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Mike Rowe

Started by isuhawkeye, October 01, 2007, 02:01:17 AM

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isuhawkeye



Recently Mike Rowe from TV's Dirty Jobs was interviewed by Men's Journal magazine.  Mike had some interesting things to say about workplace safety.  I thought I would pass them along. 

www.isuhawkeye.blogspot.com

Men's Journal: You've said controversially, that safety shouldn't come first in the work place.

Mike: "Safety First" is really a platitude; and it's just not true.  When you're in an environment where people are hyper vigilant about safety, it can create a false sense of security. 

Minor text edit - MIKE

♠SARKID♠

Sidenote:  I've been thinking lately about proposing an idea to my commander.  Wouldn't it be awesome to see if Mike could come on a training mission with my squadron?  CAP has taken news crews (CNN) in corporate aircraft before, and i'm sure it wouldnt be too much of a problem for ground crews.  How awesome would it be to have Dirty Jobs come to CAP?!

SAR-EMT1

But CAP has no "Dirty Job" for him to do.

HOWEVER, a visit Mail Call from Mail Call to IOWA Wing would work wonders.
C. A. Edgar
AUX USCG Flotilla 8-8
Former CC / GLR-IL-328
Firefighter, Paramedic, Grad Student

Al Sayre

Not true, make him an Admin & Personnel officer and give him that 5 year backlog of paperwork to clean up... >:D
Lt Col Al Sayre
MS Wing Staff Dude
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
GRW #2787

♠SARKID♠

Quote from: SAR-EMT1 on October 01, 2007, 10:03:13 AM
But CAP has no "Dirty Job" for him to do.

Sure we do.  Hide the beacon in a swamp.  Besides, they've been running low on jobs and have been a little more lenient on what they call "dirty"

isuhawkeye

so, no thoughts on his safety comment?

Al Sayre

I'll agree with him.  I work in a "Safety Conscious Work Environment".  We are so inundated with safety messages, meetings, briefings, posters, etc.  That it can actually become a distraction and the real message can become mere background noise due to the overload.
Lt Col Al Sayre
MS Wing Staff Dude
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
GRW #2787

isuhawkeye

And how about CAP's current safety program/culture?

isuhawkeye


pixelwonk

I think the number of replies to this thread is rather telling regarding CAP's current safety program/culture.  It's not that interesting.

I've seen [CAP] approach safety all wrong way too often.  What's wrong with a quick brief on the current hazards we need to look out for pertinent to the event and then move on?

Nooooo...  we can't have that.  We must sit through SM Joe Schlabotnik (you know the FNG gets the fun jobs) reading line by line his PowerPoint that he hastily made the night before on the dangers of eating urinal pucks.

Like procreation, safety consciousness is important, but definitely has it's place.

jimmydeanno

Quote from: tedda on October 02, 2007, 06:51:37 PM
...on the dangers of eating urinal pucks.

Those are dangerous!  Why do they make them smell so nice?!

Seriously though, you're right-on tedda, the CAP safety program is downright tedious and I think the current mandates make them even more horrible.

Is there any empirical evidence that shows that since we've instituted these mandatory safety briefings and the like that the number of "incidents" has declined?

Creating a culture that thinks about the safest way to do the things we are doing is different than having mandatory briefings and such, just as the DDR program is more than just putting posters on the wall.

A safety concious environment is one where an AOBD says "we're not flying today because there is lightning everywhere."  Safety is just not taking unecessary risk.

So, I agree with you tedda, a quick brief about what you are doing at the moment or activity should be sufficient.  "Guys, we're going hiking, it's hot out here, be sure to drink plenty of water.  If you see anyone that looks dehydrated, let me know.  Also, there are rattlesnakes, watch out for them."
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law. - Winston Churchill

JAFO78

At Disney they are big on their saying, " Safe D, begins with Me" Safety begins with each cast member, because it is up to each of us to make our work place safe.
JAFO

SJFedor

Quote from: tedda on October 02, 2007, 06:51:37 PM
I think the number of replies to this thread is rather telling regarding CAP's current safety program/culture.  It's not that interesting.

I've seen [CAP] approach safety all wrong way too often.  What's wrong with a quick brief on the current hazards we need to look out for pertinent to the event and then move on?

