What's Wrong With This Picture?
Given the criteria for effective accountability above, read the following scenario to determine if discipline is appropriate.
Joe's driving a defective forklift.
Gloria, the shipping supervisor at XYZ Distributors, immediately suspended Joe, a forklift driver, for two days without pay for driving a forklift into a 55-gallon drum of agent-x which resulted in an uncontrolled release of hazardous chemical. Gloria was under a lot of pressure from her manager to get three late shipments of product out the door before the end of the work shift. As a result of the incident, the company's emergency response team had to be activated to contain the spill and an outside contractor hired to clean the spill.
The follow-up incident analysis determined the brakes on the lift truck were defective. No preventive maintenance inspection on the forklift had been conducted for five months. Neither the supervisor nor driver from the previous shift had reported the condition at shift changeover. Joe notified Gloria (per safety policy) at the beginning of the shift he believed the brakes might be weak. Gloria, who was "buried in paperwork," responded with, "just be careful and use common sense."
If you think Gloria was justified in disciplining Joe, please read the partial findings in the next section very carefully. Unfortunately discipline like this is commonly administered subjectively, blaming the employee, not the safety management system.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-3. Unfortunately discipline is commonly administered _____.
You forgot to answer the question!