Bureaucrats like Michaels and Barab say they don’t believe the (injury and illness) numbers industry is submitting to them so the answer is more bureaucracy. Safety and health pros have become wallpaper hangers. I’ll tell you, no one is going to enter this field in the future and OSHA is doing its level best to destroy small companies with fines and drive large companies overseas with administrative nonsense.

Just as a side note, Barab’s “searching for the meaning of life” mentor was Saul Alinsky. The comment, “Jordan Barab at the ASSE PDC a couple years ago said that OSHA understands that safety and health professionals are not appreciated by our employers/customers.” aligns with Rule 12 of Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals. Barab has been using these tactics throughout his career.

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network [S&H pros employers/customers] and isolate the target from sympathy [make S&H pros feel like victims]. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Hopefully, Michaels and Barab won’t cause too much damage before this administration is gone, but I am not counting on it.

Former Fortune 500 safety and health manager, take from a recent email exchange.