Abby Ferri

Hi there, safety professionals! I wanted to record a quick message about making safety fun.  The last few messages that I’ve had, have been about how safety’s not rocket science and how to work with the different generations in the work place.  I know that having fun is something that seems to be a great equalizer although, not intuitive for safety.  I know better. I know that a lot of my safety colleagues are funny people, they have a sense of humor, they like to have fun on the job but, often we are pegged into this serious “not fun” safety person role.  So, whenever you get a chance try to make sure to show that human side…It goes a long way towards safety culture and making sure that people understand that safety is not always super serious, difficult, or dark & heavy. You can have fun with safety training. You can have fun with an inspection of your work place. And, you could have fun with a safety meeting that happens at the same time, on the same day, every week, and often might induce naps. So…never miss a chance to inject some fun in to your day as it relates to safety. What reminded me of this today is that… I was at a client’s site where they get to wear shorts. We were walking the site and noticed someone’s really crazy socks and that’s when I remembered that I had crazy socks on today.  So, no matter if your work place wears shorts I always wear pants, shirt with the sleeves, work boots with a composite toe, and eye protection at minimum. Sometimes I’ll even wear a vest even if the site doesn’t require that I wear a vest. I like to keep my stuff handy in the vest pockets.  So anyway, I was wearing my awesome socks today which I learned about  from a fellow safety professional who works for the AGC in the Pacific North West and her name is escaping me right now…and when I post this I will make sure to tag her.  She had posted a picture on Linked In where she had these awesome caution tape motif socks. And, I thought it was great! Some other people commented that “Who would ever see her socks? You’re a safety person you always wear boots.” But, I didn’t care. I thought the socks were great.  I was always on Amazon ordering them.  In two days I got the socks…that was two weeks ago.  I have not gotten the chance to show off these fun socks until today! Someone at the work site had these weird like hot chili pepper socks and I said “Hey! That’s some great sock game. Check out my sock game!” And, I lifted up my pant leg and you could see my cool caution tape socks.  So, we all laughed about it and it just kind of injected a little bit of fun into what is “usually” a pretty boring site safety walk because we’re just looking at the same stuff and coming up with the same “unsafe” conditions or improvements to make. Just take the time. Take the two seconds to make something more positive, more fun, and point out something funny. Bring up something unexpected. It is expected for us to be stuffy, dark, heavy safety people. It’s cool when you can disarm people and bring in some humor to your safety message.  So, that’s my quick note for today.  Try to have fun! I’m interested in hearing how some of you have fun on the job as it relates to safety?