I have been uncomfortable with environmental health and safety leadership for a while now. Professionals have been buffeted by winds of change in the ‘90s -downsizing, outsourcing, deregulation- and sometimes I feel we’ve been cut loose from our moorings with no sense of direction.
Obviously, discontent is in the air. I feel it. I’ve had people relay their concerns to me. Research underscores the fear and anxiety that’s out there. For example, the 1996 White Paper report by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News found that 40 percent of industrial hygienists were worried about their job security, nearly one of every three were actively looking for another job, and one in five were seriously considering a career change.