Out Loud Blog

In his newest post, guest blogger and Future Leader in EHS Jason Townsell discusses a preventable workplace tragedy and why all workers’ lives are irreplaceable.

On Feb. 8, a Southern California man in his early 30s was working to locate a sewer line when the 8-foot-deep by 2-foot-wide trench caved in and buried him in soil up to his shoulders. This 10-year construction veteran was pronounced dead at the scene. The rescue effort had become a recovery effort.

The soil, which weighed up to 150 pounds per cubic foot, likely buried this laborer in such a way to lead to a fast death. However, this is little consolation for such a tragic, preventable event.

If this were a report of a young man dying on the front lines of war defending his country, one might see some sense in his untimely death. Delivering this heartbreaking news to a mother or wife when the deceased loved one died for a greater cause carries a banner of purpose. But construction work isn’t a cause worth dying for.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction fatalities declined by 16 percent from 2008 to 2009 (from 726 fatalities in 2008 to 607 in 2009). If that same percentage reflected a revenue increase or unemployment decrease, it would be positive. But when we are speaking of occupational fatalities, I find these totals to be unacceptable. I find the loss of even one life unacceptable.

Life Lessons

We must begin to view each of these fatalities as a face with a family rather than a statistic to be found on a Web site and improved upon for the sake of lower insurance premiums. This construction laborer was left working alone (it is still unclear if there was any form of cave-in protection in the trench) in an 8-foot deep trench while the remainder of his crew worked at another location. This lack of oversight demonstrates that some companies still don’t get it.

“It” is simple – life is important and the work is dangerous. Does that fact that it is dangerous mean it cannot or should not be done? Absolutely not. Rather, it means that those in charge must begin to match their mitigation measures with the level of danger inherent with the work.

The work will not get less dangerous. In fact, the argument could be made that with the sheer size and speed in which construction projects are evolving, the work may get even more dangerous. To counter this we must get better, and view each fatality as one too many.

Life is Precious

I realize it every time I walk in my front door and am greeted by my children, or when I watch the sun set on a lazy West Coast summer day: Life is precious and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. There is nothing like it. It is irreplaceable, incomparable and incomprehensibly beautiful.

It is only when this message – that life’s priceless beauty belongs to all – is truly absorbed by top levels of management will America’s employees be protected. When everyone pitches in to make American workers go home, occupational fatalities will become the exception rather than the rule.

Jason Townsell, a student working toward a bachelor’s of science in occupational health and safety at Columbia Southern University, was recently named the first Future Leader in EHS. He received a $5,000 scholarship and access to PureSafety’s safety and health software and information solutions. The judges selected Townsell based on his work and life experience, community outreach efforts, academic performance, his interest in teaching and mentoring EHS students and more. Townsell is a contributing blogger for EHS Today.

In his newest blog post, guest blogger and Future Leader in EHS Jason Townsell shares his thoughts on successful EHS implementation, including decision-making skills, practicing EHS procedures, valuing safety and empowering employees. Townsell stresses that both EHS leaders and employees “can choose to make safety happen.” Here’s how:

Daily Decisions

Experience has taught me that our desired outcomes are little more than a series of decisions, some for the betterment of our situation and some to the detriment. This concept is true of worker safety and health as daily decisions made by individual workers (and those who work in the vicinity) may be of life-or-death importance.

One of my goals is to persuade workers to grasp the importance of their decisions. I encourage them to choose to be safe, as I believe that a worker can make that choice and subsequently act on it to make it happen.

There is great power in all decisions. When employees understand this, change is ready to arrive.

Perfect Practice

When I was in high school, my football coach did away with the traditional statement “practice makes perfect” and replaced it with “perfect practice makes perfect.” This is a concept that can transfer to the safety world as well.

While most EHS professionals (myself included) would agree that a perfect health and safety record is nearly impossible, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep reaching for it. Remind your employees daily that when health and safety procedures are followed to the letter, the chance of attaining perfection is much higher.

Valuing EHS

Roy Disney once said, “It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” This powerful statement provides the formula for getting one’s work force to make the right decisions every day.

People will not adhere to what they don’t value. As such, EHS professionals must do all that is possible to increase the value of the EHS program for workers. This may be done several ways, including: reaching out to employees and addressing how EHS affects them personally; highlighting the positive effects of EHS values; debunking myths about the additional time and cost required to implement safe actions; and empowering employees to take part in the EHS effort.

Employee Empowerment

Empowering employees is one of the most important aspects of successful safety and health management. It gives workers power over their safety and also makes them a part of the greater EHS effort. This provides the all-important employee buy-in to the safety program.

I believe that safety works best when employees are empowered to be a part of the EHS program and its implementation. An empowered employee is much more likely to value a safety program than an employee who feels the information is simply dictated or commanded from above.

Assigning front-line managers with the task of overseeing the safety of his or her employees and making employees an integral part of a company’s safety committee produces a sense of camaraderie. In these cases, workers want to create an environment of cohesion and compliance.

These pointers represent just a few thoughts I had today regarding successful EHS implementation. Contemplation always brings new ideas. Try it today – consider how you can have a definite impact on the safety of those around you.

Jason Townsell, a student working toward a bachelor’s of science in occupational health and safety at Columbia Southern University, was recently named the first Future Leader in EHS. He received a $5,000 scholarship and access to PureSafety’s safety and health software and information solutions. The judges selected Townsell based on his work and life experience, community outreach efforts, academic performance, his interest in teaching and mentoring EHS students and more. Townsell is a contributing blogger for EHS Today.

The following Super Bowl ad features a first date, a car and some fancy — but potentially dangerous — technology. Take a look:

“When the good news just can’t wait?” I would argue that yes, it can wait if the “good news” entails a distracted driver getting into an accident because he was accessing his Facebook feed.

