I just read a funny story in the Discussion Forum that made me laugh out loud. MetalMike posted it. It’s short, so I’ll reprint it here.

The superintendent on the job I’m currently at had a little run in with the GC’s Safety man. The safety guy will be called Mike for the story.

Super: “Hey Mike, I’m bringing a new guy to come out and help with things around here”
Mike: (Knowing that there were a lot of cleaning issues…) “Great! When does he start?”
Super: “Oh, he will be here Monday and will only be here for a week, then I’m getting rid of him.”
Mike: (puzzled) “Oh yeah? Why’s that? What will he be doing cause yall got a lot of cleaning problems”
Super: “I don’t give a damn what he does Monday through Thursday but on Friday I’m going to have him kick your ass.”
Mike: (shocked and worried, Mike didn’t say anything and just walked back to his trailer)

So that’s one way to deal with safety. Though it’s like watching The Sopranos and deciding that’s the way you’re now going to do business. Tempting sometimes, but not sustainable.

The video below shows another take on safety that I think will interest you, even though it’s a task none of us are likely to do.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tzga6qAaBA]

If you have trouble viewing the video, you can copy and paste this URL into your browser:

The take away I get from that video is the importance of thinking through each step. So many construction accidents happen because guys are rambuntious. Moving without thinking and just plain acting stupid. We’ve all been there, of course, but our goal should be to move our jobsites from that “I can’t be bothered to consider safety” attitude to a thoughtful approach that thinks through each step of the task.