"It is axiomatic that even if people disagree with your convictions, they admire you for sticking up for them."

--John MacArthur

Why are companies so afraid to discipline workers? One possible explanation is that they want to be the worker's friend. Well, guess what? If you got into safety because of the friends you thought you'd make, you got into safety for the wrong reason. With this in mind, let's wrap up our discussion on discipline.

Yes, Virginia, You Can Fire an Employee

Punishment for its own sake is unproductive and cruel. The ultimate goal of discipline is to promote the right behavior. It's to bring employees back into obedience. That's why it's generally not a good idea to terminate an employee for a single offense (unless, of course, the offense is so serious that it's beyond toleration).

However, if an employee who's been disciplined for breaking safety rules persists in committing infractions, you must be prepared to dispense the ultimate punishment. Understand that everyone-and I mean everyone-is expendable. The employee that you can't afford to fire does not exist. Of course, you hope it never comes to that, especially with your best employees. But a pattern of disobeying safety rules can result in injury, illness or death-to the employee and co-workers. And this simply cannot be tolerated. Period.

Discipline & the Safety Professional

The chicken magnate, Frank Perdue, had a slogan: It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. It also takes a tough man-or woman-to run a safe workplace. The safety professional must have the strength of personality and confidence of purpose to use discipline as a tool to accomplish the safety mission.

You can't achieve these goals sitting in a far-off office. You need to get down to the floor and get your hands dirty. By establishing a presence you not only lead by example but earn the respect of workers. Presence and respect are the vital underpinnings of discipline. Without them, you're in no position to dish out the discipline necessary to achieve and maintain excellent safety performance.

Case in point: A few weeks after being hired for one of my previous positions, an employee came up to me and said: "Mark, you sure are tough. I wish you were my friend."

"They didn't hire me to be your friend," I replied. "I will never be your fishing buddy. Friends would expect special treatment if they break a safety rule," I continued. "But if I treated you differently than other workers who break the rules, I will have defeated the whole purpose of my being here."

I know it sounds harsh, but I firmly believe that it's essential for safety professionals to maintain a separation between themselves and the workers they're charged with protecting. The safety professional's relationship to the worker should be more like that of a parent and child or student and teacher. Although there's nothing wrong with being liked, the safety professional must seek respect, not friendship.

Conclusion

What I want you all to take away from this series are the following points:

Thanks for listening. I hope you'll remember my advice if and when you need to discipline your workers for committing a safety infraction.

HEROES OF SAFETY

Mother Cabrini

Mother Cabrini

By Glenn Demby

At the tender age of 52, Stella Cabrini gave birth to a premature baby girl in the town of Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy. It was Stella and her husband's 13th child. Only four of the children were still alive. And it looked like the new baby, named Frances Xavier, would join her siblings in an early grave. But Frances somehow pulled through.

Frances grew up a frail child, often too weak to go to school. Still, she managed to help her parents work the family farm. She studied in religious schools, became a teacher and took her vows in 1877. A year later, she and a local priest took over an orphanage and worked to eliminate the abusive conditions. When the orphanage closed, Frances and seven of the orphans established a religious order called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

At the urging of the pope, Frances and six other nuns sailed to America in 1889. Her mission: to take charge of an orphanage in New York. But upon arriving, the New York archbishop told her that the mission was cancelled and ordered her home. But Frances defied the archbishop and decided to stay in New York, opening a school and an orphanage for Italian immigrant girls in lower Manhattan.

For the next 28 years, Frances, now known as Mother Cabrini, would become a U.S. citizen and travel throughout the country founding hospitals, schools and orphanages. Over the course of her life, she would establish more than 60 such institutions around the world. She also travelled to South America where she continued her work with orphans and tended to nuns stricken with smallpox.

Mother Cabrini died of malaria in 1917. She was made a saint by Pope Pius XII on July 7, 1946, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini is the patron saint of immigrants and hospital administrators. Her feast day is celebrated on December 22.

Story Tools:  Email This Post  Print This Post Top