Safety Culture Today
Seismic has changed a lot during my years in the industry. In the late seventies there were no such things as HSE reports or stop cards. Management seminars and meetings were about production, costs, logistics and quality. These days HSE plays a very big role and takes up a lot of time both in such meetings and in day to day operations.
I am the first to agree that safety is a very important part of any operation. I am also pragmatic enough to know that the biggest reason that I have for thinking this way is my interest in my own personal safety and in maintaining production and quality.
If anybody on my crews was to be involved in an incident which would cause them to be unable to perform their daily duties it is going to have affect costs and morale, and in my experience morale plays a big part in production and quality. Here is what happens:
- I need to have somebody pick up the slack and perform extra duties so that the loss of the affected person on production is minimized.
- A replacement person needs to be brought out to the field which may mean having somebody new take over or somebody having a short break.
- The new guy who is unfamiliar with the operation may cause an accident and I could be involved.
- In the above cases morale can be affected which usually has an impact on production and quality.
It takes time for a new man to come up to speed, even a highly experienced person needs to learn who he has working for him and what their capabilities are before he can be fully effective. People also become accustomed to the way their supervisors work and can be confused and sometimes even hostile to a new supervisor.
People on the crew also hear about or see somebody injured on the crew and it makes them think that it could happen to them. This has the benefit of making them more cautious, but may also slow them down.
Seismic is hazardous. We often work in harsh environments and use all kinds of machinery which can present dangers if incorrectly used. This needs to be recognized and the knowledge of experienced people needs to be passed on to new hires in order that they can avoid making mistakes. Even the experienced people can be guilty of taking short cuts which raise the possibility of making mistakes which could lead to accident or injury.
This is one of the rationales behind the stop card system. It is used so that we can get a fresh look at the hazards from a different perspective and is a good way of doing this. The problem is that many companies have now introduced a quota of stop cards I see this as having a bad effect on the system.
If people become accustomed to having stop cards issued on a regular basis they can begin to have a jaded view of the whole system and thus the system loses its biggest benefit. Whereas a lot of people may have regarded the occasional stop card as being useful in helping them to avoid incidents now they tend to see it as just another part of the job. With the quota in place every department will get stop cards issued on their operations no matter how safely they are carrying out their responsibilities.
Another effect that the quota has is that it can make it difficult for a manager to get a good handle on which departments need a shake-up. With many stop cards issued there can be an overemphasis on quantity versus quality.
An example of this was a safety meeting that I once attended where one of the stop cards suggested that due to the risk of implosion of the video monitors all people working near them should wear safety glasses to avoid fragments getting in their eyes. As patently ridiculous as it was it was still discussed as though it was a serious safety issue.
Another problem is a lack of coordination between the people who make safety policy and the people who have to follow the policy. In some cases policy is made at the top and line management has no option but to follow it.
One case that I saw was a safety directive involving marine seismic. The instruction came down the line that any person working on the back deck while airguns were being retrieved had to wear safety glasses to reduce the change of debris entering the eyes should the gun accidentally fire during retrieval.
On the face of it this seems to be a reasonable idea. The problem was that the boat that I was on was working in the tropics and anybody wearing safety glasses was eventually blinded by the glasses fogging up. Some people might suggest cleaning them often or using an anti-fog treatment.
Anti-fog treatments were tried and found to be essentially useless. Cleaning the glasses was not working as it is very difficult to keep a clean cloth on the back deck. Near misses mounted up and the party chief was unable to countermand the instruction. It had to be countermanded by the safety department.
Line management must have discretionary power over such instructions if they are doing more harm than good. What would have happened if somebody had been injured due to restricted vision?
Another area with which I most vehemently disagree is the all too common blanket safety decision. I once worked on a seismic vessel where, every Sunday, the crew had a barbecue on the focsle deck. The clients had issued a blanket decree requiring hard hats and safety boots anywhere outside of the accommodation and office area of the boat. Needless to say it seemed rather ridiculous to be wearing a hard hat to a barbecue so I usually declined.
My biggest objection to the current safety mentality is that of believing that anybody can be taught to be safe. In my years on the job I have come to realize that some people can come to a seismic crew and after being there for a year they have a year’s experience. Other people will have a months experience twelve times. These are the sort of people who live by the motto “Experience is a wonderful teacher. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Some of the people who arrive on crews will never come up to speed and should be sent home. I have attended safety meetings where it is boldly stated that there is no such thing as a stupid question. I wonder what kind of questions stupid people ask. Do they suddenly get smart just in time to ask a question?
The industry needs to seriously rethink the current “Safety Culture” and admit that it is not possible to completely protect idiots from their own stupidity. The problem is that idiots are so ingenious at finding new ways to hurt themselves. There are some people who will always be a safety hazard and the “no blame” systems that are used in many companies do not recognize this fact.
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