It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No It's the Supervisor!
By: Rod Garland
As we near Christmas (for
most in the Christian world the season of celebration of the birth of Jesus),
there is another that we should remember and recognize, and who, on April 18th
this year, celebrated his 80th birthday.
His name is Kal-El, son of
Jor-El, aka Clark Kent, but to most of us he is simply known as Superman.
He is said to have been born
on the planet Krypton and sent to Earth by his parents in a space capsule just
before the destruction of his planet due to a natural catastrophe. This showed
great foresight and planning by his parents that should be a lesson in
emergency planning for us all. After crash landing on Earth somewhere near the
town of Smallville, USA, he was found and adopted by a farmer and his wife,
Jonathan & Martha Kent. They raised him as their own and instilled strict
moral training into the young Clark, who vowed to only use his emerging
super-human capabilities for the safety of the human race.
So there you have it. Superman
was a safety guy first and foremost. A safety guy with an alter ego, much like
most supervisors working in oil & gas, many of whom not only have their own
occupational responsibilities to satisfy for their employers, but are also
expected to direct and supervise new, less experienced and less competent
workers in the workplace in order to keep them all safe.
Latin: Super or Supra means
above or over, vis means see = Over-see-or = Overseer or Supervisor
There are other analogies
that apply to Superman and to supervisors. PPE (personal protective equipment),
for example, is required to protect the wearer as a last resort from hazards
that can’t be eliminated by engineering or administrative controls. Superman
donned a very distinctive suit and cape that provided protection from bullets,
explosions, fire, radiation and just about every other kind of threat one can
imagine. Supervisors have a duty to themselves and workers under their
supervision to ensure they and their workers wear and are trained in the proper
use of PPE. Some examples include steel-toed boots, hard hats, safety glasses, high
visibility vests, flame resistant clothing, ear plugs, and breathing apparatus.
Superman is committed to
saving the lives of humans but is also a staunch supporter of law enforcement
and is most famously known for his battles with his arch enemy, the criminal
evil genius inventor Lex Luthor. When Superman is disguised as the bespectacled
Clark Kent, he deliberately avoids violent confrontation and harassment to the
point of perceived cowardice. This is consistent with the new Canada-wide OHS
rules and those introduced with Bill 30 that make harassment and violence in
the workplace a thing of the past and perpetrators liable for severe
repercussions. Now I’m not suggesting that all safety guys should don a full
bodied, skin-tight leotard emblazoned with a giant “S” on the chest, but if they
did, it would certainly differentiate the times when they are performing their
safety role as opposed to their normal operational duties. And “S” does stand
for “Safety” as well as for “Super”.
Superman is capable of super
speed when changing between identities; supervisors would waste way too much
time just changing clothes as their roles intermingle constantly throughout the
work day. Besides which, where can you find a telephone box in the field in
which to change clothes anyway? Even in town they have become scarce.
Superman does have a
vulnerability in the form of Kryptonite, a mineral from his home planet that
can deprive him of his super powers, weaken and potentially kill him. Similarly,
supervisors and workers in the oil & gas industry are trained in the
awareness and dangers of potential exposure to H2S (hydrogen sulphide) which
would have equally devastating consequences for them.
Superman can fly beyond the
speed of light, which defies the imagination, and means that even time travel
is possible. This can be really handy if something unplanned and unwanted
occurs. A quick return to the past to correct an action or incident that could
change an undesired outcome in the future would be a really good tool to have
in the toolbox of a safety practitioner. Unfortunately we are not there just
yet, although technologies are being developed at such break-neck speeds that I
wouldn’t count that capability out forever. The laser beam that Superman can
project from his eyes that will melt steel or see through objects and his super
hearing are technologies that are feasible today.
The message is that the
supervisor is the key to a company’s success in keeping a safe workplace in an
environment of ever increasing legislative and operational demands. He is the
individual who is charged with communicating to workers the employer’s policies
and procedures and is the one who is most likely to have the respect and day-to-day
attention of front-line workers.
The safety workload expected
of supervisors has this year been greatly expanded under new legislation
introduced by the Alberta and Canadian Governments with Bills 30, C45 and C46.
BILL
30: AN ACT TO PROTECT THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF WORKING ALBERTANS
BILL
C-45: THE CANNABIS ACT & BILL C-46: AN ACT TO AMEND THE CRIMINAL CODE
(CANADA)
The CAGC recommends that
companies visit the Energy Safety Canada website frequently at the following
link www.energysafetycanada.com to
stay current with the tools and resources that are being developed for
compliance with legislated requirements for supervisors. These include but are
not limited to: Hazard Identification, Harassment & Violence in the
Workplace, Accident Investigation, Competency Management Systems, Fit-for-Duty,
Supervisor Competency, Canadian Model for Providing a Safe Workplace version 6,
Standards for Competent Supervision to Prevent Critical Outcomes (IRP 7) and Supervisor
Leadership for Health & Safety in the Workplace.
In conclusion, although
Superman was a safety guy, not every safety guy is a superman. Also not every
supervisor is a safety guy and it should be realized that he will need training
and employer support to get to a level of competency that will keep those under
his direction safe.
Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to
leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a
plane, it’s Superman!
Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to
earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who
can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands. And who,
disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan
newspaper, fights a never ending battle for truth, justice and the American
way.
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