In our most recent Safety Division newsletter here at Riverside County, we received an article discussing the importance of paying attention in the workplace. I thought this material may be of interest to you in your own work and life situations.
“You need to pay attention.” That’s a phrase that many safety professionals have used in discussions about accident prevention. The instruction seems easy enough to follow, but people can be easily distracted by noise, surrounding activities and personal issues. And, when attention wanes, safety and productivity can decline.
Some estimates are that six out of ten injuries occur because of inattentiveness, often just a flash, lasting less than a second. People rarely get hurt because they want to, or because they don’t care, or are clumsy. All too often, the inability to control attention and attitude can be an insidious contributing factor in many injuries.
Some contributing factors to inattention are:
Work repetition
This can lull people into a loss of attention. People are often on the move in their job, or at home, blindly operating on “automatic pilot”. This may be effective if the scene remains unchanged. However, the continuing process of perceiving and making needed adjustments is critical to injury prevention when there are changing conditions. Hand injuries are often associated with workers performing highly repetitive, often high-speed tasks where it’s easy for them to be lulled into complacency.
Multitasking
Multitasking for most Americans has become a way of life. Doing many things at once is the way we manage the growing demands on us as parent, coach, employee and executive. However researchers have found that multitasking is a formula for shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, stress and forgetfulness…..not to mention car crashes, kitchen fires, forgotten children, near misses and other dangers of inattention.
You may be able to eat lunch and read the newspaper at the same time, but it’s important to focus on a single task when operating a moving vehicle, taking the stairs, or even walking. One of the major factors contributing to slips, trips and falls is inattention due to multitasking (e.g, walking up the stairs while talking on a cell phone, tripping over a curb while texting a friend)
Job uncertainty, time pressures, increasing competition and heightened performance expectations raise stress levels.
During stressful situations, at work or at home, our attention span narrows. It is possible that employees who have to juggle competing job demands of production, quality and safety may feel pressured to “cut corners” to keep their production numbers up.
Other Distractions, in general.
California has banned the use of a hand-held phone while operating a motor vehicle, in most circumstances. However, what about driving with the dog on the lap, the children fighting in the car, the breakfast you’re trying to devour, the driving directions you’re trying to decipher and the radio channel you are trying to change? It is important to restrict your activities inside the vehicle. Keeping yourself focused on driving is critical for your safety.
Please remember, accidents often take a personal toll i.e., chronic pain or disability or even the death of a loved one. You can be extremely careful for years only to get hurt in two seconds of inattention, distraction or hurrying to get the job done.
Instruction, training and constant reminders can only go so far. It is ultimately up to each individual to plan, stay alert and PAY ATTENTION.”