Category: Blog

Use Twitter as an additional OHS resource

Many SafetyAtWorkBlog readers discover this blog through Twitter references and links.  Twitter is very useful for quickly bringing new OHS documents or other online resources to the attention of Twitter “followers”.  For instance, many of the OHS regulators around the world use Twitter to supplement the distribution of safety publications, media releases and guidelines, often through the #OHS hashtag. (More information on how to get started with Twitter is availble online)

SafetyAtWorkBlog issues blog article notifications through Twitter as @SafetyOz but non-blog articles and quick links are also distributed through Twitter.

@SafetyOz is a useful supplement to SafetyAtWorkBlog and readers are encouraged to join this free online resource.

Kevin Jones

SafetyAtWorkBlog is one of the top 25 workplace blogs for 2010: LexisNexis

I am proud to inform you that the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Community has chosen SafetyAtWorkBlog as on of it  “2010 honorees for the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issue“.

LexisNexis stated that:

“A winner last year as well, SafetyAtWorkBlog by Australian Kevin Jones is an excellent foreign OSHA and workers’ compensation product that features news and analysis of workplace issues on the other side of the globe.  This straight forward Blog provides insight and informative content into international worker safety developments, marrying the law, business processes, medicine, and social concerns into thought provoking commentaries.”

In the blogosphere and in OHS there are few opportunities for kudos for writing about workplace safety issues.  Many OHS organisations only communicate with members yet the profession is far larger than any one organisation.  I write the SafetyAtWorkBlog because safety needs interpretation, sometimes even translation, and, perhaps even more importantly, that voice needs to be independent.  The award from LexisNexis gives me hope that I am on the right track.

Please check out the other honorees at the LexisNexis site as several are new and are great sources of information

Kevin Jones FSIA

Tweet button on articles

Regular readers will notice a new Tweet button at the base of each blog article.  By clicking this button you are able to bring the article to the attention of your followers through Twitter.

I encourage you to use this free service but equally encourage you to provide your thoughts on the article so that everyone can determine how wrong I am, how misguided I am or how right you are.  Comments on blog articles are the best method of continuous improvement.

Kevin Jones

OHS regulator reveals a blog about OHS fraud and crime

Spying on people can be entertaining as can be shown by the popularity of hidden camera video on tabloid news shows but there is always a whiff of unfairness and distaste about the practice.

For the last couple of months, Washington State’s Department of Labour & Industries has been running a blog written by its Fraud Prevention and Compliance Manager, Carl Hammersburg.  The blog matches the remit of the regulatory authority and covers a range of industrial enforcement actions.  Occasionally it has included its own video surveillance  of potential workers’ compensation fraudsters.

On 28 April 2010, the blog,called “Nailed“, included video of  Frankie Day who, as a resulted on the L&I investigation, was found guilty of theft and then jailed. Continue reading “OHS regulator reveals a blog about OHS fraud and crime”

US workplace bullying interview with Gary Namie

Ben Merens of Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Gary Namie of the Bullying Institute on 26 May 2010 for 45 minutes on his At Issue radio program.  The interview is very timely as new “Healthy Workplace” legislation is being considered in the United States.

What was useful in this interview was that the discussion centred on workplace bullying and Namie summarised how this is substantially different from schoolyard bullying – a  significant difference which requires different methods of control.  Namie says that although bullying in childhood is significant, the impact on an adult of similar treatment may have longer lasting effects.

The broadcast, of course, applies to the US context principally but Namie has a long and strong international reputation in workplace bullying advice and deserves an audience.  Tellingly, Namie says that the comparison for workplace bullying is not schoolyard bullying but domestic violence.

In 2001, Namie provided me with a review copy the 2000 edition of The Bully At Work for the SafetyATWORK magazine.  The review is available HERE.

Kevin Jones

Blog increases readership by over 6,000 in one month

The title is right.  SafetyAtWorkBlog readership statistics are 6,000 higher than for April 2010 and over 4,000 higher than the previous monthly record.  For May 2010, monthly readership topped 18,000 for the first time.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the blog and those new readers.

Please don’t be shy in commenting on the articles or in telling your friends and colleagues about the blog.

Leadership starts with the truth

Guest contributor Jim Ward writes:

Interested observers of past OHS failures would do well to pay close attention to the insights of former BP employee Ross Macfarlane in the SafetyAtWorkBlog –  A personal insight into BP and the corporate approach to safety.

His erudite observations of some of the underlying issues surrounding BP’s succession of calamities during the noughties and the company’s subsequent struggle to come to grips with the implications for its brand, culture, ethics and self perception are rare.

They are the sort of insights not usually captured during a formal root cause analysis of an OHS disaster.  Irrespective of who is found to be right and who is wrong some things just don’t help when it comes to trying to achieve a safe workplace.  But, Macfarlane’s insights do.

Macfarlane’s apt description of the “Cult of Lord Browne” is given further weight by the erstwhile CEO’s own account of his life and times as the head of the oil giant in his memoir Beyond Business.

In my view Browne is a narcissist.  In his book he portrays himself as

“a visionary leader who transformed a lacklustre organisation into one of the world’s biggest, most successful and admired companies”.

My take on it is that he was admired by his peers but not as much as he was by himself. Continue reading “Leadership starts with the truth”

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