Looking Out For the Other Guy
The importance of looking out for one another's safety is truly a sign of a mature and dedicated working environment. It's one thing to look out for your own safety but it takes it to a whole different level when you are committed to the point of looking out for your coworkers safety also.
How about you?
- Do you guide coworkers on the correct way to complete a task safety when you see they are doing something unsafely?
- Are you willing to approach a coworker on safety?
- Are you afraid of confrontation?
- Is their safety worth that risk?
On the opposite end of the spectrum is when you have complete disregard for your fellow coworkers safety. This hit home in this recent article out of New Jersey:
Worker sentenced in deadly alcohol-related accident at port
The Associated Press
Jan. 16, 2018
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — A longshoreman who was driving drunk when he struck and killed a co-worker with a top loader on a pier in New Jersey is now headed to state prison.
Union County prosecutors announced Tuesday that 50-year-old Victor Belo has received a three-year sentence. The North Arlington man had pleaded guilty last July to vehicular homicide in the August 2015 death of 49-year-old Judy Jones at the APM marine terminal in Elizabeth.
Authorities say Belo had several drinks during lunch before he returned to work at the pier. He soon struck Jones, a Newark resident who suffered multiple severe injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
No other injuries were reported in the accident.
This incident brings it home clearly . . . that you can be held personally responsible for your failure to safely work causing a direct impact on a coworker. Not the best motivation . . . but certainly one that hits you right in the gut.