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I am wondering who finds that safety in the work place has gone too far that now common sense is taken over by rules. I find that the mighty pendulum has swung so far over that the safety rules mandated are over the top and make it even more difficult for someone to work. I am all for safety but there is a limit. There is such thing as common sense as most people have and should be using. Do we really need to have government mandating all these rules that must be followed. Where does the line stop.

This post I find a little vague in general. Could you elaborate on maybe an example without identifying the place?  
 
That might help understand if things are over the top.  

It is a paperwork nightmare. Let's see. Before starting work at a job site a site hazard analysis needs to be done. Every task that is done must have a hazard analysis done. A safe work operating procedure must be done. Employees must then demonstrate and sign off that they understand and comprehend the safe work procedures. And even with all that if an employee still gets hurt they will find something wrong with the whole process you went through. We are currently going through that with one of our business locations.  
The crap that I find humorous is when I was taking an Investigating Workplace class years ago I asked the safety lady teaching that if two buildings were built side by side, one was $10,000 lower in price but there was a death due to carelessness and the other place was $10,000 ,more but every safety rule and whatever was put in place which one would she buy.......Well she would buy the cheaper one that didn't follow safety rules as money is money. Well the subject changed pretty quick after that.

Especially when no one else on the work site participates with the work place safety act...the paper work...you pretty much need to spend a whole lot of money in one spot just to have it all thrown put anyways....sety to me is knowledge...common sense...and someone with experience in the task at hand with proper training for the task.......to me work place safety is there because they have to have a job too...and find something to do...so basically i think work place safety ahould be the onea paying for safety reps on site and all the damn paperwork that comes with it...its unfair to the company spending the money because it takes up way too much time and focus off the actual project itself....really..required is a tool box talk wvery week min 30 mins every two weeks.....who the hell is going to say HEY GUYS PAuse production get off the scaffold drop your tools lets talk about where you bought your hard hat for 15 minutes.....its a waste of everyones time and focus....the more it is about safety the less safe it will be...because of you waste all your time doing safety stuff your OBLIGATED TO RUSH DOING YOUR ACTUAL JOB.  
 
Thats my rant. Lol have a good day.

Its also an easy way to have an employer fire someone. Just use that they did not follow safety rules and your gone. I see it where I work.  
I spend more time doing safety paperwork and meetings and the employer still wants the same amount of work done only look at all that's been added on. I did believe a time back (many years) that some safety was needed but it just went sooooooo far overboard it has its own department everywhere just to sit and make up more rules to drive employees nuts.

I agree, safety 15-20 years ago was not adiquate. We have gone the other way now. What we are finding is the people we hire now (younger generation) are "Google smart". They lack the ability to think outside the box, or on the fly. Everything they've grown up with is instantaneous and superfiscal. In construction it is impossible to educate people for every senario. The amount of times I have seen people freeze up in situations and not react is scary. So in theory, they would tell us we need to educate people more with the under line idea being ever accident is 100% avoidable. I wish this was true, but I have not seen evidence of that.  
 
One of my buddies has a saying  
 
"The more idiot proof you make something, the better idiot someone will make!"  
 
But as to where the equalibrium lies, I have no clue accept we are past it on the prevention side!

Workplace Safety & Health needs to come down harder on the jerks who play stupid. Believe it or not, there are high level managers who not only bend the rules, they completely ignore them, putting employees at risk.  
 
It's only when there is a workplace fatality, that people gasp at all the safety regulations that weren't being followed.  
 
I have been given some roll-my-eyes, in-house safety bulletins to read over the years and I wondered if that department had too much time on their hands BUT while the paperwork and procedures seem to be extreme sometimes, it's never enough when an employee loses an eye, a limb or their life. And then the finger-pointing begins.

Pretty soon won't be long we will all be knights in shining armour. Idiot proof it that's y we have arrows on milk cartons. I'm for saftey too but gone too far in some company's and it now a money grab it mandatory so they want so much money for the junk  
 
 
 

to what some would call having gone too far is related to the increased costs of sick leaves and legal actions resulting from workplace incidents.  
I taught Middle Years and Senior Years Woodshop for 35 years, and the changes that I faced were frustrating beyond belief. Virtually every action had to be documented; all hazardous materials needed to be logged and stored; students were required to sign off on activities; I believe that I was more responsible for their actions than I was for my own.  
When I started teaching, back in the 1970's, it was the Superintendent who held my career in his hands; it ended up being the division Safety Officer. Their decisions could supercede school policies.  
Having said all that, if you look at a construction site, one of the required items is the sign that displays the name of the safety officer, location of the first aid station, and the requirement for boots, glasses, and hardhat. Its hard to argue with that. I remember my summer job, hand-loading trucks with building supplies without boots even.  
I suppose it all comes down to the fact that workers will do only what they're required to do, even to think and work in a safe manner.  

