Soooo… an editorial appeared in the May issue of the Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN) Magazine. Needless to say, Mike wanted to further help clear the confusion about “Safety Third” and try to help people understand what he’s been saying all along. Over here at mrW, we know how busy he is and were quite surprised to get his thoughtful reply to the editorial. I mean, he’s traveling more than ever and people write stuff about him all the time without talking to him. Anyway, we decided to post his reply first and then the editorial that sparked it. Read it and decide for yourself – what do you think about safety on the job?:
Mike wrote Dave a letter in response to the editorial below. Here it is:
Hi Dave -
Mike Rowe here, Dirty Jobs, etc.
I’m writing to thank you for your article in May’s edition of ISHN, and for sharing with your readers a few of my comments on workplace safety. Over the years, I’ve learned that some Safety Professionals do not always welcome criticism, especially from a smart aleck TV Host. I don’t blame them. No one likes to be second-guessed by a wise guy who needs a bath and has no credentials. Thanks for keeping an open mind, and providing some context for my comments. Here’s some additional background that you’re welcome to share with your readers, if you think it would be of interest.
The comments you attributed to me first appeared in a blog called Safety Third, which I wrote for my website back in 2008. Safety Third told the stories of my various encounters with over-zealous Safety Officers. The first one I recall, involved a very cranky gentleman who demanded I wear a harness while working on a scaffold that was maybe four feet off the ground. When I pointed out that the safety line attached to the harness was longer than the distance between the ground and me, he said, “Don’t argue! Safety First!” Later that same week, a Safety Officer with The Department of Natural Resources interrupted our shoot to insist I put on a life jacket while installing a culvert in a run-off pond. The water in the pond was less than a foot deep. When I asked him to explain the need for a grown man to wear a life jacket in ten inches of water, he offered the same words of wisdom -“Safety First!”
I have never understood the point of ranking virtues and values in order of their importance. If Safety is First, what is Second? Or Fifth? Or Ninth? In the Boy Scouts, we used to say “Safety Always,” which made a lot more sense to me. Safety Third became my default reply whenever someone acted as though my Safety was their responsibility. On Dirty Jobs, I met many such people. And for a while, I actually believed them.
From 2004 to 2008, the Dirty Jobs crew visited more hazardous sites than any other crew in the history of television, from crab boats to coal mines the very tops of the tallest bridges, to crocodile infested swamps. During that time we sat through close to a hundred mandatory safety briefings. We all became intimately familiar with all the basic protocol – lock out tag out, confined space, fall hazards, respiratory precautions, PPE, the endless checklists, etc., etc. Through it all, trained professionals were on hand to remind us, (and our cameras) that our safety was their top priority.
For a while, it worked. We managed to deliver three seasons of Dirty Jobs with no accidents. Then things started to unravel. Stitches, broken bones, sprains, contusions, falls, a damaged eardrum, second and third degree burns, and many more near misses…it was weird. The job sites were no more dangerous than they’d always been, but the mishaps among my crew were skyrocketing. Then one day, a man was killed while we were shooting in a factory near Pittsburg. He was crushed by the door on a giant coke oven. In the break room, where I was told of the accident, a large banner said, “We Care About Your Safety!” That got me thinking about things like unintended consequences, and the dangers of confusing compliance with real safety.
I found a study on traffic accidents that claimed the most dangerous intersections were those with signs that told you when to walk and when to wait. Intersections with no such signs were statistically safer, apparently because people were more likely to look both ways before crossing the street if there was no blinking sign to tell them when it was safe to do so. According to the theory of Risk Compensation, people subconsciously maintain their own level of “risk equilibrium” by adjusting their behavior to reflect the changes in their surrounding environment. Thus, when the environment around us feels unsafe, we take fewer chances. And when that same environment feels safer, we take more chances. That got me wondering – if companies and Safety Professionals tell us over and over that our safety is their priority, wouldn’t that tend to make us feel safer? And wouldn’t that in turn, prompt us to take more risk, therefore making us…less safe?
I’m no expert, but I think that’s exactly what happened to my crew and me. Over time, we had become convinced that someone else was more committed to our wellbeing than we were. We became complacent. We were crossing the street because the sign told us it was safe to do so. But we weren’t looking both ways.
