Despite an increase in awareness and injury prevention tactics, serious injuries and fatalities continue to occur in our industry, seemingly without warning.
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 5,220 workers were killed on the job in the United States in 2018, increasing from 5,147 fatalities in 2017. Nearly 100 workers every week or 14 workers each day do not return home safe to their families.
CUST-O-FAB takes these alarming statistics to heart and believes that a large percentage of these could have been prevented if complacency had been kept in check by simply having the right attitude.
The definition of complacency can be described as a feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, often combined with total lack of awareness of the consequences of one’s actions.
One example of complacency is the type of attitude someone can get after doing a particular task for some time. It often develops slowly over time and manifests in the form of smugness, gloating, contentment, carelessness, shortcuts, laxness, and laziness—all of which set the stage for the hidden dangers of complacency.
CUST-O-FAB believes that attitude reflects complacency and the key to managing this undesirable trend is to first have the right attitude toward one’s self-wellbeing and to apply a “safety-for-the-right-reasons” mindset for every task.
While regulatory compliance, policies, and procedures are an important part of our operations, self-control or “fear to follow rules or else” cannot be the primary focus of planning safety in the workplace.
CUST-O-FAB employees must continue to promote a safety culture that is centered around WHY one should maintain the right attitude and commit to the purpose behind the rules.
With over four decades of experience, we have learned that having the right attitude is the key to making good safety choices. This is the kind of mindset that we must strive for every day, because keeping our #1 asset (our employees) SAFE will always be our #1 priority.
To learn more about our commitment to safe practices, visit our SAFETY page.