So you think you want to be a safety director. Lots of people do. But lots of them don't know what's good for them. Are you sure safety is the right profession for you?

When answering this question, don't just think about salaries, advancement and all the other perks. When I ask if you want to be in safety what I want to know is do you feel passionate about safety? Selling safety is one of if not the most important function of a safety director. But you'll never be any good at it unless you know for sure that you yourself are sold on safety.

Take the Benjamin Franklin Test

Would have made a great electrical safety engineer.

Benjamin Franklin did a lot of really cool things. One of them was to come up with a scientific way to make personal life-altering decisions. If you want to know if you got the conviction to sell safety, try the Ben Franklin method. Here's how it works:

Take two pieces of paper. On one, list all of the reasons you want to dedicate your life to saving lives and preventing injuries. On the other, list all the reasons you don't want to do this.

When you're done, the "Why" sheet should completely overwhelm the "Why Nots." If it's even close, my advice to you is this:

Look for another profession immediately.

That may sound harsh. But I tell you it's good advice. Trust me, that if you're not completely sold on safety, you're going to be a flop at this job. You're going to end up like one of those people who fill out reports and complain in the hallway that they don't have the money or authority they need to get things done.

You don't need that; and neither does the world.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT SAFETY

My passion for safety stems from my past: EMT work in Wichita, LPN work in Wichita, and as an Army Medic. While I was an Army Medic, I was involved in a mass casualty situation that burned me out, picking up the pieces after the incident. I know there will not be any pieces to pick up if injuries are prevented and that is my great passion as a safety monitor.

I know there are safety monitors without a heart for the mission of safety. I've attended safety classes with people who said they were only there because they were ordered to be there. You would be just as safe to pin a safety monitor's badge on a machine as to pin it on someone who has no interest in the job.

For me, being a safety monitor has opened up endless possibilities for helping people. I wish others could see the importance that their efforts as a safety monitor will make - not just in the lives of other employees but in their families and friends as well. When I see someone retire with a healthy uninjured body to enjoy the rest of his life, that is my great reward for being a safety monitor.

Robert E. Lee
Safety Monitor
P700

Former Army wardmaster Robert E. Lee has been with the Boeing company for over 26 years. A tool grinder and shop safety monitor in the company's production/fabrication department in Wichita, Kansas, Mr. Lee conducts weekly safety meetings and monthly audits. He's proud to report that their department - which employs more than 5,000 cutters a month - has not had a recordable in over 16 months, and their last lost workday was November 12, 1996.

Do you share the passion for safety? Tell us what you love about being a safety director. Send me an e mail, glennd@bongarde.com. We'll include your story in a future issue of a SafetyXChange newsletter.

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