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General Safety Issues

TEN PRACTICAL LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE LITTLE RED HEN (GUEST POST)

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Sent by Carol Watson, of NationalNannies.com

The story of the Little Red Hen has been told for ages to teach young people basic moral values. Using farm animals for the characters makes it interesting and fun for children, and stimulates their imaginations as they learn some important life lessons. Even though this folk tale has been passed down for generations, its message is timeless. We can all relate to these ten  practical lessons learned from the Little Red Hen.

  1. Thrift – The story begins with the Little Red Hen finding some discarded grain seeds. Nobody else saw the value of these seeds, but she knew they had potential. The thrifty hen knows better than to let her fortunate find go to waste.
  2. Initiative – Nobody had to tell the hen what to do with the grain seeds. She took the initiative to pick up the seeds and take advantage of her good fortune. People can learn a lesson from her initiative instead of waiting to be told what to do.
  3. Plan ahead – The Little Red Hen could see the future potential of those seeds if they were planted and harvested. Instead of just focusing on the present, she could plan ahead to improve her situation.
  4. Work hard – The hen wasn’t afraid of hard work even if nobody else on the farm would help her. She knew that her labor would pay off in the end and didn’t hesitate to get busy. Kids can learn how important it is to work hard if they want to succeed.
  5. Self reliance – The Little Red Hen didn’t count on anyone else to help her out even though she asked. When the other farm animals refused to help she just went ahead and did all the work on her own. This story has the practical lesson of self reliance that is important for young people to learn.
  6. Basic skills – Apparently the other animals on the farm didn’t have the basic skills required to plant, harvest and mill the grain into flour needed to make bread. Only the hen had the knowhow that she probably learned from observing the workings of the farm.
  7. Persistence – At every stage of the project, the Little Red Hen didn’t give up. Even though she didn’t have any help and the work was hard, her persistence and perseverance paid off in the end.
  8. Ignore naysayers – The other farm animals surely told the hen she was crazy to do all that hard work while they were lazing about and having fun. It’s important for kids to learn to ignore the naysayers while doing the right thing.
  9. Rewards – Of course the most practical lesson is that the initiative and hard work paid great rewards in the end. The Little Red Hen had some delicious bread to eat and share with her family while the other animals had nothing.
  10. Fairness – And finally, the animals who didn’t share in the work didn’t earn any of the bread. This is probably the most important lesson of all in today’s society. With all the talk of fairness, the other farm animals really did get their “fair share”. The Little Red Hen had every right to keep the fruits of her labor and not share it with anyone who didn’t help.

With today’s entitlement society the story of the Little Red Hen should be revived and told more often. So many people have come to expect the government or someone else to provide for them. They envy the wealth of others even though they did nothing themselves to earn it. Those who have worked hard and achieved success have every right to keep what they’ve earned and should not feel obligated to share it with those who aren’t willing to capitalize on their own abilities. People would be well advised to take a page out of this timeless tale and apply it to their own lives. These are some valuable practical lessons that everyone should learn to achieve their own success.

Thank you, Carol, for reminding us that children’s stories such as The Little Red Hen, passed down  through the years,  continues to teach an important lesson about hard work.  Pat

P.S. I’ll bet that little hen was so smart, if she’d had access to Safety Protective Equipment, she’d have used that, too, to stay safe while she worked so hard!

General Safety Issues

SAFETY EXPRESSIONS WE USED TO SAY – GUEST POST

We know that you will enjoy this guest article, written by Rob Loose.  There’s more about Rob at the end of the piece.  Also, we bet you can remember several of the sayings he describes!

Recently I had a conversation with an elderly man at a church gathering where he affectionately referred to his wife as a “dame.”  Dame…  That’s not a word you often hear these days except in old Popeye cartoon re-runs.  Here’s another old saying: My wife’s grandmother described a pain she recently suffered as “hurting like the dickens!”  I’ve heard that expression many times before but on that occasion I wondered what in the world is “dickens” anyway?  Charles Dickens perhaps…  What did that legendary author have to do with pain?  Remember Wally in Leave it to Beaver?  He used to use the word “swell” to describe things as being good.  Doesn’t swell mean the same thing as swollen?  Anyway, I digress.  Though baffling and bazaar as these old sayings may be to us newbies, we can’t ignore the fact that these sayings once held real meaning and were commonly used forms of expressions.  I feel the same way about these old expressions when I speak with my friends in industry that proudly tell me their business has gone (you pick the number) of days without an accident.  Why in Sam Hill (Sam Hill – what is it and where is it?) Is it “swell” to count the days that nobody gets hurt?  Here’s my two cents (thoughts) about that!

