What Makes A Good Safety Tech?

Posted by chiefb2 on February 4, 2013
Posted in: Industrial Safety, Personal. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

In my new role as Corporate Health and Safety Coordinator for Coastal Industrial Services I oversee a staff of three safety techs and one safety manager. Our company provides heavy duty industrial hydro-blasting, tank cleaning, heat exchanger repair and vacuum truck operations to large industrial facilities (refineries, power plants, and steel/pulp mills). I feel fortunate to have come on board during a time of substantial growth, and as a result I anticipate having to bring on additional safety folks soon to provide consistent and constant safety oversight at our various locations. Manipulating water-jet equipment operating at anywhere between 10,000 to 40,000 p.s.i. can be extremely dangerous, especially when coupled with operating in temperature extremes and the confined space environment.

To assist our newly hired and future safety folks, I created a quick reference field guide for safety techs. Included is basic contact info for company management, emergency reporting procedures for our key customers, abbreviated emergency and drug testing procedures, etc…
In polishing up the document, I decided to include a distillation of what my co-workers and employees have shared with me about the traits of an safety technician. They all had their favorite and least favorite folks who served in the safety role, and shared lots of stories. In reviewing my notes, I’ve decided it all comes down to this-
A good Safety Tech;
• Stays vigilant.
• Respects the team concept and helps where needed to get the job done.
• Isn’t afraid to immediately stop work when a safety issue arises.
• Communicates effectively with supervisors and employees.
• Documents well.
• Keeps client safety reps “in the loop”.
• Won’t tolerate unsafe work practices.
• Treats everyone with respect (praise in public, criticize in private).
• Keeps their cool, especially in tense situations.
• Takes advantage of “teachable moments”.
• Never stops learning.

OK, all you seasoned industrial safety types, what did I miss? I’m the newbie in this field, so I’ll soak up any education you care to throw my way!

How The Hell Did This Happen?

Posted by chiefb2 on January 12, 2013
Posted in: Personal, Social Media and Emergency Response, Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

I don’t know how I dodged the bullet as long as I did, but as a high visibility public servant I escaped public attacks on my character and professional reputation….until New Year’s Eve, when I learned someone had publicly attacked my public service record and ethics. I was looking forward to a peaceful day of food and football. That plan was flushed down the drain about as fast as my reputation seemed to be going.

For those of you who have been following my social media “career” over the past few years, you know I have been quick to share opinion and articles on how to respond when under public relations attack as a result of honest mistakes, company/agency wrongdoing or blatant attempts to discredit. I studied, commented and shared articles about the “How To” of PR crisis management. It is one thing to abstractly opine on what the right move is and play Monday Morning Quarterback. It is an entirely different situation when the howitzer of “How The Hell Did this Happen?” is pointed at YOUR head.

I called a few of my trusted friends and mentors, all highly respected in the community, who understand the political landscape and have extensive experience in responding to PR dust-ups. In discussing the attack and my feelings I took comfort in their advice. While each responded somewhat differently, they each said the same things in their own unique way:

  • The statements attributed to me are so blatantly untrue that even without correction they would eventually be exposed as such, undermining the author’s credibility.
  • Going to battle in a public forum would likely only exacerbate the issue. A mentor I highly respect-Gerald Baron- used the old analogy “If you decide you wrestle the pig, both of you will get muddy and the pig will like it.”
  • Calm down, take emotion out of it, and develop a Plan A, Plan B strategy.
  • Monitor social media/Twitter channels. See if folks are commenting and/or spreading the accusations (They were not. The author has very limited readership).
  • Talk to the author by phone or in person. Express concerns about the inflammatory and incorrect information that was stated as fact, and my concerns about how it may impact my professional reputation. Provide the facts and background and give him an opportunity to ask questions, verify information, and most importantly – correct the story!
  • If that doesn’t work, continue to monitor the site and any related social media fallout. THEN, depending on what folks are – or are not- saying, develop a message and a vehicle to deliver the facts in a way that does not attack the author, but rather state the easily verifiable facts in a simple and concise message.

