The Unfortunate Outcome of Complacency and How to Avoid It
Complacency in the workplace is when you become so secure in your work that you take potentially dangerous shortcuts in your tasks, don’t perform to the same quality as you once did or become unaware of deficiencies.
Consequences
Complacency at work can cause or contribute to critical errors which increase the probability of injury or fatality. This might be the result of losing your focus, physically or mentally being distracted or physical inability like losing your balance, traction or grip.
Equipment should always be examined, procedures reviewed and hazards that may exist understood.
Root Cause
Complacency is often found as the root cause of workplace incidents or fatalities. So, avoiding it whenever possible is important in workplaces whether big or small. The unfortunate reality of workplace accidents is that we lose really good, hard-working people.
The personal account of William Robinson
William Wallace Robinson was born on Oct 10 1948, in Cobourg, Ont., the youngest of three boys. Raised on a farm just outside of nearby Colborne, Bill, who was a quiet yet strong-willed child, learned the value of hard work early on. As small boys, he and older brothers Craig and Vic were in the fields, picking cucumbers and beans, A quarter-acre of each, says Vic, “would buy us our school clothes and give us a trip to the [Toronto] exhibition.” By age 12, says Vic, “We were doing a man’s work.”
Growing up, money was tight, so he and his brothers entertained themselves, fishing for trout in the stream that ran through their property and playing in the cedar trees. Using twine from the bales of hay, Bill, who was always “a good climber,” says Vic, built hammocks high in the trees. In addition to enjoying the view from the top, Bill sought to understand the biology: as a boy, he once told Vic: “If you trim all the way around the bark, the tree will die, because that’s how it’s fed.”
In his late teens, he worked as an arborist for tree-care companies. “That’s where he really learned to climb,” says Vic. Wearing a safety belt and spurs, it became like second nature to Bill, who was a wiry six foot two, to shimmy up the trunk, chainsaw in hand. He became skilled at cutting branches and felling entire trees.
When Bill started Kawartha Tree Service in 1977, he did so with “just a half-ton some ropes and a chainsaw,” says Vic. But word of his work ethic and proficiency spread, and he developed a loyal customer base- despite the fact that he wasn’t the cheapest arborist in town. (The business cards he later had printed read: “The sweet-ness of low prices can never counterbalance the bitterness of poor quality.”) Supplementing hands-on knowledge with books and videos, he became adept at identifying tree species and diseases. Though the job was risky, he never had any close calls.
He put in 12-hour workdays. Even on weekends, from the moment he woke up, not 10 minutes would go by before “he was outside working,” says his son, Bill Jr.
Even at 60, he scoffed at retirement, and continued scaling trees to great heights. “I’d be huffing and puffing,” says Bill Jr., who started working full-time with his dad at 16, “and I don’t think I ever saw him get stressed out at all.”
On a winter day in January, Bill and his son were in Peterborough, felling some old maple trees that were leaning into the road. The trees appeared to be healthy, and as Bill climbed to about 40 feet, he found no evidence of rot. After he tied in and made a notch, his son applied pressure to the winch. But the tree was hollow, and instead of breaking at Bill’s shoulders, it snapped at his waist, pulling him to the ground. He was taken to hospital, but was unable to withstand the fall. Bill Robinson was 61.
(reprinted, in part, from McLean’s magazine)
Whether complacency was the root cause of this fatality is unknown, but there are indicators that it could have been a factor including the length of time performing the work, age of both workers, and other factors. Nonetheless, it is a fatality that affects the lives of family members, associates and the community.
How to avoid complacency
• Receive the necessary training at required or necessary refresher training.
• Allow for coaching.
• Demonstrate leadership.
• Engage with competent supervisors.
• Include safety content into daily routines, staff meetings and town halls as part of the corporate conversation.
• Change routines to maintain focus.
• Stress the importance of work-life balance, avoiding fatigue and healthy lifestyle activities.
• Engage with workers to make ongoing improvements.
• Reward safe behaviours.
With what seems like increasingly busy lives and often being in jobs that we become comfortable with, it is reasonable to comprehend how complacency can seep into the workplace and the specific tasks within. Try to make every attempt to avoid it no matter your role in the workplace. Keep growing and learning.