The complacency among employees is terrifying; how to deal with it?

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This post was last edited by wang*nhua77020 on 2016-6-30 06:47. Complacency is the enemy of safe work; when talking about complacency, it is inevitable to mention illegal operations, and many accidents that occur at work are related to this. We have repeatedly emphasized the need to overcome complacency and a sense of complacence, but in practice it is often difficult to get rid of such problems. Why does such a result occur? Next, Dong Jun, a safety engineer at China Railway Electrification Group Co., Ltd., will discuss the types of luck-based thinking and corresponding strategies, taking the company’s current situation into account. 1. What is luck? According to the definition in a modern Chinese dictionary, it refers to achieving success or avoiding disaster due to accidental circumstances. This is also the reason why people often rely on luck, as well as the root cause of its existence. Specifically in safety production management, luck-based thinking can be defined as follows: it is not a situation where people are unwilling to make the right choices; rather, it is a behavior characterized by an inability to know how to make the right choices, or a reluctance to accept minor losses in terms of comfort or money in order to avoid potentially greater losses in the future. The author believes that the latter type of behavior poses greater harm and has a higher likelihood of occurring. II. Three types of luck-based thinking: In production, many violations occur as a result of relying on luck, and such violations stemming from luck-based thinking take on various forms. It can be said that violations resulting from recklessness represent a type of human error. Based on the types of human errors that occur in accidents or violations, recklessness can be classified into the following categories: (1) Experiential recklessness – this refers to violations caused by workers who have a weak awareness of rules and regulations, fail to follow them, work in violation of protocols, and act recklessly out of blind confidence. Such people, knowing full well that they are violating the rules, think it’s \"no big deal\" based on their \"old experience,\" act in violation of the regulations out of a try-it-out attitude or for some other motive, hoping to succeed by luck. There are also those who have developed so-called \"experiences\" that, although not entirely in line with the rules and regulations, have indeed led to success in the past; however, if one follows such experiences, accidents are bound to occur. (II) Technical luckiness mainly refers to violations committed by operators that lead to accidents due to factors such as their professional competence, work experience, or operational skills. There are people with poor professional competence; they don’t strive to fully understand what they learn, know very little about the principles and structures of their work objects, and essentially lack the ability to meet job requirements. When no problems arise, they don’t consider it mere luck, but instead believe they are “capable of handling the job.” However, once problems do occur, their lack of proficiency in operational skills—such as incorrect or improper handling—becomes evident. There are also some people who do not study diligently on a regular basis; they have only a superficial understanding of regulations, rules, and technical documents. They know how to carry out tasks but not why they must be done that way. With so many things on their minds, they fail to realize that what they are doing constitutes illegal operations. Of course, it is also common to see cases where individuals with good professional skills still make technical mistakes; this is largely due to carelessness or a tendency to rely on luck. (III) Management-related recklessness: This refers to the behavior where managers at all levels lack a sense of responsibility, manage poorly, settle for minimum effort in their work, and shift blame on one another when problems arise, thereby causing accidents. This is first manifested in the lax enforcement of various laws, regulations, and rules. For example, although there have been repeated calls in recent years to shut down small coal mines, accidents involving such mines continue to occur frequently. The root cause lies in the fact that authorities at all levels, driven by considerations of local economic interests and acting out of recklessness, fail to ensure the thorough implementation of these regulations. It is also manifested in the fact that personnel at all levels, especially those in frontline management positions, sometimes relax safety measures either to reduce production costs or to meet production targets. For example, when there is a rush to complete production tasks, they may \"tolerate\" or \"allow\" workers to violate safety rules, or permit equipment to operate with faults; in some cases, they even issue orders to remove safety devices, interlocks, and alarm systems so that the equipment can keep running. There are also some individuals who avoid dealing with problems; they do not pay enough attention to early fault alerts related to equipment operation or to alerts related to safety, or they delay taking action as long as possible, which results in minor issues escalating into bigger problems and serious incidents. There are also some managers or departments that fail to address the safety issues reported by frontline staff in a timely manner: they lack the ability to solve these problems and fail to report them promptly, instead covering up the issues and letting things slide, which leads to accidents. III. Three strategies to eliminate complacency] (1) First, it is necessary to strengthen safety awareness among all employees, thereby genuinely enhancing each worker’s understanding of safety work. It is essential to firmly establish the understanding that safety is a matter of critical importance for both corporate efficiency and human lives. Safety work should be carried out based on the principle that \"99 plus 1 equals 0.\" Only by instilling in every employee the deep-seated belief that \"safety is necessary for production, but production must be carried out safely\" can we eliminate any sense of luck or recklessness, thereby preventing violations of safety rules. (II) Management departments at all levels must carry out long-term and thorough inspections. The Safety Management Department must, on the one hand, carry out regular safety inspections, enforce strict rules and regulations, and standardize the safety behaviors of employees. On the other hand, it should also conduct thorough reviews and revisions of work procedures and operating protocols, as well as assess the viability of those so-called \"old methods\" and \"approaches\" that do not conform to established rules and protocols, in order to determine the impact of such practices on normal operating conditions. Once potential faults or consequences are identified, it is necessary to educate the employees promptly about the repercussions of such actions, and safety measures should also be considered, such as improving process control, work procedures, inspection frequencies, and testing protocols. The safety management department is also responsible for investigating all types of accidents and potential accident hazards, ensuring that the causes of such incidents are identified, responsibilities are clarified, and appropriate corrective actions are taken. Adhering to the principle of \"not letting go of any case,\" carrying out regular safety education, ensuring strict implementation of various rules and regulations, and formulating measures to prevent the recurrence of accidents are key factors in addressing the mentality of taking chances. (III) Strengthen education and training for employees to improve their professional skills. This is the fundamental measure to address accidental violations. During employee skill training, in addition to teaching them the professional knowledge and operational skills they need to master, it is also necessary to provide training on accident hazards and risk analysis tailored to each employee’s specific job role. This will help employees identify various potential hardware and software failures, as well as human errors, in the equipment or the surrounding environment. At present, this training content is not very ideal. At present, preliminary hazard analysis and accident consequence analysis are not very widely practiced within enterprises, and the operating workers are not fully aware of them. These workers are skilled in operating and maintaining equipment, but they do not fully understand potential hazards and accident consequences, which is why they rely on luck.