Thought Leadership

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I hope you reply because these questions are at the heart of workplace safety jobs.

As far as our governments and corporations go, it’s all politics and optics. (bottom line) Most of the time the politicians and corporate leaders have no clue as to what goes on in safety and occupational health (S&OH) at their organizations.

I don't think companies shy away from talking about their safety performance, good or bad, because there is a lack of interests, OSHA paranoia, or inside counsel has frowned on discussing it publicly out of fear of lawsuits, even though some of this may exist in every company. I think the reason is much more simple and straightforward.

What’s up with not talking public on safety? Here's my (hopefully unbiased) reasoning in a word: FEAR!

At age 72, it seems right to retire and move back to my roots (NEBRASKA) so I announced my retirement. There was a big party, lots of gifts, lots of nice things said about me. Then I packed up and left. I retired for 12 hours and did not like it. An opportunity came my way...

The fellow sitting next to me asked if we did these kinds of company profiles in ISHN. I said, “No, actually, a lot of companies don’t want to talk much about their safety.”

“Why’s that?” he asked.

I must say that I'm amazed at the near-hysteria of some of your readers about having an OSHA leadership that actually tries to do its job rather than just process VPP applications and praise corporate declarations of their "commitment to excellence."

At the past several conferences that I've been to, I struggled to find more than 5% of the attendees under 45 years old.

After reading your article on the Second Half of Your Life, I realized that I am on the right track in what I am doing.

My focused concern with the current OSHA administration began with their absolute arrogance at the 2009 PDC of ASSE.