This ended satisfactorily. The author pulled the post early the next day, called to apologize, and posted a correction and apology. It was all I wanted.

The real world lessons I learned from this relatively small reputation crisis;

  • Take a deep breath and DON’T act immediately.
  • Read the article, reread it, repeat.
  • Take notes. Jot down your immediate response, even it is emotional (It can be cathartic, trust me).
  • Talk to your trusted network. They are not being attacked, so they can provide support and objective, unemotional advice and observations.
  • Sit down and really think about what was said. Look for nuance and overall theme.
  • Reaching out to the author in person or by phone can be a quick and easy solution. Even if it doesn’t work it may provide further insight into the author’s true agenda.
  • Your reputation is perhaps your greatest treasure, or your biggest albatross. If you have a good one, protect it. If you have a bad one, heaven help you…

Three Months

Posted by chiefb2 on January 9, 2013
Posted in: Personal. Leave a Comment

Well, it has been three months since I retired from the public sector fishbowl.  Since I left, lots of folks still on the job ask me two questions:  1. How is the new job going?  and 2. Do you miss it?

The new job is great.  I’m the corporate health and safety coordinator for an industrial cleaning company – Coastal Industrial Services out of California, with offices up and down the west coast and Hawaii.  They just expanded into Texas as well.   They are growing fast and evolving, which means my job duties are fluid.  One of the most exciting aspects of this company, and one of the main reasons they wanted me on their team, is their vision to expand business lines.  I’m excited to see what the next few months reveal during this expansion.  Yet, this old warhorse is also challenged by the relative new found freedom from bureaucracy and regulation.  Creating new business lines is all about vision, creativity, “can do “attitude and a strong “push the edge of the envelope” approach.  It is taking some getting used to.

It is difficult to go from a position of intuitively knowing almost everything to knowing nothing.  Everything from learning how to run the copy machine to understanding the complex safety permitting requirements for the various oil refineries and mills is a big challenge.  Adding to these challenges is the evolving corporate changes related to growth, meaning I stepped into a corporate culture where rules, roles and responsibilities are a moving target.  In some ways this is good, as I have been asked to help influence change; especially on the safety and health side of the house.

The next few months will be nuts, as our business expands at the same time we begin spooling up for refinery and mill “turnarounds”, hiring hundreds of temporary employees.  I suspect the past couple of months have been the calm before the storm.

Do I miss the job? Sure I do…at least parts of it.  I miss the camaraderie of the highly skilled and professional department heads and staff officers I worked with.  I miss my support staff, who always went out of their way to help this old guy figure things out (Boy, I really miss them now when I get stuck in Word or Excel).  I miss seeing Bellingham firefighters and paramedics working their magic on emergency scenes.  I also miss their sense of humor and family.  And, yes, I miss going on calls.

I certainly don’t miss the pager.  Always knowing my world could be disrupted at anytime, anywhere was a previously unrecognized major stressor in my life.  The night before I retired, I told the incoming interim chief that I had turned in my pager, and slept like a baby.  Perhaps this simple act was the most symbolic aspect of letting go.  Since 1990, I had been tethered to a small plastic beeper that apparently weighed 10,000 lbs.

I don’t miss the politics.  For five years I tried to resolve a long simmering intergovernmental dispute about how paramedic services were being delivered.  During this time, my professional and personal character was attacked, even as I worked at keeping it strictly business.  This unfortunately affected my professional and personal relationships, especially at home.  I finally took a realistic look at my chances in convincing others of what I still believe is the best model for service delivery. In doing so, I suspected I was likely part of the problem, not the solution.  I’m hoping new BFD leadership will be able to preserve our internationally recognized EMS program. Our citizens deserve nothing less.

Finally, I don’t miss the budget process.  My previous chief, whom I deeply respect, left in 2003.  He was smart enough to see the budget writing on the wall.  He understood the next few years were likely going to be brutal. Little did he know how bad it was going to be. Out of the 11 budgets I worked on, only two included program additions or enhancements.  Of those two budgets, I still had to cut other line items to keep overall costs down, including shutting down our dedicated ladder truck, rescue program and fireboat (I was fortunate to have had a collaborative union executive team who “got it”, and helped us come up with creative solutions).  But, the new administration is going to have their hands full coming up with further reductions that don’t reduce the department’s capacity in putting the wet stuff on the red stuff, and the white stuff on the red stuff.

