Welcome to Conver-Safety's first blog
One of the best things that can happen in a person's life is the ability to recognize when something clicks for them. It's the instant we see the light turned on in our brain. We begin to understand where the pieces of the puzzle go.
That's how it was for me when it came to safety. Working in a machine shop I thought, if I could just get the job done, I was doing fine. However, I noticed that I was experiencing minor hand incidents that caused me to think about how safe I really was.
My Story
My story began in 1989, when I was invited to become an alternate safety representative and attended my first plant safety meeting. My primary job responsibility was being a machinist at a power generation plant. Later that year, management asked me to become the lead safety representative in the shop. I accepted.
There was a lot to learn, for at that time we were dealing with a lot of safety and health issues in the department. Our safety record was terrible. One of the ways I believed I could help was to become a First Aid and CPR instructor in my shop. I wanted to establish a positive relationship with my co-workers and, guess what: It worked! When they realized I was not just a person they worked with every day, but a person who cared about their health and well-being, they began to be more open to what I had to say when it came to safety. The second thing I did was become a trained certified first responder in the shop. This enabled me to be the first person on the scene when any of my co-workers became sick or injured.
Ten years later, our department achieved one of its crowning moments. We received the President’s Award for 1-million-man hours without a loss-time accident. This accomplishment was about management, the safety committee and every worker pulling together – being on the same page when it came to safety. I was honored to serve on this committee for 27 years. In those years, I was chairman for four. Our OSHA recordable record was reduced significantly over the years because of a positive safety work culture by all.
Now retired after 34 years of service, I have experienced many of my co-workers have great victories, but also suffered great defeats. Even today being the owner of Conver-Safety Consulting, I still have that same passion about seeing working men and women return home to their families safely at the end of the day. I still believe that the knowledge and training I have received over the years is still helping me to write, My Story.