Safety First

There's no shortage of articles and empirical evidence to support the obvious claim that a safe workplace environment is essential to employee morale and productivity. Basic common sense dictates that employers have both a legal and moral responsibility to do so. It's also generally understood that safety starts with upper management. The question we want to discuss is, where do YOU fit into the safety equation? This blog is about YOUR role in promoting and thriving in a safe workplace environment.

To keep things simple, let's look at it from three perspectives:

Be compassionate to yourself
Role model safety
Understand that stress doesn't equate to a lack of safety

Be compassionate to yourself:

Does your mind race with negative thoughts sometimes, an inner critic telling you you're not good enough and need to step it up to levels you don't even understand? We're guessing yes! As human beings, we're hardwired to be negative - it's just the way we're born and socialized. But you have the power to keep these critical thoughts at bay - it resides within each of us the ability to be kinder to ourselves (and to each other by the way). Lean into self compassion as a lifelong pursuit.

Role model safety:

How do others feel around you? Would they all say they feel 10/10 safe in your presence? These aren't questions to literally ask people (unless maybe you're close to them). More than anything, they're food for thought questions that you can ask yourself, reflect, and perhaps even make small changes to increase the "safe vibe" you give off. For example, practicing higher levels of patience with people may change your demeanour and facial expressions, making others feel a higher comfort level. And while you're at it, be more patient with yourself too!

An even more proactive way to role model safety is to promote community. Sadly, Harvard Business Review recently reported that 65% of people don’t feel any sense of community at work. This adds to the isolation and loneliness many feel. It doesn’t need to be this way! There are small things, kind gestures we can all lean into. For example, let's say you're going to grab a coffee - how about asking those around you if you can get them anything from the kitchen (or wherever you're getting the coffee). Of course your kind gesture can't put you out of pocket too much money, but can you figure out a way to offer something to others that would heighten the sense of community? We encourage you to be creative with this one.

If we all start promoting community in the workplace, the benefits are impressive and include:

Employee well-being
Employee engagement
Reduced burnout
Employee retention

These outcomes are great for everybody. So let’s all do what we can to boost community!

Understand that stress doesn't equate to a lack of safety:

Let's face it, you've felt stress at home, at school, at... well just about anywhere you've spent significant time and energy moving forward with your life. The workplace is no different. In fact, work often merits even more stress than other parts of life because you're receiving something in return. And while we can agree that your compensation may not be as high as it should be (which can itself be stressful), hopefully you can understand that from a business standpoint, your place of employment requires a return on the investment they've make in you every day. We need to expect and be prepared to manage stress at work. In fact, some stress (like making a big presentation to senior management) can be beneficial to us!

Can there be too much stress at work? Heck ya! And companies that create undue, excessive stress need to clean up their act. But hopefully you'll consider this and be more willing to tolerate some of the stresses at work as just a part of life. It may even reflect well on you with the higher-ups.

We hope now you have a better grasp on how you can influence the workplace safety equation. You play a role in promoting and thriving in a safe workplace environment - we encourage you to keep this in mind as you navigate your career.

References

How A Strong Sense of Community Makes Companies Thrive. #HR Trends and Insights, November 01, 2023 (Blog).

Porath, C. and C. Sublett, Rekindling a Sense of Community at Work. Harvard Business Review, August 26, 2022