So, in riding off into the fire service sunset I feel more relaxed, content and excited to tackle new opportunities and challenges.  It is actually fun to be looking ahead, instead of always looking behind to see who was chewing my backside.

 

 

They Shudda Kept Their Mouths Shut

Posted by chiefb2 on December 22, 2012
Posted in: Personal, Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

Along with many Americans, I wondered what the NRA was going to say yesterday  in response to the Newtown massacre.  In what I thought was a shrewd move, the NRA was unusually quiet this week, including shutting down their social media presence.  I’m not sure if they did it out of respect for the victims, or wanted to develop a strategy to salvage their relevance and credibility with much of the American public.  Given their statement yesterday, I think they developed their ideas in a boardroom while drinking whiskey and playing the Call of Duty Black Ops II video game (They likely wouldn’t have played their own NRA sport shooting video game that was roundly panned a few years ago).

Now before some of the diehard NRA wing nuts jump down my throat, please understand that I am not in favor of eliminating law abiding citizens from owning guns.  I own a shotgun and a revolver.  The handgun is an old Colt 38 Special that was my great-grandfather’s service weapon when he was the Marshal of the City of Ruston, Washington.  I have a newspaper article from the early 1900’s where he used this weapon in a gun battle with a burglar (the burglar lost).   I enjoy target shooting and bird hunting.  I am envious of my friends who have beautiful gun collections, and consider many of them beautiful works of art.

With that said, I’m blown away by the NRA’s myopic and inflammatory statements yesterday.  My interpretation of what they said is; this incident was caused by;

  • Extremely violent video games
  • Reluctance to prosecute gun crime cases
  • Gun free school zones
  • No one in the school was armed to fight back

Their approach?  Make a very public and inflammatory demand to place armed police officers in every school.  OK… which schools?  Public?  Private?  Daycare?  Tribal?  What about all of the other public gathering areas that have experienced mass shootings, like malls and movie theatres?  What about the economic reality where federal, state and local law enforcement officers and programs are being slashed? What about the fact that a school resource officer engaged the shooters at the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, and was significantly outgunned (An officer with a sidearm is no match for someone intent on mayhem with a high powered/capacity assault rifle).  I’m guessing their myopic approach is going to come back to haunt them.  I’m not a card carrying member of the NRA, but if I was I would have dropped it before their press conference was over.  The current NRA leadership is nuts (or they were really drunk when they came out of the boardroom).

It now appears that the Newtown murderer had significant mental health and social issues.  We may never know what made him snap, steal his mother’s guns, and kill everyone he encountered in a very short amount of time.  Where does the NRA stand on helping those with significant mental health issues?

When the New York City Police Commissioner expresses disappointment in the NRA’s stance (and yet says he is not surprised), you have to wonder;  What the hell were they thinking?  Why didn’t they simply express outrage at the tragedy, call for increased dialogue and action to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those with mental health issues, call for increased support and funding for families struggling with the mentally ill, and offer to aggressively participate in a national dialogue on how best to proceed?  Instead, they came out swinging defensively, looking and sounding desperate and totally out of touch with America’s growing concern about gun violence, especially the horrific violence that occurs in 2-3 minutes by a deranged kid with a high caliber semi-auto rifle with a 30 shot magazine. What is revolting is they took this approach before the last of the victims had been buried.

The NRA leadership may have just flailed their organization into irrelevance.  Let’s hope the majority of NRA members have a more realistic view of the need to take positive and realistic steps to prevent these type of events from happening again. The victims and families in Newtown and all of the past mass killing tragedies deserve nothing less.