In 2009, Discovery agreed to air a one-hour special called Safety Third. On Safety Third, I talked candidly about mistakes we’d made on Dirty Jobs, and the unintended consequences
of putting Safety First. I argued that many compulsory Safety programs discouraged personal responsibility in favor of Legal Compliance. I asked viewers to consider all the amazing progress that would have never occurred had Safety been valued above all else. (I also pointed out that if big companies really believed that Safety was First they would wrap their employees in bubble pack and send them home.) I concluded by saying that Safety Third was a lot more honest than Safety First, but ultimately, too important and too personal to be reduced to a platitude. But if we had to have one, my vote was for “Safety Always.”
Well, hell. I might as well have suggested that we replace steel-toed boots in favor of flip-flops. Or outlaw hardhats. I got a nasty letter from OSHA, and a flood of angry mail calling me a “bad role model.” NASA was pissed. So were several Labor Unions, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies who took exception to my “irreverent tone.” I even got a snippy letter from PETA, though I’m still not sure why.
Safety Third had ruffled a lot of feathers, but I was thrilled by the response. I answered all the angry mail, and went to speak personally to those organizations and companies who were most offended. For the most part, skeptics came to agree that the underlying concepts of Safety Third – common sense and personal responsibility – were still worth talking about, and conceded that any resulting conversation which might lead to heightened awareness would ultimately be a good thing. Your piece, Dave, is now a part of that conversation, and I’m grateful.
As for the rest of your article, there is one thing I need to address directly. While it’s true that I am “macho” far beyond the accepted definition, I am not as you suggest, “America’s number one blue-collar guy.” I have no “blue collar bona fides” to offer, and no permission to speak for anyone but me. It’s important to be clear about that, because my opinions are not necessarily those of Discovery, Ford, Caterpillar, Kimberly-Clark, Master Lock, Wolverine, VF Corporation/Lee, or anyone else with whom I may do business. In fact, I should thank all those companies for their patience with me, as many of my comments on this subject have been taken out of context, and have no doubt caused some internal discomfort.
The truth is Safety Third has caused me all sorts of headaches over the years, but I still think it’s a conversation worth having. Everyday, workers fall through the cracks of a one-size-fits-all safety policy. Complacency is the real enemy, and I’m pretty sure the way to eliminate it will not involve more rules and more soothing assurances that an individual’s safety is someone else’s priority. Workers need to understand that being “in compliance” is not the same as being “out of danger.” That’s not going to happen by repeating the same dogma that’s been out there for the last hundred years, and forcing people to watch thirty-year old safety films that would put a glass eye to sleep.
I realize that Safety Third sounds subversive and irreverent. It’s supposed to. But it’s not a call to completely dismantle accepted procedures and protocols. It’s an attempt to improve upon them, and generate a conversation around a topic that really does affect everyone; hopefully, a conversation that will lead to fewer injuries on the job. A few ruffled feathers seem a small price to pay.
Thanks again,
Mike Rowe
Mr. “Dirty Jobs” debunks some safety myths
By Dave Johnson
Is this any way for America’s number one blue-collar guy to talk:
“Of all the platitudes embraced in the workplace there is none more pervasive, erroneous, overused and dangerous than ‘Safety First!’”
“In the jobs I have seen thus far, I can tell you with certainty, that safety, while always a major consideration, is never the priority.” “Never. Never, ever. Not even once.”
“Making money is more important than safety — always.”
Calling out the emperor
Perhaps only macho Mike Rowe is man enough to call out the emperor for forgetting his clothes. Lots of people say this heretical stuff under their breath. Mike lowers the boom. It’s a dirty job but he’s used to it, having hosted the show, Dirty Jobs, on the Discovery Channel since 2005.
Seems Mike has been caught out of compliance, not wearing the proper safety gear, more than once on his show. (So have we on the magazine cover.) One viewer posted this comment on www.mikeroweworks.com:
“My husband works on the oil rigs as a well tester. We watched you folks do so without any eye protection! Are you crazy? Drilling a hole with no protective eyewear? Between him, a well tester, and me, a workers’ compensation lawyer, we’re cringing! Somebody could LOSE AN EYE! Seriously — Safety First fellas!”
Mike the non-conformist
Rowe’s response might make a safety pro cringe: “It is not the objective of “Dirty Jobs” to conform to any particular set of safety standards, other than those dictated by the people for who I happen to be working at the time. I take my cues from them.”
So Mr. Blue Collar is a non-conformist who plays follow the leader. He’d make for an interesting subject in a safety orientation session.
