{"id":1575,"date":"2021-12-17T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.compliancesigns.com\/blog\/lets-talk-about-safety-culture-through-pop-culture\/"},"modified":"2022-12-19T11:32:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:32:17","slug":"lets-talk-about-safety-culture-through-pop-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compliancesigns.com\/blog\/lets-talk-about-safety-culture-through-pop-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk About Safety Culture (Through Pop Culture)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0Your company’s safety culture impacts nearly everything, from your employees’ working relationships to your accident rate. In fact,\u00a0OSHA\u00a0<\/a>reports ” that developing\u00a0strong safety cultures have the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any process.<\/strong>”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Positive safety cultures take a long time to nurture and develop, but you can take a step in the right direction by studying examples of safety cultures and analyzing the ways in which they are successful (or unsuccessful, as the case may be).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These television shows are meant to entertain, but the clips below also offer a springboard for discussion in your own workplace meetings about what makes a positive safety culture.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Safety Training” \u2013 The Office<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its safety training day at Dunder Mifflin, and the office is invited to join the warehouse crew to learn about dangerous machinery, including the baler and the forklift.\u00a0Michael makes light of\u00a0the warehouse crew\u2019s safety training and poses a real threat to the crew\u2019s safety.\u00a0A competition grows between the warehouse crew and the office workers, and later, Michael feels slighted when his office safety isn\u2019t perceived as \u2018manly\u2019 or \u2018dangerous.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation makes for a funny episode, but in real-life, this situation would certainly be described as a negative safety culture.\u00a0No company can hope to build a positive safety culture when upper management takes safety lightly. It’s not that the boss is making jokes (after all, safety doesn’t have to be boring, and a bit of humor can go a long way towards reinforcing memorization). \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real issue is that the boss undermines the importance of safety and downplays the danger of the warehouse equipment.\u00a0Furthermore,\u00a0a positive safety culture is built by workers who are able to support and protect one another.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers in this episode turn safety into a competition by asserting that one workplace is more dangerous than the other (as if this is something to aspire to!).\u00a0In a real-life situation, a worker who feels discouraged from wearing PPE or fall protection because he or she isn\u2019t ‘tough’ enough to go without could be at risk for severe injury or death.\u00a0Safety day at Dunder Mifflin is a prime example of how attitudes about safety between workers and upper management can degrade a safety culture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Archie & the Miracle” \u2013 All in the Family <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archie is nearly killed at work at a loading dock when a crate of machine parts falls off a crane and just misses him. He escapes uninjured but his lunchbox is smashed flat.\u00a0His wife Edith asks if he was wearing a ‘safety hat’ but Archie replies that the crate weighed one ton – if he hadn’t have moved, his \u201cfeet would have been wearing his safety hat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close calls are a call to action \u2013 but what action?<\/strong>\u00a0Although Archie felt motivated to go to church, there are arguably more pressing actions to take after a near-fatal accident. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big questions need to be answered: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n