Thanks Jon for mentioning the concept of "safety work". As a H&S consultant what I produce is paperwork. But even this paperwork can be defined using types of safety work - both from the motivation of the client, and the focus that I use. It triggered a train of thought.

A lot of my work specalises in hazardous substances, an area that can be very compliance driven. I see plenty of evidence with organisations focused on the blunt end, making sure that all their SDS are less than 5 years old and having signs up for staff to wear PPE, but the workers don't know about the chronic harm properties of the substance they use, or what the PPE is protecting them from. In most environments there are few risk assessments or SOPs around substance use, and those I do see are often cut and paste. This has lead me down the path of using safety differently principals as a lens.

I often ask workers what most concerns them/what makes them uncomfortable. This can dramatically shortcuts the process of working out what real risks abound in a workplace. However, sometimes they simply do no have the knowledge to really understand the risks that they are taking. SDS go along way in providing hazard information, but they are not the most user friendly for workers, and do not cover the use context. I think that the "administrative control" of training/informing is really the "sharp end" here. Especial if we truly want to empower workers.

When an organisation is dealing with more than a handful of substances it can be difficult to maintain good risk assessment processes. The real risks become lost in the morass. Rather than compliance, the lens needs to be "risk": what is really nasty; what do we use in big quantities; or in ways that result in exposure; what could realistically go wrong/has in the past gone wrong. Then part of what needs to be documented is your triage process, keeping the risk management documentation as simple as possible so it is usable by everyone. Management/leadership can then focus on the triage process and the top risks for assurance - via listening and understanding rather than another mountain of paper.

So as a Safety Differently leaning person who works in a area that is often a critical risk for organisations: does safety documentation save lives? - absolutely YES, but only when there is not so much of it that the important stuff gets lost. You need to empower workers by giving them necessary/useful knowledge, and you need to use realistic risk scenarios to focus risk assessment, management and assurance processes.

Hi Tania,
Also happy to give feedback. susandotrivelinsafetyatgmaildotcom