Safety When No One is Watching

When no one is watching or monitoring your behavior, what is your true character saying about your Integrity?  A true test of one’s character is what we do when no one else is looking. 

When there are no external rewards, recognition, judgement or gratitude for doing the right thing, is your own personal accountability and integrity strong?  Do you seek personal gratification in “Doing the Right Thing”? 

In the title of this blog post, “Safety When No One is Watching”, the word “Safety” can easily be replaced with some other words such as honesty, loyalty, truthfulness, responsible or hardworking. 

Common Personal Integrity Tests:

• We have all been in a retail store, looking through racks of clothes when an article of clothing falls on the floor.   When no one is looking, do you pick it up or do you walk away and pretend you didn’t notice?  This may sound trivial - but, it is a question of morals and ethics.

• When you get into your car, the first thing most of us probably do is buckle our seat belts, it’s engrained into our normalcy for the activity of driving and in fact it’s almost become automatic.  But, if you’re only going a short distance down the street in your own neighborhood, do you really have to buckle that seatbelt?  What could possibly happen from here to there?  Unfortunately, we all know that most accidents occur close to home.

Do you have the Personal Integrity to do the right thing consistently even though no one will give you a pat on the back for doing it?  This can lead into an entirely other blog post on why we seek validation from external sources 

instead of placing more value on our own personal satisfaction with always doing our best and doing the right thing - but we will leave that for another day, another post!

Simply stated, is it not enough of a motivator to know that your actions are focused on the greater good? 

Are you your own personal accountability coach?

Back to Safety…

Does your work culture instill the importance of “Safety When No One is Watching”?  Do they take that message home to their families at the end of the day?  Are they safer in their own actions because of the things they see us do & the things they hear us say? 
Sometimes, when you think no one is watching - they are, and it may only take that one time to undermine one’s perception of safe and unsafe.  Are we really getting away with something or are we just undermining our own personal integrity?   

Safety is a core value at Tradebe. 

We endeavor to lead by example.  Safety is integrated into all our lives the same way integrity, responsibility, honesty and loyalty are.   Consequently, many times it’s automatic and we don’t even think of it as having to do with Safety but we thrive and survive from keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe. 

Danny Messercola
Facility Health & Safety Manager

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Tradebe’s Health and Safety and Environmental Compliance Consultant teams are here to assist … Contact us now and let us put our expertise to work for you! 

The information contained in this Blog is not intended to be all-inclusive nor does it reflect direct federal, state, local or other governing body guidance.  At Tradebe, we are committed to the Safety of our team, our clients, partners and community.  Tradebe’s Blog is offered by our Health and Safety and Environmental Compliance experts only as a general guide relating to the topics covered and referenced.  For further information, please see the list of Resources.

​As always, like all general information offered on the web, Tradebe’s Blog does not replace the professional advice of Health and Safety and/or Environmental Compliance Consultants to review your facility’s specific requirements.