It’s inevitable. If you are a safety-conscious worker, you will at some point in your career be faced with the task of presenting a safety concern to your employer. If you’ve been given this responsibility, or if your company is truly supportive of safety efforts, then it’s easy. However, not everybody is lucky enough to be in those situations. Some employers are dismissive of safety concerns at best, and hostile toward those who bring them up at worst. So, what’s the best way to bring safety issues to your employer’s attention?
The answer will, of course, depend on the nature of the hazard you are reporting. If it’s not an immediate danger, you have flexibility in how you approach your boss. However, if the safety issue is an immediate danger and somebody’s life or well-being is on the line, then you need to act accordingly. In that situation, the best thing to do would be to try to get the employee exposed to the hazard out of the situation first. Deal with the consequences once they are safe but waiting to get a supervisor if they are not immediately available could be the difference between life and death. Yes, this could initially have a negative impact on your job (we’ll discuss employer retaliation in a bit), but you need to ask yourself if you want to live with the death of a co-worker on your conscience. If your employer is not supportive of safety efforts, this situation will prove to be very complicated.
Let’s assume, though, that we’re not in an immediately life-threatening situation. In that case, consider these suggestions:
Nothing is going to upset your boss more than you going over their head. Your immediate supervisor should be the very first person you address safety concerns with, even if you have a company safety director. Give them the opportunity to fix the problem.