The truth is, I get why people brag about nobody getting hurt or not experiencing any accidents for a length of time.  However, this so-called metric is quickly becoming a nostalgic achievement to current-day safety professionals that doesn’t really mean safety is achieved.  Now, when someone tells me their plant has gone 300 days without an accident, I often wonder if I’m just receiving an earful of nonsense and there’s more to the story.

A few years back, I visited a plant where one of my employees was struck by another employee driving a forklift.  The MAU employee was injured badly and I wanted to see the scene of the collision.  To be clear, the pedestrian in this incident was an MAU employee and the person driving the forklift was employed by my client.  As I entered the facility I noticed a sign on the wall boasting 197 safe days.  Didn’t this pedestrian/forklift incident just happen yesterday I wondered to myself?   Are they still counting safe days despite the fact a forklift hit a pedestrian?  I quickly learned they were!  I asked the warehouse manager why they were still counting safe days despite the incident and he literally smiled and said, “Oh yeah, our guy didn’t get hurt.”  To make matters worse, that same manager asked me a few days later to contribute to their safety celebration for achieving 200 safe days.  I didn’t contribute, if you’re wondering. 

There were so many things wrong with this situation but I want to focus on the idea that this plant used safe days as a metric and attached a celebration for achieving them.  All the while, they really didn’t achieve 200 safe days.  Management at this plant chose to ignore a very visible injury that took place under their own roof because their employee didn’t get injured in the incident.  Yet paramedics carried a person out of the facility on a stretcher and drove away in an ambulance.  I wonder how many other incidents occurred in which “their guy” didn’t get hurt or how many near hits/misses they experienced in which they got lucky.  How many people stuck a bloody hand in their pocket to hide their injury because they didn’t want to be the one that prevented the 200-safe-days party?  What kind of a message did their employees receive at the celebration when just four days previous a forklift seriously injured someone in the plant?  I venture (why would you “venture” to say anything? Just say it!) to say some in the room were confused and thought the steak dinner they were served tasted quite processed.  Hogwash (another confusing, old expression meaning who knows what)!

Ever hear the saying that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions?”  Employer safety metrics and incentive programs are typically designed with good intentions not necessary leading to Hell but, again, an old confusing expression…  OSHA is paying very close attention to employer safety incentive programs and cracking down on employers they catch that still practice them in a way that employees may be encouraged to not report injuries.  Not too long ago I often would see jet skis, bass boats and even automobiles in plant lobbies that enticed employees to not get hurt because after a year without an injury they may be the lucky person to win this big prize in a drawing.  These bass-boat programs get on OSHA’s last nerve (last nerve? I didn’t know nerves were ordered)!  OSHA views this type of scenario as a disincentive to report an injury and possible whistleblower retaliation if injured employees are disqualified from employer safety programs as a result of a workplace accident.  A memorandum written by OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary, Richard Fairfax, on March 12, 2012 says as much:http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/whistleblowermemo.html .  I say that a safety incentive program based entirely on achieving safe days or a certain OSHA injury illness rate falls knee high to a grasshopper (meaning short) and may not properly motivate employees to be safe. 

If you’re reading this and thinking this stuff is all a bunch of hullabaloo (huh?), you may need to rethink your idea of what truly is safety success.  What safety metrics do you pay attention to monthly?  What safety achievement triggers your organization to celebrate?  Are you focused on lagging indicators of safety or what happened that you no longer control or are you focused on leading indicators or things you do that create/control safety?  If you’re more focused on lagging, consider revising your program to reward employees for completing safety audits or participating in safety activities or for coming up with an idea that makes everyone safer.  I bet you dollars to donuts (strange expression but I do like donuts) a revision to your metrics/incentive program toward leading indicators will make a big difference.  It’ll be a real dandy (what’s a dandy – dandy lion is a weed?)!  So what are you waiting for?   Get a move on and shake a leg (hurry up)!  Make safety happen and focus on leading indicators of safety.  Its 2012, time to get the right program that really encourages safety.    

Good luck and remember: never kiss a gift horse in the mouth!  Whatever that means??? 

  About the Author, Rob Loose, MAU Workforce Solutions Safety Manager:Safety Professional with Manufacturing, HR and Health Care management experience, Rob has worked for MAU since 2006 supporting both HR and operations functions. A 1998 graduate of Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, Rob now calls North Augusta, SC home where he lives with his wife, two kids and dog.  He is proud to work for a company that values the health and safety of clients and employees alike.

      To put in my two cents’ worth, that was a very refreshing wake up article about safety incentives.  Thank you, Rob.  One of my past employers would reward their employees with a pizza party each month, if there were no lost-time  accidents.  Yet, some people didn’t want to bring attention to an injury they may have received because they didn’t want to knock the others out of the pizza party.  Forget about small rewards – Remember, when you gamble with safety, “you bet your life!”  (Anyone remember Groucho Marx?)