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Nail guns are our friends?

By Scott Rodgers

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 25Aug2009
Word count: 525
Viewed: 76 time(s)

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You know, sometimes the stuff your mom tells you is just plain true. In this case, I always go back to "a nail gun is not a toy". You'd think this would be basic, but the amount of times I've repeated it is an amazing number.

I'm really not kidding. You turn your back for a second, and some of these people will be yukking it up with sensitive hydraulic power tools that are as dangerous as some murder weapons. Just like at a public pool, a roofing crew needs signs in big letters, with rules like "NO HORSEPLAY" stencil on them. Unfortunately, you don't tend to bring this type of stuff to the job site, and so any roofing, the signs are verbal.

Periodically, I like to shout out safety information from wherever I happen to be working. At other times, I go around and monitor the crew. I look for people who are getting bored with the work. Boredom is not the roofer's friend. It encourages people to mess around with tools, dance around the roof, and otherwise invite compromised health and safety.

Sure, I provide injury free incentives just like any other business, but sometimes it's not a question of incentivizing safety, it's just that people aren't thinking about what they're doing. That's when they need those verbal shout outs to keep them in the right frame of mind.

The number of times that I have driven one of these guys to the hospital with an impromptu piercing is flat-out ridiculous. It also drives up my insurance costs in ways that I can scarcely afford. That's another reason why it's good business policy to keep putting the safety warnings out there, even at the cost of repeating yourself. I admit out loud that I'm repeating myself - but I continue to stress the reasons for that repetition, because what I do is based on experience. A lot of it.

Another way to look at it is that everybody needs someone who is engaged in their work. You can think of it like a buddy system, or like the surveillance at a prison (which is sometimes what it feels like). But in the end, safety is all about working as a team, working together and staying in the right frame of mind, working smarter and identifying challenges, and generally being on top of your game.

Some people are always at the top of their game, and some seem like they're never going to get it. Identifying workers who need the most help is another part of this equation. A good manager can be that, and find different ways to motivate these people. It's not an easy journey keeping an entire crew of people from injuring themselves, but with experience and patience, it gets a little easier.

Anyway, safety training is an important part of any business that deals in this kind of work. Whether it goes on in the office or out in the field, build a lot of safety training into your routine to help the most vulnerable employees understand what they need to know about the tools they are using.

Scott Rodgers is a real professional roofer with a lot to say about on the job safety. For more, take a look at http://www.eLocalRoofers.com

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