Call for contributors: Management experiences of safety failure

Hello everyone.

First, apologies for a long absence from the “blogosphere“. Business and life have been particularly hectic, but I hope to get back to something vaguely representing a “sane” routine.

I am planning to post four more videos to round out my video series on contractor safety management, and then will start a new series looking at cases dealing with the somewhat vexed issue of “Reasonably Practicable“, so please keep an eye out for that.

However, this post is a call for people to contribute to a new project/book looking at the experiences of managers following a catastrophic workplace event – most typically a fatality or multiple fatality event.

If you want to understand more about the rationale behind this project, please read the rest of the blog, but in short, I want to collect and share the experiences of managers when they get that dreaded call that someone has died at work. What did it mean for you personally? What was your experience?

I would like to explore the whole range of impacts; emotional, financial, the impact on your career, lour experience of the legal process and anything else that people are willing to share.

There are any number of excellent, tragic but excellent, stories from wives, husbands, parents, workmates, friends and others who tell of the devastation caused by workplace fatalities. But there is another story – the story of the managers who have to respond to the devistation. They are often the ones blamed by the families and  accused by the media. At the same time they have to deal with the regulators, lawyers and the glacial journey through the bureaucracy of health and safety enforcement and the legal process.

This is not to suggest that the impact on “mangers” is greater or lesser than the impact on others caught in the tragedy of workplace death, but it is real.

As importantly, understanding the impact of workplace tragedies on managers may drive us to question what we do to manage health and safety risks; a small change that could make an immeasurable difference.

If you have a story to tell that might help others avoid the experience that you have had to endure  and would be willing to share it, please let me know (gsmith@stegroup.com.au). I am happy to to tell your story in a way that will protect you anonymity, but the lessons of your journey will be invaluable.