wellbeing – SafetyAtWorkBlog

The Socialisation of Work Health and Safety

We like to pretend OHS begins with a regulation or a checklist, but the truth is far less glamorous: it starts with the basic childhood lesson of “don’t hurt people.” Everything else is just the paperwork society builds around that idea. Part of that “paperwork” is the process of socialisation.

There are several definitions of socialisation:

learning how to live in a way acceptable to one’s own society,
interacting with others, of being social, and
implementing socialism.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is part of all three (the third is more debatable). Socialisation is often seen as a personal experience, but in most instances, socialisation is imposed on us.

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Honouring OHS Contribution While Agriculture Remains Deadly

Occupational health and safety in Australia continues to have a low political and commercial profile, but that does not deny that we have significant OHS contributors. At a recent awards ceremony, WorkSafe Victoria recognised Tracey Browne (pictured above) for her contribution to OHS.

But other speeches raised other interesting OHS issues, especially regarding farm safety.

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“She simply had too much work to do” – WorkSafe Awards 2025

Psychological safety dominated the 2025 WorkSafe Victoria Awards held in late February 2026. (At somepoint, WorkSafe is going to have to bring the awards back to the Safety Month schedule of October) This is perhaps not surprising, as psychological safety and psychosocial hazards remain hot issues in Victoria, but some other important finalists shone.

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The Work‑From‑Home Debate Needs Less Theatre and More OHS

A recent radio forum on working from home reinforced the political motivation behind promoting it as a legal right and also highlighted the knowledge gaps we have about it. Occupational health and safety (OHS) was mentioned in the discussion, but its core significance was again downplayed.

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Suicide prevention lessons from Finland

Over twenty years, Finland decreased the male suicide rate by 61%. What can the rest of us learn from that country’s achievement?

[The following article discusses the management of suicide and suicide prevention.]

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What the new push for Australian values means for work

Every company seems to have a Mission Statement, a Values Statement, or something similar that all employees are expected to follow and comply with. Largely, these are aspirational statements, but they are sometimes invoked when/if an employee needs to be disciplined or dismissed. The values are often vague and lend themselves to various interpretations, even though compliance is expected and is usually part of the employment contract.

At the moment, some conservative politicians, such as Angus Taylor, are emphasising the need for citizens and immigrants to commit to and comply with “Australian values”. How he plans to enforce them is unclear, but most of his proposed values have direct impacts on how occupational health and safety (OHS) is likely to be managed.

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Soldiering on to Burnout is Nonsense, Unsafe and Unwise

One of the best summaries of burnout was an article in The Guardian on February 15 2026, written by Zing Tsjeng, titled “Facing meltdown? Over 75% of people suffer from burnout – here’s what you need to know” (paywalled). It has its flaws, but the selection of sources, including Christina Maslach, is impressive.

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