Five Reasons To Work Safely

group of construction workers in PPE

Kyle Ritchey, Safety Manager | January 29, 2021

This article was originally a Toolbox Talk for a weekly safety meeting. Each week, our craft professionals hold safety meetings to discuss different safety topics and issues to enforce a zero-injury culture.

Each of us has different reasons for the choices we make each day. When it comes to safety, your decisions can result in an incident. No matter what your motivator for making safe choices may be, keep in mind these five reasons why we should all strive to work safely.

  1. Your health. Most likely your health and wellbeing is the biggest motivator for choosing to work safely. When we lose our health or impact it severely, it can have lasting consequences. From a concussion to a broken bone, injuries can make an impact on your life.
  2. Your family.If you are injured or ill, it affects not only you but those in your household. A family can be impacted in multiple ways from an injury—financially, physically and emotionally. Even if an injury or illness is for a short time, your family will still feel the effects.
  3. Your influence. Your coworkers, supervisor, and customers all see how you work, and you can impact each of these groups. No matter your job title, you can be an influencer to those around you through your actions. What kind of influence will you be?
  4. Your coworkers. To take a shortcut can not only harm yourself but can also harm a coworker. Safety depends on the decisions of each team member on the job site. As a team, it is your responsibility to create a safe work environment.
  5. Your whole company. Fewer incidents mean a more productive project and a safer team. Like coworkers, your employer is relying on you to stay safe, not only for the success of the project but also so you can return to work each day.

These five reasons to work safely in mind. The choices you make affect more than just yourself. Your decisions can affect your family, your coworkers, and your employer. Safety is a team effort--when one person chooses to take risks, everyone is at risk to suffer the consequences.