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BUSINESSES THAT RELY ON REPETITIVE TASKS face a workplace disrupter: complacency. The adverse effects of complacency in the workplace have been an ongoing source of concern in the OSH community. This all-too-prevalent workplace condition often results in incidents as well as decreased efficiency and attendant costs.
What is not agreed upon is the reason for this problem. In the author's experience, she has noticed that while OSH professionals are concerned about complacency, there is no agreement as to its definition; professionals use the term in different ways to refer to different kinds of events.
Merriam-Webster offers the following definition of complacency: "self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies." This definition is so connected to safety that it is accompanied by the following example sentence: "When it comes to safety, complacency can be dangerous." However, this definition does not offer the OSH professional much help in clearly identifying what complacency is and when it is a risk factor.
This article aims to explore a previously undiscussed component to complacency: basic brain design. Given how the human brain has evolved to operate, complacency is an unavoidable risk factor that can be managed but not eliminated. With this scientifically based understanding of complacency, OSH professionals can more effectively prevent complacency from posing a risk to employees' safety. The article will offer six principles to guide OSH efforts. Strategies and examples illustrate how each principle can be applied to real-world safety scenarios.
Complacency Poses an Urgent Problem
In April 2020, the author sent out a national quantitative online survey directly to more than 500 safety professionals and posted it on the ASSP Community forum (see "Survey Questions" sidebar on p. 32). A random opt-in sam- ple of 132 safety professionals in more than eight business sectors completed the survey (Table 1). The author then interviewed 21 safety professionals. In these interviews, the OSH professionals shared more in-depth insights into their experiences with complacency and how they are tackling this problem in their own organizations.
Safety professionals report complacency as a widespread problem that plays a role in 67% of safety incidents (including close calls, near misses, and incidents of bodily injury, equipment, site or environmental damage). In the post-survey interview, one OSH professional with 20...