President's and Valentine's; Compliance and Complacency

Fifty years ago the now disgraced President Nixon signed into law protections for workers and our environment.  A disgraced president who pushed the boundaries of authority entrusted to him by the american people, actually did a good thing.  Fifty years later, on this day a now impeached twice and acquitted twice disgraced President Trump will be known for his failure to protect working Americans and to prevent the deaths of over 450,000 Americans among other things. Any good thing he did will overshadowed by the legacy of COVID-19 and a Big Lie.  What a contrast and yet both of these men made work a political matter and the latter may ultimately be indirectly responsible for ushering in a new or revised set of standards for worker protections.

Occupational Safety and Health is relevant again!  Don't get me wrong, workplaces did not suddenly change and workplace safety become a new thing, on the contrary, workplace safety was always in plain sight.  But like anything in plan sight it can become hidden and this often has to do with seeker awareness and experience.  It is once again discovered when revealed to those who may or may not seek it or who have grown complacent.  The good and bad part about compliance is that those who began working and serving in a compliant environment will come to expect it.  Expectation and complacency sometimes go hand in hand.  The downside of a compliant and yet complacent environment is that it can be exploited through politics when we lack the background or the history to defend what is the current condition or courage to change it, and there will be no push for accountability.

Compliance with what must be done often gets confused with norms, what should be done.  Norms are agreed upon standards of operation and engagement.  Norms may also be policy that will often have the backing of and be rooted in broader regulation, however this is not always the case.  OSHA standards are often best practices agreed upon as the standard.  And so compliance with the best practices even though codified as regulation  can be hard to enforce.  When this happens politics as revealed in the COVID-19 response and our own Big Lie, will obfuscate compliance with norms, death and harm will result, and there will be a lack of accountability, even to the point of acquittal of the guilty.  Compliance with complacency is knowledge underutilized.

Presidents Day!  What is it and why do we celebrate it?  As a Black American, I have been encouraged to respect the reverence of the day even though the majority of past presidents did not value or honor black lives.  The long weekend many California families use to enjoy winter traditions such as skiing in the mountains or dirt biking in the deserts presents at least a universal sentiment if not action.  The day is valued for family time, play not work, and out of respect for the day my grandchildren don't hear me speak of the reality of who, what, and why we are celebrating.  This tradition will hold even as on this past weekend our nation chose to continue to elevate white supremacy and now the irrelevance of this day by acquitting a criminal president.

Finally, this same holiday day weekend included the celebration of love in Valentines Day!  We all have different viewpoints on what "love is".  This year the Valentines were for the children because the adults in the room could not agree on what is love, what is love of country, and in the final analysis what is a safe workspace that should be valued and protected from violence and harm.

As a person of faith I will offer that 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 is the best place to start when establishing what "love is" and what must be at the heart of workplace safety!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.   Love never fails. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'll do a shout out for Presidents another time.

Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

MLK JR!

Friday Jan 15 was his birthday.  I was actually teaching an OSHA Safety Course, first day, that day.  Martin Luther King Jr.  When I first started teaching OSHA Safety I was of course aware of the enormous sacrifices and contributions MLK Jr made during his life.  I knew the story of his assassination, that he was actually in Memphis, TN to support sanitation workers desire to unionize.  What went missing with my understanding of the events surrounding his death was just how intertwined and interconnected social, economic, and environmental justice issues were with safe workplaces. 

Over the years I have increasingly added to a required Introduction to OSHA discussion that moment in history, what MLK Jr was doing that fateful week of his death.  Advocating for workers, advocating for the poor, advocating for the disenfranchised, he was called to an extraordinary moment in our history and we are the better for his having answered that call.

As this day ends, the official day we celebrate one of our best examples of living a life of purpose that truly changed the way we think and conversations we have.  COVID-19 has limited interactions and acts of service.  I had to take a few moments today to remind my grandchildren of why they got to sleep in and not zoom for school!  It was a delicate conversation that I hope they will remember.  They live in a better world because of the many people who have come before them breaking down barriers, seeking only to serve the interests of humanity.  

Our workplaces are safer because it is no longer okay to discriminate against, to bully, to physically harm and put in harms way those who must work.  We honor the dignity of work in safe workplaces when we remember and reflect on the legacy MLK Jr.   What is work but a form of service.

 Happy Birthday!

Hello 2021!

 A pandemic rages, a democracy falters, and the workplace is once again the center of environmental, social and economic justice issues in the second or third (depending on your viewpoint) decade of a new century!  But first...

Happy New Year!  In this first weekend of the New Year my home is filled with grandchildren, children, sibling, and parents and we are blessed.  I give all glory and honor for my current situation to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, Jehovah God my heavenly father, full stop.  If you come across this reflection don't confuse me with hypocritical and false witnesses to God's goodness and grace.  Yes, this is my professional/business blog but my purpose is service to my community and for me faith and service go hand in hand.  And yes, I also speak of the current politics as I am as a businesswomen concerned and bound by political winds.

Our home and family has been touched by COVID-19.  We have lost family, friends to this virus but we can also boast that family and friends have overcome it.  While workplaces have been forced, many kicking and screaming into compliance, by either changing the working environment with engineering controls, moderating workflow with work practice controls, and actively requiring PPE, personal behaviors outside of work have been harder to manage.  And so the pandemic rages, with healthcare systems overburdened and health services compromised.  Unfortunately this has also meant personal service and leisure/dining workplaces are suffering as many have been asked to close again despite following workplace COVID-19 protocols.  Public institutions, schools and the like struggle with decisions on opening up or staying closed. 350,000 deaths and counting, attributed to one root cause.  This is something I think many are not really considering even as there are at least four confirmed and distributed vaccines available to fight this disease.  Our behaviors may not give opportunity for the vaccines to truly control the suffering before many more lives are lost or forever changed.

A peaceful transition of power has been the cornerstone of American Democracy with fewer than two challenges to that transfer in our 240 year history.  It seems the outgoing administration is adding to that count and believes the election was rigged going so far as to ask election administrators to find votes???  No concession only challenges that I have not seen evidence to substantiate.  A new congress (117th) is being sworn in today as I share my thoughts in this blog.  American Democracy, our republic has some structural flaws and deep rooted issues that must be faced and I for one believe it will take principled and truth seeking leadership to achieve that objective.  One of Congresses first official actions will be to certify the election results and welcome the incoming administration.  Nothing more to say, just prayers!  Workplaces will be impacted!

Many of us will spend more of our adult lives working, going to work, being in the workplace than we will spend in our own homes.  The challenge of workplace safety has been and will always be about changing personal behaviors and changing how we think about and view our respective roles in society.  We all depend on each other and must recognize the knowledge we possess has always been conditional.  Where we were born and to whom we were born.  Access to and the valuing of knowledge transfer has very much been a factor of place and timing.  In 2021 we can look back to see our lessons but we really gotta look.  We must continue to strive for environmental, economic and social justice and recognize it may present first in workplaces!!!  We must recognize the conditions of our current situations with humility and grace. When we study the history of COVID-19 and what we did, how we reacted, I wonder what our lessons learned will be?  I am contemplating a few for discussion in a future workplace safety training course.  Hope to see you there!