasks without some of our fingers. It is easy to take for granted our health and abilities when we have had them for so long.

Hand Safety and Injury Prevention Safety Talk – Safety Talk Ideas