A Mad World

Posted by chiefb2 on December 14, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

Like everyone else I am devastated by today’s senseless slaughter of innocent school children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut.  I read the news on Twitter, likely posted within minutes after the murderer killed himself.  Having watched similar news unfold on live TV too many times before, I chose not to turn on the TV this time.  I think I made a good decision.  I had no interest in listening to non-stop news anchor and reporter speculation, and the obligatory interviewing of traumatized witnesses.  With something this horrific, taking a measured and clinical approach helps keep me from becoming a casualty as well.  I’ve seen my share of young lives lost, and events like this can bring back a flood of bad memories.  So, I chose self-preservation mode.

I hold the families of those who lost their kids in my thoughts and prayers.  I also feel greatly for the first responders who answered the call and did everything they could to save lives, secure the scene and begin the investigation.  Often in cases like this, they become secondary victims.  The gunshot echo can ring for a long time.

In these circumstances, I know our first responder family around the world will rally around these folks and provide unwavering support.  They will need our help for a while.

Regarding the gun debate….wait….now is not the time. I’ll weigh in after the families bury their kids and parents.

Remains Of The Day- Remains To Be Seen

Posted by chiefb2 on December 4, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

This week a Facebook post landed in my Newsfeed; a poignant story of a fallen soldier’s return home. The story:

Letter from an airline pilot: He writes:
My lead flight attendant came to me and said, “We have an H.R. on this flight.” (H.R. stands for human remains.) “Are they military?” I asked.
‘Yes’, she said.

‘Is there an escort?’ I asked.

‘Yes, I’ve already assigned him a seat’.

‘Would you please tell him to come to the flight deck. You can board him early,” I said.

A short while later, a young army sergeant entered the flight deck. He was the image of the perfectly dressed soldier. He introduced himself and I asked him about his soldier. The escorts of these fallen soldiers talk about them as if they are still alive and still with us.

‘My soldier is on his way back to Virginia,’ he said. He proceeded to answer my questions, but offered no words.

I asked him if there was anything I could do for him and he said no. I told him that he had the toughest job in the military and that I appreciated the work that he does for the families of our fallen soldiers. The first officer and I got up out of our seats to shake his hand. He left the flight deck to find his seat.

We completed our pre-flight checks, pushed back and performed an uneventful departure. About 30 minutes into our flight I received a call from the lead flight attendant in the cabin. ‘I just found out the family of the soldier we are carrying, is on board’, she said. She then proceeded to tell me that the father, mother, wife and 2-year old daughter were escorting their son, husband, and father home. The family was upset because they were unable to see the container that the soldier was in before we left. We were on our way to a major hub at which the family was going to wait four hours for the connecting flight home to Virginia.

The father of the soldier told the flight attendant that knowing his son was below him in the cargo compartment and being unable to see him was too much for him and the family to bear. He had asked the flight attendant if there was anything that could be done to allow them to see him upon our arrival. The family wanted to be outside by the cargo door to watch the soldier being taken off the airplane. I could hear the desperation in the flight attendants voice when she asked me if there was anything I could do. ‘I’m on it’, I said. I told her that I would get back to her.

Airborne communication with my company normally occurs in the form of e-mail like messages. I decided to bypass this system and contact my flight dispatcher directly on a secondary radio. There is a radio operator in the operations control center who connects you to the telephone of the dispatcher. I was in direct contact with the dispatcher. I explained the situation I had on board with the family and what it was the family wanted. He said he understood and that he would get back to me.

Two hours went by and I had not heard from the dispatcher. We were going to get busy soon and I needed to know what to tell the family. I sent a text message asking for an update. I
saved the return message from the dispatcher and the following is the text:

‘Captain, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There is policy on this now and I had to check on a few things. Upon your arrival a dedicated escort team will meet the aircraft. The team will escort the family to the ramp and plane side. A van will be used to load the remains with a secondary van for the family. The family will be taken to their departure area and escorted into the terminal where the remains can be seen on the ramp. It is a private area for the family only. When the connecting aircraft arrives, the family will be escorted onto the ramp and plane side to watch the remains being loaded for the final leg home. Captains, most of us here in flight control are veterans. Please pass our condolences on to the family. Thanks.’