Mike comes in, grabs a chair, and tells you about his own safety orientation. (The following come from Mike’s own writings.) “Safety is important,” he says, “but not more important than getting the job done.” You know, many companies would hire him on the spot. “This guy gets it!”
Unmitigated nonsense
It’d be a good idea to hide your “Safety First” posters if Mike comes to your dirty job site. He calls the “Safety First” slogan “a load of unmitigated nonsense.”
We’ll let Mike elaborate: If an employer tells you safety is the most important thing, don’t believe it. That causes workers to become complacent and careless, he says.
Which is a problem, because in Mike’s world it’s every man for himself. No one has your back. You gotta suck up your own responsibility.
Back to the safety orientation session. You tell Mike all about your company’s emphasis on safety, how you want him and every other worker to go home at night safe and healthy. That this is a core cultural value.
I see Mike leaning back in his chair, grinning that friendly, slightly goofy grin, shaking his head, and breaking out laughing. After all, he has written that “When a business tells you that they are more concerned with your safety than anything else, beware. They are not being honest. They are hedging their own bets, and following the advice of lawyers hired to protect them from lawsuits arising from accidents.”
Let’s get real
I’ve never heard a public figure be so… blunt about safety. Thanks, Mike, you’re nobody’s role model but you cut through decades of safety BS. But be careful about blanket generalizations, buddy. Every business is lying about its safety intentions? I’ve talked with CEOs who sure aren’t lying when they say never again do they want to make a midnight phone call to the wife of a worker just killed in an accident.
Rowe says he wears safety belts and motorcycle helmets not because it’s the law, but because it seems like a reasonable precaution to him and “the only one responsible for my own safety is me.”
Go observe someone else
Here is where Mr. Blue Collar lets too many folks off easy. Senior leaders have no responsibility for his safety. Supervisors, forget ’em. Safety managers, you don’t have to worry about Mike Rowe, go train someone else. Just watch out because Mike might play fast and loose with safety laws if that what he sees people around him doing.
Don’t try to hook Mike up with a safety coach or mentor; I doubt the conversation will go far. And Mike is not your best subject for an observation and feedback session. You probably won’t like the feedback you get from him. And by all means, keep the “Brother’s Keeper” and “Actively Caring” stuff away from him.
Comments on Mike’s website replying to his post about safety are refreshingly politically incorrect. For instance:
“You very clearly pointed out that your employer (everyone’s employer) simply does not make our safety their priority. Thank you for that bit of truth-telling.”
“Safety is never the first priority and all these laws and rules and BS are intended to minimize statistically insignificant risk while ignoring major risk.”
“In business, business always comes first. An employer cares more about lawsuits and their workers’ comp rates than your safety. We always say: Safety Third.”
There is truth in some of what Mike Rowe has to say about safety. Thankfully Mike goes on to make some generalizations about attitudes toward safety that cross the line of reason and remind you that, yes, he’s not a model, he’s acting.
Original article on ISHN – HERE
17 Comments
Greetings Micheal!
You really hit the right note about safety.
You and I when much younger rode our bikes without helmets or any safety gear. We knew a crash would happen, (it always did) and after the first serious case of road rash on our flip flop shod feet, our unsheathed elbows and un-helmeted heads-we knew to slow down, watch out! The same with skate boards, I spent the better part of one summer in 1962 with the skin on the bottom of one foot pretty much gone, the near loss of a big toe (attempting to hang ten on concrete)and more or less permanently scabbed knees, I grew somewhat more cautious and my skill level grew and I learned to bail out better. Now I stand on my brakes at a four way stop as a bike rider, clad like a knight in armor flys through the stop sign-I guess they believe they’re impervious to damage. I was ripped a new one recently by a bike rider who tried to pass on the right as I was attempting a right turn, the off duty cop behind me, however, saw things my way and a miracle occured! The cyclist was arrested when, in a fit of anger, took a swing at me because his precious bike was totaled (my ancient Jeep Grand Cherokee, not a scratch). Or maybe he took offense when I pointed out his error as well as his obviuosly broken nose. I did offer him a towel and a ride to the E.R. He declined with a nasty choice of words and a badly attempted punch. Perhaps his “safety gear” did protect him from worse injury, but, I think, had he recognised that Jeep vs. bike would never work in his favor despite a helmet he might have paid more attention to my turn signal and the fact I was slowing down as he was attempting to speed past me. We learned to keep as far away from traffic as possible, knowing without testing, the probable outcome.
