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ut later went looking for the foreman,
climbed a ladder and stepped onto a
wet rubber roof. He slipped and fell 8
feet, narrowly missing the sharp end of a
piece of rebar. A trip to the ER for X-rays
showed bruised ribs and 4 weeks of light
duty followed. He had been given a
ladder safety orientation that morning
and had been instructed not to use any
extension ladders. His carelessness and
disregard for our policies cost us dearly.
The second incident involved stepladder
placement. The painter had one foot of
the ladder on a flagstone walkway, the
other on soft earth and his foot became
tangled in the four foot ladder as it
tipped over resulting in a serious break
and months of light duty.
Two incidents reflecting unsafe work
habits and a general disregard for caution
and then compounded by my own mistake
– we failed to have either painter tested
for illicit substances or alcohol when they
were treated at the hospital. I do not
imply either was suspect, only that due
diligence might have discovered relevant
and exonerating conditions that would
place the fault of the injury on the victim
and so protect the company from liability
and light duty expenses. We realized the
need for more stringent training, review
of safety procedures daily and weekly,
and the constant reinforcement of the
message “never do anything that can
expose you to risk or injury!”
Trust But Verify
In an effort to better qualify incoming
candidates for employment, we stan-
dardized the following testing for every
successful applicant; drug testing, lead
and zinc level testing of blood samples,
and pulmonary fitness testing. Publishing
these in our recruitment ads shrunk
the pool of applicants for each position,
and yielded the kind of candidate we
sought - those that would comment during
their interview that the very stringency
of the application process appealed
to them. We feel that these same candidates
will have a similar regard for their
personal welfare and so contribute to
safer worksites.
As business owners we try to plan for all
eventualities but what so often happens
is the week’s playbook gets tossed out
by 10 am on a Monday morning. We
are all adept at managing multiple
priorities, customers and crew, typically
presenting at least the veneer of calm
professionalism. It is critical, however, that
we make no compromises on workplace
safety, no matter what pressures we face.
We owe this to our employees first of all,
to our customers whose properties are at
risk should an injury claim escalate, but
also to ourselves. Planning, diligence
and implementation are required in equal
measure, and this can be delegated to
staff, but the culture of safety starts with
us. Use every site visit, every meeting, as
an opportunity to educate and reinforce
the need for safe work practices. If you
see an example of unsafe work, as I do
almost every day in the Boston area, snap
it with your cellphone camera and use it
as an educational tool as soon as possible.
The old adage ‘an ounce of prevention’
has never been more relevant!
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