I sent a message back telling flight control thanks for a good job. I printed out the message and gave it to the lead flight attendant to pass on to the father. The lead flight attendant was very thankful and told me, ‘You have no idea how much this will mean to them.’

Things started getting busy for the descent, approach and landing. After landing, we cleared the runway and taxied to the ramp area. The ramp is huge with 15 gates on either side of the alleyway. It is always a busy area with aircraft maneuvering every which way to enter and exit. When we entered the ramp and checked in with the ramp controller, we were told that all traffic was being held for us.

‘There is a team in place to meet the aircraft’, we were told. It looked like it was all coming together, then I realized that once we turned the seat belt sign off, everyone would stand up at once and delay the family from getting off the airplane. As we approached our gate, I asked the co-pilot to tell the ramp controller we were going to stop short of the gate to
make an announcement to the passengers. He did that and the ramp controller said, ‘Take your time.’

I stopped the aircraft and set the parking brake. I pushed the public address button and said, ‘Ladies and gentleman, this is your Captain speaking I have stopped short of our gate to make a special announcement. We have a passenger on board who deserves our honor and respect. His Name is Private XXXXXX, a soldier who recently lost his life. Private XXXXXX is under your feet in the cargo hold. Escorting him today is Army Sergeant XXXXXXX. Also, on board are his father, mother, wife, and daughter. Your entire flight crew is asking for all passengers to remain in their seats to allow the family to exit the aircraft first. Thank you.’

We continued the turn to the gate, came to a stop and started our shutdown procedures. A couple of minutes later I opened the cockpit door. I found the two forward flight attendants crying, something you just do not see. I was told that after we came to a stop, every passenger on the aircraft stayed in their seats, waiting for the family to exit the aircraft.

When the family got up and gathered their things, a passenger slowly started to clap his hands. Moments later more passengers joined in and soon the entire aircraft was
clapping. Words of ‘God Bless You’, I’m sorry, thank you, be proud, and other kind words were uttered to the family as they made their way down the aisle and out of the airplane.

They were escorted down to the ramp to finally be with their loved one.

Many of the passengers disembarking thanked me for the announcement I had made. They were just words, I told them, I could say them over and over again, but nothing I say will bring back that brave soldier.

I respectfully ask that all of you reflect on this event and the sacrifices that millions of our men and women have made to ensure our freedom and safety in these USA, Canada, Australia New Zealand, England.

Once I got done sobbing my guts out, I was ready to immediately share it with my friends.  But, I stopped and re-read the story.  This time, I wondered; “Did this really happen?”  I’ve become really skeptical when reading social media stories like this.  I know enough about how commercial airline pilots operate and communicate on the flight deck to suspect the person who wrote this had at least the same level of knowledge as me (which isn’t much, but more than most folks).  So, I did what any other savvy SM geek would do…I  went to Snopes.com.

Sure enough, Snopes.com has a slight variation of the story in their database. I also turned to Google, typed in a few search terms which all pointed to this site; purportedly the blog of the airline pilot who wrote the story in 2008.

As of two days ago, Snopes.com has yet to verify the authenticity of the story. The immediate visceral emotional reaction it sparked in me, and the fact that the alleged pilot has not blogged for a couple of years has me even more skeptical that it actually happened (at least the way it is written).

BUT, in this case I don’t give a damn.  I went ahead and shared it with my Facebook friends. Regardless of whether or not it is true, a story like this taps the spirit of heroism and honor of all who place themselves in harm’s way, and was worth sharing.

Three years ago, I was waiting in the Denver International Airport for a connecting flight home.  I walked by an adjacent gate and saw emergency vehicles parked on the tarmac with their emergency lights on.  Intrigued,  I moved to the window, watching as a Southwest Airlines ground crew and port fire/police crews stood at attention as a military honor guard carefully carried the soldier to the hearse.  The passengers respectfully stayed on the plane until the soldier was removed, and then silently filed out into the terminal.