Thank you for allowing me to vent, it’s been a rough year……
Mike,
I was a military bomb disposal (EOD) technician for 10 years. If you can find an inherently less safe job let me know. The military in its ever progressive embrace of Political Correctness was forever introducing risk assessment procedures and the like. But ultimately, it was the pre-mission walkthrough where the team members discussed the steps and actions to be taken on the operation where we all mentally ticked through the necessary “safeties” that needed observing. It was this training and an awareness of the true danger of complacency, not some slavish adherence to an arbitrary matrix, that kept has so many of us alive over the last 10+ years of conflict. Thanks for talking about the elephant in the room with respect to the money, time and energy wasted on disingenuous safety programs administered by well meaning, but ultimately out of touch safety personnel. Despite what many people claim, companies do care about their employees and do truly want to see them not hurt, but more often than not, the safety compliance within organizations is to just keep the safety inspector away and to CYA (cover your…butt). Keep up the good work.
Mike
I am the HSE Manager for a major drilling company, currently assigned overseas, where we are currently building drillships to add to our fleet.
I have been a safety officer for the better part of 8 years. I could write paragraphs about the successes I’ve seen, but you nailed it. It’s should never be about “compliance”, it’s about keeping our people “out of danger”.
And the enemy …. is Complacancy.
I want to say this… to all my peers – Mike is right. Safety First is a cliche statement. It needs to be Safety Always.
My motto – “Accidents are the result of decisions made”. And today, after reading your post, I will NEVER again say “Safety First”.
Thanks
Mike – great article. Too bad about the push back from safety PC people. Opposite Amy’s note below more safety is not “always better”. In fact it’s logically broken. At some point it ends up just like you said – send the employees home in bubble wrap.
Thank you for insightful words. I will keep these in mind when I give my next Safety Class. I would also like to point out the value of Risk Management. In my line of work, the Military, we know what we do is dangerous, but there are things to do to mitigate those risks and reduce the chances of getting hurt. I feel this approach helps keep the common sense in the safety plan. Thanks for making us think about this.
I’m an aircraft mechanic and I end up working around a lot of heavy parts and dangerous machines. Because of the dangers apparent in my line of work our supervisor has a safety meeting every Thursday. We’re constantly reminded to look out for each other as well as ourselves and watch for any problems that might arise. However sometimes it’s the little things that get you, not to long ago I ended up on workers comp due to a bad knee injury. How? Well it was my fault. While I was moving interior panels in a DC-10 I didn’t notice that a few other mechanics had removed a small section of floor panels in order to access the wiring underneath. You can already see where this is going. My lack of attention caused me to slip through the gaping hole falling 14 feet into the forward cargo pit landing on my right knee causing enough damage to put me out of work for several weeks. Now before anyone gets their dander up you should know that this is an industry that it is not uncommon for injuries like this and worse to appear. I work along side several wonderful people who have lost fingers in this work. These things happen and while everyone does what we can to prevent them sooner or later it happens. We can only be thankful that there are no deaths on our record, because it is all to easy to be run over by a plane while towing it because of a small moment of distraction. We do what we can to prevent it.
Mike,
I have been doing my job for almost 44 years, before OSHA or MESHA. I think I for the most part have had good safety consciousness and thank God I have not had a serious accident. Upon looking back I think it may have been due more to God’s protection than my actions. I think training that makes a professional aware is more important than unlimited rules that eliminate or sometimes even prevent the use of common sense.
My job requires electrical work and also requires doing things such as hot trouble shooting. Safety rules require using flash protection. I agree that flash protection will help to limit the severity of injuries caused by a flash. I also believe that flash protection makes sense in many cases, but I also believe that the limited vision and loss of dexterity can, in some cases, make a flash more likely to occur. Common sense used after the proper training makes sense to me.
This is only one example of many where common sense after proper training should be allowed. The problem is, how do you judge common sense? Hopefully good training would provide that.
“Safety First” does imply that the well being of an individual is a priority above anything else. I have a question. Why are almost all safety posters buried on a bulletin board in a break room, away from the hazards of the job? “Safety First,” if you prefer, “Safety Always,” needs to progress from a poster and safety training, and evolve to be top of mind awareness and a matter of practice – all the time.
More safety is always good. Debating the terminology is a waste of time. Let me know what I can do to help.
