Something interesting happens to folks when they make it to the top in business. They become remarkably prone to lose touch with the people down the ladder – the people who do the work and make or break the company.
What is striking is the large percentage of professionals who apparently can’t make their minds up one way or the other about these critical issues. When it comes to what safety and health pros believe, a large block are simply undecided, or unwilling to say.
What if a company is characteristically cautious and slow to make a decision, and does not reward innovative risk-taking, while the market is moving fast and increasingly rewarding agility? What if the choice is to change or die?
I think, for the most part, that the priorities for OSHA were about where we all feel they should be. I am pleasantly surprised to see that a General Industry Combustible Dust Standard made the top five.