On where you work. I have worked in places where there were regular safety meetings/training that went just far enough to be useful without over bearing, than I have worked in places where there isn't enough and no amount of paper work seemed to reach the next step of management so that the issues could be addressed.

JackAzz said "All those safety rules you are complaining about are written in blood. They exist because somebody was killed or injured doing that exact same task. The "idiot" they are proofing that job from was somebody's husband, son, brother, or father. Shit happens on the jobsite. If you don't have a solid plan and proceures in place somebody will pay sooner or later. We all go to work to earn money and provide for our families, not to get maimed or killed. "

We don't need a new rule every time someone kills themselves but that is what we get.  
 
Many times they were doing something stupid and now the rest of the world that has common sense have to follow more and more rules that make it harder and harder to get any work done.  
 
We all take chances in our lives every day, why is it that we are no longer responsible for the chances we take. I hope that when I die no one needs to make a rule to make the people left living's life harder.  
 
Safety is good to a point, we are way beyond that point, this will completely destroy our economy eventually as any jobs that are able to be moved will be sent where it is not impossible to work because of overly onerous safety legislation.  

I want to go home to my family everyday.  
 
I want the people I work with to go home to their families every day.  
 
I've seen people I work with loaded into an ambulance and taken to the ER.  
 
I've visited them at home after something bad has happened.  
 
The purpose is to prevent these things from happening.

The problem is that there is no way to make any situation totally safe. Only safer. Also with today's way of doing things every time there is any kind of critical incident there is an expectation that an investigation will be done and recommendations WILL be implemented. Every time there is some kind of incident at work, even if it's the result of idiosy or some tragic chain of events that would never come together again, the first thing I think to myself is oh great. Now there's going to be one more procedure or layer of paperwork added to the workload.  

I do believe some safety measure are good but where does it stop. Meetings, paper work, a person spends time having to think can I do this or do I need to look it up in the safety manual. Common sense has been ousted and replaced with a manual. There are people out there who love risk and they wont change but for the greater part peoples common sense has been and will keep them and others from getting hurt not some rule that has been put in place because these risk takers too one too many. Watch TV its one of the most televised someone doing something stupid and getting hurt. Instead of punishing everyone with more and more rules start weeding out those who like to live on the edge without regard and everyone knows one.  
I cant take any more safety rules, regulations, informational sessions, meetings, and anything else some safety pers thinks up.  
Safety is becoming a very big business and is drowning others.  
"You just cant fix stupid"

Common Sense anymore!!! If you knew me, you would know that "can't you use common sense" is part of my daily/hourly sayings. But as a manager (and other titles in my workplace) I can NOT EVER expect any of my employees to use or even have common sense. What is common to me is not common to you! So any of you saying that they should just use common sense, needs to strip that from your vocabulary.  
I can name several jobs that I look at and think "if we just did it this way we could get it done quicker, safer, cheaper. Then I go talk to the guys that actually know the job at hand and find out that what I thought was "common sense" was in fact the complete opposite of quicker, safer and cheaper.  
Anyone that says they have the common sense to do any job out there I pose this question....I have a work truck worth about $60,000.00. Items in that unit to perform my duties are about $50,000.00. Employee driving down the road texting wrecks and minor injuries to my employee (maybe 5 days off work) but truck is a write off. How much does the incident cost me?  
While I agree (and I am in a safety related profession) safety has taken a HUGE turn, but it is all for a reason and that's someone has died. You can say "we don't need a rule for someone else's stupidity or neglect", but chances are that individual was just using their common sense. There has to be a balancing act between employer and employee (which seldom happens) to come up with these policies. Where employers and our government agencies have gone wrong (and I see it EVERYDAY) is we have made it too easy for people to become CSO's, OH&S Officers and they have never been in the industry. We are pumping out "safety officers" that have never set foot on a construction site, oil patch, industrial plant or wherever, but they pass all the courses and get good marks on their tests, and we give them the health and safety manual and send them out to share their vast knowledge of COMMON SENSE on the world. So next time you are pissing and moaning about the "safety officer", remember.....they are just using COMMON SENSE!!