Mike is trying to shake people out of complacency that even comes with saying Safety First all the time. It parts of a conditioned response to become complacent unless occasionally you change something. By saying Safety Third. He is making you think more about safety than you would by hearing the same Safety First all the time. There is a lot more to it than this point . With Mike Rowe how he says something is sometimes as important or more important and designed to make you think. Oh and he has the best voice for doing it to because you want to listen to him.
Hey Mike, I think we ought to thank good ol’ Dave for reignighting the safety conversation you started some time ago with your Safety Third article. I know you had a lot of explaining to do to your sponsors, but that nicely plays into moving the conversation to forefront of the thoughts of those who work in dangerous environments, and those who write about it like Dave.
So anyway, thanks Dave! Oh, and thanks again Mike for reminding everyone that personal safety is a personal matter and should not be totally left up to the “safety officer”!
Maybe it’s because of the ruling on the mandate today, (and at the risk of sounding like an alarmist) I feel like the issues surrounding work have now become even more critical to the well-being of our country (which doesn’t seem possible!) Thank you for being one of the few prompting these conversations. Your ability to communicate ideas and concepts so clearly is indispensable. Plus, we’ll probably need someone who’s not afraid to create a stir or ruffle some feathers. I think our country is really going to need it. (…no pressure or anything…)
Mike, Thank you for your honesty! Safety First is an overused motto and is not true. In the construction industry, unfortunately, “hurry up and get the job done” seems to be the motto. And “Oh, by the way, don’t get hurt or OSHA will be all over us.”, seems to follow closely behind. And yes, when you are complacent, accidents happen.
And you are absolutely correct in saying that no one ever has more interest in your personal safety than you do. People need to apply this idea to everyday life as well.
Thanks for all you do!
Michelle
Great job Mike.
Excellent response as always Mike. The points about compliance and complacency always seem to be overlooked. Or ignored.
And I will never understand the sarcastic and rude tone so many people use when addressing the concept of Safety Third. It’s just unbelievable. Anything that challeges the status quo and stringent mindset is automatically attacked, rebuffed, or laughed at. Where are the open minds and mature audiences?
Mike,
Thanks for a much needed respite from the over used “safety first” motto!
You are very correct about safety not being first. I used to work for a sub-contractor to one of the largest private contracting firms in the world, and most “safety” conscious I might add. So I can relate many first hand stories that could have gotten a lot of people in trouble. Little things like working 24 hours or more to meet a deadline that was close because someone up the chain didn’t cut the PO’s for parts in time to get TE job done in a reasonable time, so all of a sudden business came before safety.
Yes, you make a lot of generalizations, but that is exactly what they are, and there exceptions to almost everything.
Keep up the good work!
Mike,
Kudos to you for your response, and for the conversation that other people are continuing to perpetuate. From my perspective, this is emblematic of something our society seems to have become increasingly afflicted with in the last several decades – the failure to take responsibility for our own actions, and the desire to hold someone else responsible for consequences. It’s a tragically bad example to pass on to the younger generations.
Many thanks to you for once again using your celebrity (yeah, I said it) status to keep applying pressure for more people – especially those in charge – to exercise more common sense, and perhaps a little less criticism.
And by the way – my favorite is still “Safety first – or at least in the top three.”
Great to hear from you, Mike. Thanks for writing. Safety Always makes more sense to me, too, than safety first, such a burned-out and counter-productive slogan.
I also agree, based on 32 years of editing this safety magazine, that:
Complacency is a killer
Compliance is false security
Pols, unions, employers, do not for the most part walk their high-falutin’ talk about safety. Safety is much easier to make speeches about than to implement.
People like you who talk straight about safety are bound to get headaches.
Ruffling feathers should be a natural part of a safety job. One old pro told me his job was to create within his company “cognitive dissonance.”
Serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) currently are the subject of research by a task group of large corporations. They, like your crew, have experienced years of without SIFs, only to be stunned when they get stung by one or a cluster of a few. They are much more adept at preventing minor injuries than SIFs, and currently they are studying why SIFs resist their efforts.
I realize you have no blue collar bona fides, but you are one of the very few public figures today who lead us into the often dangerous, neglected, shrinking blue collar world. More power to you, Mike. One reason I’ve stayed with this magazine is not the safety subject, but the short leap from safety to the notion of respect for the dignity of work. The dignity of dirty jobs. Your show captures that dignity. Keep on keeping on, Mike.
Regards,
Dave