Let George Do It! (1978)

hello Mary hi Ron welcome back thank you thank  you I might have known you would pick today to get back to work how come the weather it suddenly  turned cool balmy and beautiful been a little hot here terrible and sticky come on go ahead make  me miserable how was aapco Sunshine great surf wonderful food and cool nights you know I didn't  even get sick and how do you like my tan looks terrible aapco isn't that where those kids dive  off the cliff into the sea yeah and that's one thing I didn't like why not well you know how  dangerous that is once a safety director always a safety director yeah you're right but you know  seriously every time I saw those divers I thought about you and this place and the people in the  planet so tell me what's been going on here well let's see inspection schedule was kept supervisors  turned in reports of safety contacts okay oh purchasing wants to see you before they sign the  contract on that new drying oven okay I'll call them today and about the usual number of uh first  aid cases nothing big that's all most of it can wait but there were three accidents I wanted to  talk to you about not serious ones just different they all seem to have something in common do you  think we might have a little epidemic starting well at least if there's a pattern in them maybe  we can stop it by training people to recognize the symptoms okay I might as well get right back  into harness tell me about it now this first one involved two electricians you know uh Al Santino  sure well he and his partner dick mccan were were running a new conduit down aisle J I got to  the corner of al5 dick was supposed to place the warning cones and stand guard while Al locked  the wheels on the rolling scaffold and climbed up what happened was that while Joe was locking the  wheels dick went to get the cones and somebody in the machine shop called to dick and he walked over  to talk to the guy meanwhile Al got the wheels locked and had just gotten started up the ladder  when a forklift came down the intersecting aisle now that's aisle five the driver couldn't see the  scaffolding at the corner he made a tight turn and saw the scaffolding and tried to Swerve out but he  struck one leg of it and poor old Al took a fall that he did he was just lucky he hadn't climbed  higher well it was a blind corner for the truck driver and there weren't any cones out to war it  McAn felt really terrible about that he said that in another minute he would have had the cones in  place sure and Al figured everything was okay all he had to do was climb up there and do his job he  didn't wait to make sure that the Cones were in place no he didn't check now that was the first  case now here's another one this one was caused by a defec of drill first the drill had a short  in it and second someone had removed the ground prong from an extension cord he got in The Tool  Room well that just about tells the story then doesn't it except for the details you can guess  what happened anyway two maintenance men Ken camp and boy Grady were working on a job Ken went  around to the tool room and picked up a drill and an extension cord when he got back to the work  area he hooked it all up and handed it to Grady how seriously was he hurt we got a hell of a  jolt luckily he wasn't Frozen so he let go of the trigger and he didn't fall off the ladder well it  was sure lousy equipment maintenance somebody in the tool room should have checked out that drill  of course and Camp should never have accepted a cord that was missing the ground prong why did he  oh he said he just didn't look at the plug said that he figured that whatever would come out of  The Tool Room would be okay his supervisor didn't think much of that excuse really chewed him out oh  sure he was wrong and whoever should have done the checking in the tool room was wrong but you know  the one who really interests me in that case is Foy Grady why he was sort of mous Trapped wasn't  he how but he shouldn't have been I'm beginning to think that what we've got here are two examples  of the let George do it syndrome what the let George do it syndrome I'll explain it to you  later but first you said there was a third accident didn't you yes here we are the injured  man was Carl Schulz the drill press operator the setup man had completed his setup and Schulz  had started working he finished two out of the four drilling operations everything was all right  and then he started on the third drill the backup bar wasn't tight Schulz placed the fixter he was  working with against the bar and started the drill Under Pressure the bar gave and the fixer began to  spin Schulz caught a corner that really sliced up his finger good so the setup man didn't tighten  the bar enough and Schultz didn't check right he just assumed that of course I see what you mean  let George do what you said but we all have to let George do it don't we I I mean nobody can do  all the jobs himself oh sure we have to divide up the work this is a very specialized world but  still it's easy to get used to having George do it that's the other side of specialization it's  easy after a while to assume that George has done it even when you're physical safety and sometimes  your life are at stake look Ron you know me I've been sitting here thinking so what do we do about  it I mean suppose we use these cases in the next training program what do we say about them what  do we do about George good question I think first we talked to Schultz and Grady and Al sorantino  but they probably already learned their lesson what we've got to worry about are all the people  who could get hurt if they do the same thing and take George too much for granted we've got to  get across to them protect yourselves check the wheel chalks on the truck check the lockout on the  machine check behind the vehicle before you back up don't count on someone else be responsible  for your own safety don't take anything for granted sure we can do that but what about George  do we talk to him too you bet we do oh I know you don't have to talk to George after he's goofed  and somebody got hurt or at least you don't have to talk much I'll bet dick mccan did feel lousy  when out got hurt because he hadn't put out those safety cones no the trick is to talk to George  before he Goofs how do we do that nobody ever messes up on purpose well that's exactly right  the point is that George is everywhere he could be anybody like all of us he does his job right  most most of the time but occasionally he slips up and there's trouble I remember something  that happened to me 10 years ago when I was a department supervisor there were acid tanks in  my section so of course we had emergency showers well one of the valves on a shower began to leak  and I reported it they sent a maintenance man over to fix it he turned off the water hung up a  sign saying out of order and then he went to work when he finished the job he took down the sign  came over to me and said the shower was fixed I thanked him and signed his work order naturally  it was my business to check the shower I knew that and I was thinking about it but just then  somebody came up and said I was needed right away so I went off and did whatever it was I  was wanted for the shower was still turned off but when I got back I didn't remember to check I  suppose I assumed that everything was all right so what happened well it was one of those times  when you don't get away with making a mistake a few days later one of the men was splashed  with acid and ran over to the shower nothing happened no water wow I get your point so you  assumed that the maintenance man had done his job and old George hadn't done it oh it was  worse than that to that that poor fellow who got burned and stepped under a dry shower  I was the one who hadn't done my job I was George Mary your three accidents are all related  and the pattern is likely to show up again it cuts two ways when you're responsible for the  safety of others and we all are sometimes don't be George the sort of George who didn't do it and  where it's a matter of your personal safety don't rely on George always check I hope we can get  those two ideas across but it won't be easy oh I know but we got to try there are easier ways to  learn than by getting hurt or by hurting others