People
This category refers to any employee (or others) at any level of the organization who is not "sober and focused" on the work they're doing. For example, an employee might be in a hazardous "state of being" if they are:
- under the influence of legal/illegal drugs;
- poorly trained or educated;
- worried about a family illness; or
- mentally or physically incapable of doing the job safely
Remember, an employee who is distracted in any way from the work they're doing should also be considered a "walking" hazardous condition that increases the likelihood of an unsafe behavior. Unfortunately, OSHA does not usually "catch" employees working in an unsafe manner, so you don't see unsafe behaviors described in OSHA citation reports too often.
Remember, hazardous conditions may be thought of as unsafe "states of being." All of the following situations may cause employees to be what I call "walking hazards"
- Fatigue: Employees are too tired to do the work without causing injury to themselves or others.
- Drugs or alcohol: Drugs (either legal or illegal) and alcohol place employees in altered states of awareness and lengthens reaction time.
- Distraction: Employees who are distracted (internal thoughts are not focused on the work being performed). You can't be thinking about the football game while working on high voltage!
- Hurry: This should be obvious. This is probably the greatest reason employees perform unsafe actions. The more hurried employees are, for whatever reason, the more likely they are going to have accidents.
Workers who take unsafe short cuts, or who are using established procedures that are unsafe, are accidents waiting to happen. Hazardous work practices represent the majority of the surface causes of all accidents in the workplace. Bottom-line: If employees are not sober and focused while working, they are walking hazardous conditions.
Systems
Every company has, to some degree, a safety management system. Management may unintentionally promote unsafe behaviors by developing ineffective policies, procedures and rules that ignore safe behaviors or actually encourage unsafe work practices. Safety policies, plans, programs, processes, procedures and practices are called "Administrative Controls," and they ultimately represent the causes all accidents, except unknowable-uncontrollable "acts of God".
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-7. Inadequate policies, procedures, and work practices represent _____ hazards.
You forgot to answer the question!