Ideally, promoting safety is also promoting harmony in the workplace where everyone is involved and shares mutual concerns. Unfortunately, workplaces are a conglomeration of all people coming from different backgrounds and different work ethics and work orientations. There will always be people who are easy to work with and there will always be people who are not. Actions and the way people react to them promote also incidents that are not safe, are stressful and unproductive.

As the purpose of workplace safety is to promote productivity, the following are contributors that promote unhealthy worker interaction and negate safety intentions that are vital if the company is to remain competitive. Identifying them is an important step to enhance safety measures installed and augment continuing efforts at improving interaction that promotes profitability.

Uncooperative workers
Production and administration sites are effective only when it works in a unified direction where everyone participates. No matter what safe actions are taken, if there is one uncooperative worker, the whole team could fail. It does not matter if the worker is amiable though most times they are not. Often, these workers think that teamwork is just a catchphrase and meetings are boring. Safety is everyone’s responsibility and concern. Unsafe conditions does not give second chances, it has to be done right the first time. The person has to cooperate or lose the prospect of working longer.

Bullying
The one good thing about a bully is that a bully is bullied back very easily. Most of us has experienced them and could handle them. If the bully however is the continuing source of stresses, tensions and disharmony, they become inimical to the goals of the team.

Old and new employees
Old and new people in an organization are the most prone to accidents. Old employees tend to be overconfident with the tendency to ignore rules for convenience. New recruits on the other hand are mostly shy, timid, and inexperienced. Young workers particularly are more determined to prove that they could do things very well and finish the task fast regardless of skill level. Their being new translates mostly in not being able to identify non-obvious hazards.

Indifference
To work in a safe environment is everyone’s right. The rights must be included in the company’s procedures for safety. The employee has to understand their right and the responsibility of carrying them out fairly.

Bad policies
Long working hours without sufficient breaks in between endangers the worker of being lethargic. When that happens, judgments are impaired, accidents happen and long-term productivity suffers. Unreasonable demands on the worker like multitasking and very high expectations providing little time to perform tasks proved time and again to be counterproductive.

Remember the domino effect. One potential hazard left unnoticed or unchecked could lead to string of events that not only are potentially expensive but also are disastrous. Likewise, workers that refuse to work with safety in mind pose hazards not only to themselves but also to the workplace as a whole. Safety consideration must always be on top of priorities because workplace safety is not a choice.