Real Men (and Women) Report Injuries
Latest article By Phil LaDuke who says: “Safety is about more than good training and awareness programs, it’s about how we are conditioned relative to injuries. Unfortunately, most workers come to the workplace with deep-seated conditioning about what is right and proper when one is responding to being injured. Please give it a read and let me know what you think. If you think it worthwhile please share it with like-minded colleagues”. Phil La Duke Partner ERM
It’s starts early in our lives: “Don’t be a baby”, “Stop crying, you’re all right”. It continues through our childhood, “Toughen up, you pansy” or “walk it off”. Even when we’re adults were told to “man up” or “play through the pain”. At a very basic level we are conditioned to see injuries as weakness, as some sign of inferiority. Heck even the dumbest predators target the weak and the injured among their prey. And yet organizations expect us to ignore a lifetime of conditioning and openly admit our mistakes, injuries, skills deficiencies, and weaknesses. We reward and revere the strong, the burly, the toughest among us. They are the carry over from the warrior class, knights, samurai, and warlords. For centuries a person’s power came largely from their physical brawn and his or her ability to withstand physical punishment and survive. This is the world in which we are trying to find ways to get people to report injuries.
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