Drivers are already distracted by cell phones and texting and who knows what else – having access to Facebook at the touch of your rearview mirror is not going to keep our roads safe.

What’s worse is that this type of in-car feature masquerades as being a safer option. Rather than taking your eyes off the road to check your Facebook status on your phone (can you hear me screaming right now?) you can “safely” continue driving as your car happily reads Facebook updates to you.

When I wrote the feature article Why We Need to Hang Up On Our Distracted Driving Addiction, I read various studies and spoke to one of the leaders in distracted driving research, Dr. David Strayer at the University of Utah. I learned that our brains operate differently when we are engaged in a phone call (and it doesn’t matter one bit whether your hand is at your ear or on the wheel). That undoubtedly has to go for listening to Facebook status updates, too. How can you fully keep your attention on the road when part of your mind is occupied by listening to what your friends think of your vacation photos or what snarky comment your ex-spouse left on your wall?

In the past, I held cell phone conversations while driving – until I was honest with myself and realized that it detracted from my focus on the road. Unfortunately, too many people are convinced that they can handle it just fine, or they might think that because they never got into an accident while using a cell phone, then they’re in the clear.

But as Strayer said during our interview, “You don’t instantly crash on the road while talking on the cell phone. And you don’t instantly crash when you’re drunk, either … In the long run, if you do it enough, you’re going to put yourself at risk.”

I’ve addressed distracted driving on this blog before and I likely will again. It’s a serious issue that affects all of us – and it will only get worse with new technological “advances” like the ones featured in the ad.

What People Are Saying

I gave the commercial’s YouTube comments a quick read to see what the average Super Bowl ad viewer thought of this type of technology. This is by no means a comprehensive review – a person can only take so many YouTube comments – but here’s a taste. (Note: I cleaned up some of the punctuation.)

The Safety Failure award goes to the person who wrote, “Or you could just go to Facebook on your phone like a normal person.” Is there any sense in hoping this person was being sarcastic about reading Facebook feeds while driving? Thankfully, another commenter responded, “You could also get in a life-ending car accident while looking at your phone.”

Others didn’t take safety into consideration but thought that such a feature was annoying, silly or senseless: “Facebook’s annoying enough as it is. I don’t need to know about it when I’m not even at my computer.”

Finally, some people were on board with my concerns. Their comments ranged from “seems dangerously distracting” to “horrid” to “So now road rage meets news feed malaise. This will result in death.”

Another person stressed that “We don’t need more safety features, we need less entertainment features.”

I hope everyone made it home safe and sound from Super Bowl celebrations. Remember, when you’re behind the wheel, put down the phone. And for goodness’ sake, don’t let your car talk you into an accident.

As job seekers face a discouraging economy and job market, the last thing they need to worry about is how their physical appearance might influence their prospects. But according to a recent study, this might be a real concern – only not in the ways you might expect.

According to economic researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel, attractive men might have a better chance of garnering interest from potential employers while attractive women might have less of a chance of getting a foot in the door.

Researchers sent 5,312 resumes in pairs to 2,656 advertised job openings in Israel. In each pair, one resume was sent without a picture while the second, otherwise almost identical resume contained a picture of either an attractive male/female or a plain-looking male/female. Overall, the response rate to resumes was 14.5 percent.

“Unlike Anglo-Saxon countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K, it isn’t taboo in Israel to embed a headshot of oneself in the top corner of one’s job resume,” explained BGU economics researcher and lecturer Dr. Bradley Ruffle. “Rather, the choice to include a photograph on one’s job resume is left to the candidate with the result that some do, while others don’t. This fact makes Israel an opportune location to explore the effect of a picture and its attractiveness, or lack thereof, on the likelihood of being invited for a job interview.”

The resumes of “attractive” males received a 19.9 percent response rate, nearly 50 percent higher than the13.7 percent response rate for “plain” males and more than twice the 9.2 percent response rate of no-picture males. Ze’ev Shtudiner, co-researcher and Ph.D. candidate, said that an attractive male therefore would need to send an average of five resumes in order to obtain a response, while a plain-looking male needs to send 11 for a response.

Women: Omit that Photo

Among women, however, the BGU study indicates that, contrary to popular belief, “attractive” women are called back for a position less often than “plain women,” as well as women who had no picture on their resume.

“Among female candidates, no-picture females have the highest response rate, 22 percent higher than plain females and 30 percent higher than attractive females. Our findings on penalization of attractive women contradict current psychology and organizational behavior literature on beauty that associate attractiveness, male and female alike, with almost every conceivable positive trait and disposition,” the authors explained.

As a result, attractive and plain women alike are better off omitting their photograph from a resume since it decreases their chances of a callback by 20 to 30 percent.

The number of attractive women that were subjected to discrimination varied on who was hiring them, the research shows. When employment agencies received resumes for positions, attractive female candidates were no worse off than plain candidates and penalized only modestly compared to no-picture females.

However, when the corporation at which the candidate might work recruited directly, attractive females received a response rate of about half that of plain and no-picture women. This is likely due to the high number of women in human resources staffing positions, the researchers suggest.

In fact, they go so far as to say that the women who screen the candidates (in this study, the screening person was female in 96 percent of the cases and typically was young and single) nix the attractive female candidates because of a “jealous response.” In short, the young women workers don’t want competition in the workplace from other attractive women.

I’m not sure I’m convinced on this last point. Certainly, more research is necessary to flesh out this “jealousy” hypothesis. In the meantime, perhaps we should all be grateful that it’s not standard practice to include a photo with a resume here in the United States. At the least, this research might make you rethink your Facebook photo or other images available online. You know what they say: A picture is worth a thousand job callbacks. Or something.