On the average construction site, safety is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Rules, OSHA regulations, and standard operating procedures control how crews go about their days. While physical safety is essential, what is often overlooked in heavy industries is the weight of mental health challenges.

Invited to do a workshop for a very large international corporation, I went out to a dinner where I sat next to the “grand poohbah” vice president in charge of all things quality and safety. He leaned over to me and said:

Typically, anxiety disorders are chronic. Often, there is a waxing and waning course. The severity of the anxiety condition(s) depends upon several factors including adequate treatment, absence of precipitating factors, etc.

Although it seems to make perfect, intuitive sense that people would get hurt when they are doing the most dangerous things, that isn’t what actually happens to more than 95 percent of us. So, what does this mean in terms of the old risk assessment matrix?

One sweeping glance across the Seattle skyline is enough to see that something is happening in the area. If a region’s tower crane count is any indication of economic growth, then companies should pay attention to the Pacific Northwest.

"Safety for everyone” is the tagline of a 60-second Honda commercial you might have seen this fall. It tugs at the heart strings. A series of images is accompanied by voice-overs:

The U.S. workforce is now composed of four generations: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Age ranges for these generations in 2019 were: boomers (55-73); Gen X (39-54); Millennials (23-38); and Gen Z (6-22).

We had just witnessed a large toolbox talk at a mining construction site in Africa. It wasn’t a bad session; the safety officers were loud and lively in their statements, there was some humor and even the safety manager from the general contractor stepped in to say a couple words.