Coping with Shiftwork

In the old days, accidents were simply treated as a cost of business.  After 1970, the government finally made safe working conditions a priority with the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Organization.  They set the standards for working conditions.  But it's our job as workers to stay alert and aware so we can get home at night (or morning) to our families safe, and in one piece.

The “Accidental” Worker

Inattention and fatigue are the principal causes of most industrial accidents according to statistics from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  Furthermore, accidents of inattention are doubled and tripled by workers employed in jobs where they work odd shifts. 

It may be possible to actually calculate the billions of dollars lost by companies as a result of accidents, and you can also calculate the costs to consumers as a result of the higher prices they pay due to increased insurance costs and legal penalties.

But the most important costs of accidents are the personal costs.  There is no way to adequately describe the horribly tragic results of losing a friend or loved one to a permanently disabling injury or death, especially in an industrial accident. 

Fortunately, I never experienced that devastation.  But I came close.

Don was an experienced lineman.  Although we didn’t work in the same unit, we were neighbors, and got together for outings and parties, and our wives were also good friends. 

Don was on a routine assignment on his regular day shift.  The job was to remove a bird’s nest from a huge 34,000 volt circuit breaker in an electrical substation.  Don had been called out the previous evening on a trouble assignment and didn’t get much sleep the night before. 

Don arrived at the station just as the operator was completing the safety procedure to prepare the work area.  This entailed disconnecting the equipment from all sources of energy.  Don then picked up his authorization to work and placed grounds on both sides of the breaker.  Safety tags were hung and everything was set up perfectly. 

But before starting the job, Don had a phone call.  When he returned, Don climbed up on the circuit breaker and made contact with one of the connections.  He was instantly blown off the equipment in a cloud of smoke, landing on his back ten feet below.  He had just contacted 34,000 volts!  What in the world had gone wrong?

Don had climbed up on the circuit breaker NEXT TO the one he was supposed to.  

Fortunately, Don sustained only sustained minor burns and bruises because he had been thrown clear.  If he had hung on to the conductor for any length of time, he would be dead.

From that day on, I lived in fear that someday one of my friends, or myself, would not be as lucky as Don was.

Shiftworkers suffer three times as many injuries as non-shiftworkers.  Don was not a shiftworker per se, but his previous call-out the night before left him slow and groggy that morning, and he wasn’t thinking clearly.

How many times during your shifts do you feel yourself in another world, a hazy, drowsy condition that you merely survive to the end of your workday?  Perhaps you aren’t employed in a field such as high voltage line maintenance.  It doesn’t matter.  A runaway forklift in a warehouse could kill you, or you could be behind the wheel and run off the road or head on into another vehicle.  You could be a nurse and forget to administer medication.  Or you could be a police officer and lose a split second to an armed suspect. 

This is one reason why I stress alertness on the job.  It isn’t so much about your employer’s bottom line.  It isn’t about higher prices at the pump or the checkout stand.  It’s about something much more important.

Stay alert, and stay alive.

Share your stories by contacting me, and maybe you can help others through this website!