I unconsciously stood at attention, glued to the glass for the 15 minutes it took to move the soldier to the hearse.  You could have heard a pin drop. Someone suddenly sobbed. I turned around to see at least 100 people standing in silent tribute.  The person sobbing said she was a mother of a soldier, and had a ticket on the same plane for the next leg of the flight.  She didn’t want to get on the plane. Another woman  reassured her that everything was fine and that she should go.  I went over to her, expressed my gratitude for her son’s service, and went to the bar to salute our heroes.  I never found out if she actually got on the plane.

You know what?  I don’t care if Snopes.com finds out the truth.  The story told will always be real to me.  To all those that have-and continue to serve- THANK YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

 

 

Ditch The Kit! Save a Twinkie!

Posted by chiefb2 on November 18, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

“Ditch The Kit”.  For years, disaster prepper companies have hawked kits designed to help you “prepare” to survive for three days or more after a disaster.  For the past twenty years, I’ve looked on in amusement at the ads selling peace of mind in a bag.  The recent fallout from Superstorm Sandy, along with the announced demise of the Twinkies,  got my bloggin’ juices flowing, especially as it relates to disaster preparation and response efforts. The notion of disaster prep “in a bag” needs to go the route of the old civil defense preparedness mantra “Duck and Cover”.

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, we have our share of weather events; floods, high winds and winter storms on an annual basis…and oh yeah, the rare earthquake or volcanic eruption.  Now, I’ve lived up here for over 40 years, and as an emergency response professional was responsible for trying to mitigate big weather events affecting my region and family. Along the way I’ve learned a few things that can’t be stuffed into a kit that goes in the trunk of your car;

  1. Forget about preparing for three days.  Accept that the larger the event-and the impact on critical infrastructure-the more likely you will be without basic public works services for a week or more.
  2. With that in mind, realistically assess  your physical situation, vulnerability and resources to be able to safely stay put during a pending storm and the aftermath.  Can you stay warm (or cool) for an extended period of time? Is reliably clean drinking water available? How do you plan on flushing your toilet? (Think about how many of those 8 oz. foil emergency water packs you would have to use to flush!). If you can’t, make arrangements to bug out and stay with out of area friends. Make sure you empty your refer/freezer before you go, or you’ll come back to a pretty stinky house.
  3. Folks will come out of the woodwork to help.  Altruism runs rampant early on during disasters. But, interest can quickly wain relative  to the location of the resources mobilized.  Remember, all emergencies(and politics) are local, and the immediate and sustained help will likely come from those closest to you, and often in ironic ways.
  4. Accept that if your power goes out, it may be a looooong time before you get it back.  As we become increasingly reliant on technology we must accept our vulnerability when the electrons stop flowing. If you own your own home, get a generator sized to run your furnace, refrigerator a few lights and a couple of outlets to charge your electronic devices. If you don’t have this option, find someone who does. Electricity is the lifeblood of crisis response, communications and community.  Losing these connections during an event can be a very lonely feeling, but is also an excellent opportunity to get to know your neighbors without relying on an avatar. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have been unable to convince my better half to let me buy one. But, I’m still workin’ it!)
  5. Don’t blame the power company.  We must accept that power grid is vulnerable to the forces of nature.  The bigger the storm, the greater the damage and the longer it will take to get things back up.  I have nothing but admiration for the line crews working in God awful conditions 24/7 to get the lights back on. It’s not just about replacing poles and stringing line.  There is no big “on off switch” for our nation’s power grid (unless you’ve seen the new TV show Revolution). Th power is always on and must constantly be balanced to keep the whole system from failing. Restoring power while maintaining this balance is a dangerous art form, and takes methodical and careful work to get the lights turned back on.
  6. Get some camping gear, and hit the trail.  Spending a few days outdoors with limited access to basic amenities is both enlightening and calming.  It tends to make you focus on meeting basic human needs, and makes you work for it.  The gear also comes in handy when things go haywire back home too.  Tent, sleeping bag, white gas stove, water filter pump, freeze dried foods, along with other things that make up the “ten essentials” of hiking are things that can help sustain you after a disaster.

Now, where does the pending demise of the Twinkie come in?  Well, I think this E-Card from my friend Marie T. Matson sums it up perfectly