Workplace Safety Keynote Speaker

Safety Speaker Mike Hourigan

Is Safety Stressful? You Bet Your Life, It Is.

“Working safely may get old, but so do those who practice it.” – Author unknown

As a workplace safety keynote speaker who started his career in construction, steel mills and leather tanneries, I know that safety is stressful. Numerous studies, of course, have been done on the topic of stress and performance.

From nurses to truck drivers, everyone knows that putting undue stress on employees causes accidents, but as a workplace safety keynote speaker I have learned that not talking about safety, not practicing safety and not instituting safety programs will lead to major accidents.

Worry about each other
Is safety stressful? You bet your life it is, because in any company where people care and look out for one another, there must be stress. Safety is a pact between people. You can talk about procedures or posters or safety equipment, but nothing is more important than explaining to one another why safety is vital, why being safe saves lives and having the answer to questions such as: “Why do I need to do that?” or “What are the benefits of making the right safety decisions?”

It comes down to giving people a safety reason. As a safety at the workplace keynote speaker i still remember an incident from when I was starting out in the steel mill. The foreman wanted me to unload a pallet of steel parts after the shop closed. No problem, I told him, I can have it done in an hour or so. He insisted on getting me help.

“Why?” I asked him. “It’s an easy job.”

Just then a young man I had never met walked past us.
“Look at him,” said the foreman.

I thought the young man was wearing a glove. The foreman had me look again. It wasn’t a glove but a prosthetic hand. The foreman explained the young man volunteered to do a couple hours of overtime by himself, and as no one was around to spot what was a dangerous condition, a terrible accident occurred.

The safety conversation
What the foreman showed me in his concern, was that he gave me a reason, we had a safety conversation where we connected on a human level. He wasn’t giving me a quote from a poster but an example of what could have happened to me.

As a workplace safety keynote speaker, in spite of all of the safety equipment and training; the podcasts and the manuals, nothing is more important than mutual workplace support.

The stress of safety should come from what people don’t say to one another, rather than sounding like a nag or a know-it-all. Workers can always find a reason to not say or even report something. At the end of the day, it is better to speak up and to care rather than to walk away.

You will never add to stress if you point something out, or help someone or correct a problem. You have the power to save lives. It may be “stressful,” but it is never wrong to do what is right.

To contact Mike Hourigan, Workplace Safety Motivational Speaker, please call Mike today at (704) 875-3030 or fill out the form below.

Workplace Safety

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    Mike does much more than present one-of-a-kind keynote speeches - he provides fun and fact filled breakout sessions as well as dynamic training programs for numerous organizations like Marriott, Disney, Harley-Davidson and even the U.S. Army.