Nooooo...  we can't have that.  We must sit through SM Joe Schlabotnik (you know the FNG gets the fun jobs) reading line by line his PowerPoint that he hastily made the night before on the dangers of eating urinal pucks.

Like procreation, safety consciousness is important, but definitely has it's place.


BTDT. How many other people have sat through 20 minute safety briefs at a training exercise?

Steven Fedor, NREMT-P
Master Ambulance Driver
Former Capt, MP, MCPE, MO, MS, GTL, and various other 3-and-4 letter combinations
NESA MAS Instructor, 2008-2010 (#479)

RiverAux

I do admit to getting sick and tired of safety briefings.  If I had to listen to some ES task explanation at every single CAP event I'd get tired of hearing those also.  I think we run the risk of just scaring people off if a major portion of every meeting is spent talking about some flying safety issue.  Its just too much. 

LTC_Gadget

Quote from: jimmydeanno on October 02, 2007, 07:08:33 PM
Seriously though, you're right-on tedda, the CAP safety program is downright tedious and I think the current mandates make them even more horrible.

Is there any empirical evidence that shows that since we've instituted these mandatory safety briefings and the like that the number of "incidents" has declined?

Probably, but I propose that it's not because of what you might think.  There are probably less accidents because we're now "doing" less, and talking about it, and having meetings about it *more.* So, instead of actually performing the mission, we're burning time and other resources talking it to death... Extracting my tongue from my cheek now, but not so much..
John Boyd, LtCol, CAP
Mitchell and Earhart unnumbered, yada, yada
The older I get, the more I learn.  The more I learn, the more I find left yet to learn.


mynetdude

you know, I don't understand... I mean I find some of the safety briefings interesting because you can learn what stupid people do to really mess things up (not that I think it is fun, its horrible but it has an intriguing factor to it).

But why do we have to do this EVERY MONTH? there are only 4 weeks in the month, 3 weeks we do whatever training needs to be done and the 4th week well its safety day! What if we wanted to do something special/different on the 4th week and you can't do a safety briefing?

Or lets say one month you do an open house, and one week you cancel meeting due to weather or whatever it be then another week you do a safety briefing and then you only have one week to do training.

I propose to do safety briefings for 30 minutes (10 minutes for each month) every quarter (every quarter is about every 3 months) and as needed as the squadron safety officer sees fit.

My squadron has never had any safety incidents for several years, does that mean the overly done safety briefing works? Or is working? Well I wouldn't say no, but I'd like to see a different approach to this.

Orville_third

Quote from: Rob Goodman on October 03, 2007, 12:38:07 AM
At Disney they are big on their saying, " Safe D, begins with Me" Safety begins with each cast member, because it is up to each of us to make our work place safe.
I totally agree, despite not being a Disney employee. (I had the privilege of visiting a Disney facility not long ago. I don't drive, so I informed the person that I was considering walking to a nearby Disney theme park. She requested that I not visit said facility, if I was unable to drive, due to the fact that traffic in the area was dangerous. I informed her that I would have transportation there, and would possibly try to get transportation via taxi to the park. She volunteered to take me there afterwards as a result!)
Disney is proof that an organization can have a safety mindset and still get stuff done.
Captain Orville Eastland, CAP
Squadron Historian
Public Affairs Officer
Greenville Composite Squadron
SC Wing

heliodoc

WHAT???  CAP is only starting to catch up with the 20 minute safety briefs?? Say it isn't soooo!

CAP wants to emulate the USAF and US Army ......so now they have a REASON for the 20+ minute briefs

Too bad CAP doesn't spend that much time on ramp inspections and more hands on "stuff."

Even the "brightest " in CAP can be prone or have an accident....

Read Army Knowledge magazine (formerly Flightfax)  and you will get an an idea NONE of are exempt from an accident....its only a moment away

CAP's learning experience in the "new field" of safety...is that ....NEW...there are going to be growing pains and there are plenty of CAPers out there with a new found knowledge that will or will try to "enforce" the new knowledge

CAP ought to use safety a mitigation tool.   But the  CAP Sentinel says otherwise.

Standby the 20 minute safety briefs are only beginning!!

Gunner C

Training, not briefings, make things safer.  20 minutes of corporate CYA.