Maintaining a Safe and Healthy Workplace

I often hear about workplace accidents, car accidents, construction site accidents, ladders falling from trucks, over-turned vehicles going too fast around highway ramps, skateboarding accidents and all kinds of other accidents, and I wonder to myself: "Are there really any 'accidents', or just varying degrees of negligence?"

People become distracted by many things while working, including fears of poverty, failed relationships, fatigue, downsizing, car payments, work bullies, poor communication, multi-tasking, micro-managing and the list goes on. The funny thing is that, though the statistics are out there on workplace accidents, it seems we tend to forget how to prevent them.

It's funny how accidents can be traced back to something obvious, yet they happen anyway. I just read a news article about a wall of bricks that fell onto people on the street from a 36 storey condo project in Toronto, CAN (http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_35829.aspx). Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't stringent safety guidelines be in effect for such a project to prevent such a thing from happening?

Open lines of communication, a sense of worth at a given position and recurring safety meetings are a good start in what should be present at all workplaces. Hiring a consultant in workplace safety or healthy workplaces is probably among the most cost-effective and prudent decisions any employer can make for the health and vitality of their workplace.

- Buck Moore