Safety Starts with Caring From The Heart.
“A Safety Attitude”
How does attitude affect how your work pace and safety on the job? What is your attitude today? We all have days where our overall attitude could improve, but how is yours towards your coworkers, boss, or safety on a day-to-day basis? If you are generally a negative person, what effects would a more positive attitude have on your life and on your work? How do you look at safety? These are all questions to ask yourself.
Safety culture is defined as the way in which safety is managed in a workplace. It is the combination of beliefs, perceptions and ATTITUDES of employees toward the safety of workers and the overall safety of the work environment. Cultivating a safety culture is a key aspect in maintaining workplace safety.
There are many reasons to strive to have a positive attitude. Outside of the obvious reasons such as improving your mood and being more enjoyable to be around. Researchers have been studying how it can benefit our health.
– Increased life span
– Lower rates of depression
– Lower levels of distress
– Greater resistance to the common cold
– Better psychological and physical well-being
– Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
– Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
A negative attitude can lead to carelessness, complacency, taking shortcuts, or even serving as a distraction from a work task. A negative attitude towards safety specifically will eventually result in unsafe behaviors. Unsafe behaviors lead to incidents occurring on the job resulting in injury or property damage. Is your overall attitude as it relates to safety negative? If so, why is that and what can you do to improve?
How to improve your overall attitude
1. Recognize it. The first step to improve it is to recognize if it is leaning towards the negative side. Ask yourself how your attitude is today and why it is in that state.
2. What is the source of the issue(s)? What is bothering you? Is it a coworker? A family situation? Whatever it may be, take note of the negative sources.
3. Address the issues. Take the time to address what is having a negative effect on your attitude. Most issues can be resolved with a constructive conversation. If the issue cannot be resolved with a conversation with the other person, go to another level of management to resolve it.
4. Remain aware of your attitude. It is important to do a daily self-checks. A good way to do this is to monitor your thoughts or conversations you are having with others. If you are having more negative conversations than positive ones, then it is a good indicator that you need to improve your attitude. It is easy for your attitude to begin to tip towards the negative side as stressors pile back on in your life. There are always going to be issues in your life, but it is important to not let them have a negative effect on you for an extended period of time.
A good attitude is a very important part of continuing a safety culture. With a positive mindset, we all can work together to get the project done in a timely, efficient and SAFE manner!
