In support of a renewed emphasis on safety in the workplace, I shared a personal anecdote to my team that stresses the importance of speaking up when you see a potentially dangerous situation or behavior. I’ve shared that story here as well.
Given that safety is at the forefront and “see something, say something” is a behavior we want to encourage, I wanted to share a personal story to demonstrate an experience I had many years ago that really stuck with me.
When I was a child, my family spent a great deal of time participating in various outdoor activities – boating, fishing, camping, hunting, etc. So when I was old enough, I enrolled in a firearms hunting safety course, which was a legal requisite for obtaining a firearms hunting permit. The course consisted of reading a book and attending several classroom sessions held at a local sportsmen’s club, concluding with a written test.
As you can imagine, firearms safety is a critical aspect of handling firearms – not just while hunting, but at all times. During one particular classroom session, a number of various firearms were placed on a table at the front of the classroom, presumably to show us various types of firearms used for hunting. As the class began, one instructor started his lecture, while another instructor wandered around the table with the assorted collection of shotguns and hunting rifles. He’d occasionally pick one up, mess around with it, point it at various things around the room (though never aiming toward any people, mind you), but generally doing things you just should not be doing with firearms. I thought what he was doing was rather odd and probably a bad idea, but didn’t say anything (I was extremely shy back then – significantly more so than today, though I am actually still somewhat shy, believe it or not). I just watched as the man got more and more bold with his unsafe behavior. I never said anything. Let that sink in: I knew it was unsafe – potentially deadly – yet I never said anything.
About five minutes into the lecture, the instructor who was “playing” with the firearms picked up a shotgun, aimed it at something on the side wall (again, not in the direction of any people), and squeezed the trigger. If you’ve never heard a shotgun being fired inside a building – and I hope you never do – I can assure you, it gets your attention.
As soon as all of the students in the room re-composed themselves, the instructor who was giving the lecture asked whether any of the students had noticed the behavior of the other instructor (prior to the firearm discharge) and why none of the students had spoken up about it, since it was clearly unsafe. The instructor then spent some time cautioning us to not only be extremely aware of our own behaviors and how to safely handle guns, but also to speak up and say something if they see others behaving in an unsafe manner.
In case you were wondering, the shotgun was not loaded with live ammunition – it was just a “blank” (i.e., lots of noise, but no projectile). As you can imagine, this is an incident that I will never forget. And thankfully, it was a staged event where nobody was injured (or killed).
Just like I struggled with having the courage to speak up when I saw the instructor mis-handling the firearms, I would encourage all of you to speak up if you see unsafe behavior at your workplace – or anywhere else, for that matter.