Sports cars competing over race courses are marked with racing stripes. People who race on the job are marked with cuts, bruises, and bandages. There are places to race and places not to race. Speed belongs on the race course, not on the highways, and certainly not in the workplace.
Almost everyone has been guilty of speeding through a job. We forget, until it’s too late, that “hurry up can hurt“. In just about every instance, hurrying on the job does not increase productivity. Usually it is simply an easy way to get a job done, get a tough job out of the way, or try to get off the job as soon as possible.
When we hurry on the job, we accomplish little more than to increase our chances of an unsafe act happening. Let’s look at some hurry up acts. Which ones have you caught yourself doing?
- Didn’t wear either safety glasses, ear plugs or gloves because the job would only take a few minutes.
- Used the wrong tool because the proper one was too far away.
- Didn’t use proper lockout procedures because you could fix it yourself and wouldn’t have to bother anyone else.
- Took a short cut across the location.
- Worked at height with tools stuck in your pocket, or in your hand, because you didn’t have a tool belt or lanyard.
- Cut the grounding prong off a three-way ground wire plug because you didn’t have an adapter.
- Reached “just-a-little-bit-further” on the ladder or man lift so you didn’t have to get down and move it.
- Climbed over the side of a piece of equipment instead of using the proper method of entering and exiting.
- Didn’t slow down this time at a blind corner because you never saw anyone there before.
- Drove over the speed limit to get “there” faster.
The list is endless. Do they sound familiar? Too familiar? Sometimes when you hurry, nothing bad happens. Other times there may be “near misses”, but eventually a serious injury will occur. It is only a matter of time. Is it really worth your eyesight, your hearing, your limbs or even your life to save those few extra seconds?
Conclusion:
When hurrying on the job, you don’t end up speeding up the work, you just speed up your chances of an incident. Hurry up can hurt.
Questions:
- What “hurry up” acts have you done recently?
- Hurrying the job will increase productivity, True or False?