The best and safest construction companies are religious about naming and reducing safety hazards.  Every day they talk about traffic, pinch points, confined space, overhead dangers, electricity, etc.  How often do they name seniority as a potential hazard?

Probably never.  It is not on the list of hazards.  Yet it is, from my point of view, a root cause of injuries and even deaths, more often than you may realize.

One of the common communication problems in construction involves workers getting quiet at the wrong time. People are reluctant to speak up, especially if it means addressing someone with more seniority or rank.

In construction, similar to the military, there are strict hierarchical codes about how you communicate.  Some of these are formal and some informal.   “Always respect those with higher rank than you.”  “Never challenge authority.”  “If you have higher rank, you do not need to listen to lower ranked workers.”

There are dangerous moments every day, when speaking up is demanded by the circumstances. Every owner and safety leader I have I’ve met wants their field workers to speak up no matter what their rank.  In the best cultures lower ranked workers do find the courage to speak up, and accidents are avoided, but that is not yet the norm.

Speaking up is challenging for anyone anywhere.  It is especially challenging in the trades.  And currently we are just beginning to change this.

Unfortunately, sometimes the reluctance to speak up allows accidents and even deaths to happen. I know the details of several such incidents. One happened on a jobsite where there was a 30-foot-deep trench. The job had multiple challenges—heavy traffic, electrical considerations and schedule pressures. The leaders did a good job of pre-planning and making sure the risks were identified and hazards mitigated. There was a lot of good communication beforehand.

As they were finishing, they had several trench boxes to retrieve from the hole.  At the last possible moment, the superintendent decided if would save money if they went into the hole to retrieve the rigging by hand. Another worker went with him. At least ten workers were close enough to the situation that they could see what was happening. They all knew that what these two were doing was not according to plan and was a serious safety risk. No one spoke up.

Shortly after the men went down in the trench there was a catastrophic collapse of earth. The leader was able to escape. The other worker was buried in many tons of earth. Never again will he see his kids, his wife, his friends. Gone. Permanently.

When the workers who were at the site that day were interviewed, many said something like this: “I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I didn’t say anything.”  They did not speak up.  The one risk they did not identify and handle:  unchecked seniority.

If the lower-ranked worker suggested going down into the trench, against the plan, would the superintendent have spoken up and stopped him? Quite possibly. If either had gone down into the trench at a company where workers had the courage and training to speak up, I believe that person would not have died that day.

This work of mitigating the hazard of unchecked seniority is not rocket science.  It is people science.  Reach out today to someone who can help you.

www.EschConsulting.com

Red king and many gray pawn (fantastic background).