But, I have worked in the construction industry when I was younger and currently work in a industrial shop and 99% of the workplace accidents I have witnessed over the years have been the result of someone doing something stupid and something they know and have been told numerous times that they aren't suppose to be doing yet do it anyway.  
 
Having said that the safety rules and regulations are there for a reason and should be followed, but safety starts with the person doing the task and common sense goes a long way. If your do something stupid that you aren't suppose too, more than likely somethings going to go wrong.

It's over the top. I always wonder why a bus driver needs to wear a high visibility vest when he's driving the bus, or why do the guys laying sod with no equipment around have to wear hard hats on a hot summer day. I can appreciate a roofer having to be tied off when he's on a roof, or a person working on the roads having to wear a hi vis vest but some of the safety rules seem to be implemented in some office by some guy who is really not looking at the whole picture.

Who has to think anymore, it will be all written down as some rule or regulation. Or there will be a sign, tape to guide you.  
This is getting to be too much.

Isn't it crazy that we would want our loved one's safe at work and to come home everyday safe. Do the extra paperwork and move on!

Sorry but If you think the paperwork is what makes a job site safer, your crazy. Paperwork does nothing.

So to be truly safe we could live our lives in personal bubbles. Maybe I should start buying stock in this.  
Paperwork and the endless meetings ........

Papax2 said "So to be truly safe we could live our lives in personal bubbles. Maybe I should start buying stock in this.   Paperwork and the endless meetings ........ "

lol - live your life at home as you want bubbles-haha. Live your life at work according to Workplace Health and Safety.  
 
Edited by Brenda, 2016-02-21 19:34:31

Unbelievable that someone is complaining about wearing a hi-vis vest! They weigh nothing.  
 
Proper p.p.e. also brings a look of professionalism. Who would you rather have working on your property: somebody with boots, safety glasses, gloves, hardhats etc. or some donkey with a spun backwards ballcap and a homemade sleeveless popeye's shirt so he can show off all his crappy crackerjack box tattoos?

I think the way things are going, people always looking for jobs, wondering who is hiring, where to go....be happy you have a job even if you have to abide by all safety rules.

Brenda said "I think the way things are going, people always looking for jobs, wondering who is hiring, where to go....be happy you have a job even if you have to abide by all safety rules. "

There may be more jobs out there if when you hire an employee you get something productive out of them, but by the time you train them, get the paper work done and the safety meeting of the day is over half of them are already on stress leave.  
 
Thankfully we dont have to follow oh&s the day we do it will be less employees and more automation this is how overly onerous safety laws wreck your economy. Next thing you know people are out there wondering why they can't find a job.

on the CBC website this am about the youngster from Brandon who lost his finger in the Wood shop at Harrison. He suffered a life altering injury. That's a tough start for a kid.  
I know nothing about what happened, except what was reported, but be certain that WHS is involved and changes will result.  
Education and safe practices need to start at the earliest age possible, and cannot stop on the jobsite, no matter how annoying they seem to be.

Wow is all I have to say. Since some of your have short memories below are some links to maybe shed some light to why safety is important, documentation is important and Hi-Vis vests are important. Oh and BTW there is no such thing as "Common Sense". people all think differently and see things differently.  
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scaffolding-collapse-criminally-responsible-vadim-kaznelson-1.3397597  
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/senior-found-not-guilty-in-highway-worker-s-death-1.1308629  
 
http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/safety/compliance.html  
 
 
 
 
 

holysmokes said "Wow is all I have to say. Since some of your have short memories below are some links to maybe shed some light to why safety is important, documentation is important and Hi-Vis vests are important. Oh and BTW there is no such thing as "Common Sense". people all think differently and see things differently.     http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scaffolding-collapse-criminally-responsible-vadim-kaznelson-1.3397597     http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/senior-found-not-guilty-in-highway-worker-s-death-1.1308629     http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/safety/compliance.html             "

How quickly we forget.  
 
http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/Company-agrees-to-fines-in-mans-forklift-death-112312614.html  
 
http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/worker-24-dead-after-industrial-accident-in-rural-manitoba-260372901.html