The Lazy SupervisorDefinition of lazy: unwilling to work or use energy- characterized by lack of effort or activity.How is this in terms of safety responsibilities?

An “easier way” to walk the dog. But from whose point of view? The driver or the

dog?

I would feel better if Bill would have added “safely successful” in front of the easy way. Of course, I imagine, but I am not sure, that you do not use heavy or dangerous equipment in the software business.

Safely and Successful,

Some examples of lazy attitudes of supervisors:

• The “I do not have the time to do this” supervisor

• That is not my job! supervisor

• The “ the man is just too slow” supervisor• • The “They just do not get it. I have given them the training but they are not using it”

supervisor

• The “I had to learn it the hard way and they want things easy.” supervisor

• The “that dude will never make it” supervisor

• The “ this isn't rocket science” supervisor

• The “ I have had it! We need to get rid of this guy now” supervisor

• The “ I told Joe to help the new person out. I will have to ask him why training is not getting done” supervisor

What are these supervisors really telling us? Why the attitude of “I just do not want to do it”?• The “I do not have the time to do this” supervisor. This supervisor may be fighting too many fires, taking on too

many tasks, and is probably is not organized Or, they simply do not believe what he or she does will make a difference. They are diligent in safety methods but get frustrated when injuries occur. Perhaps they do not believe that the safety methods actually work which are currently being used. But, yes, he or she could be lazy.

• The “That is not my job!” Supervisor This supervisor has become his own boss. He has determined what

he is comfortable with and wants no one to upset the apple cart. He or she wants no responsibility for the project. Or, they could be correct in their thinking. Perhaps they are beyond the task due to other responsibilities. To do it would create a void or hardship in other areas. Or, he or she could just be lazy.

What are these supervisors really telling us?• The “ the employee is just too slow or, trying to go too fast” supervisor This supervisor is speaking in general terms. The supervisor is not defining in

what specific area the employee is not performing at the satisfactory level and why. In addition, imagine a performance review in which the employee is told just to speed up. Speed up what? Sometimes, when unsafe actions are seen, they advise the employee to slow down. Will slowing down prevent injuries?

• The “They just do not get it. I have given them the training but they are not using it” supervisor

This supervisor may be telling us that the training utility is not working or is not being delivered properly. The specific job methods may not be outlined and reviewed with the employee. There could be and probably is, lack of follow up with the training including enforcement. It could also indicate the environment in which the employee is receiving training is not conducive to learning. Distractions include environments containing noisy surroundings, too many people and dialogue, uncomfortable seating, and work requirements which put the supervisor under pressure to get the training done so employees can get back to work. We all have deadlines you know. Or, the supervisor may be lazy

What are these supervisors really telling us?• The “I had to learn it the hard way and my employees expect things

to be easy.” supervisor This supervisor without knowing has just told on himself. We do not

want training to be hard. Period. We strive to improve our methods regularly. Employees do not have to experience pain to learn a job.

• The “that dude will never make it” supervisor Again, this supervisor is speaking in general terms. He or she is not

giving specifics of the performance miss. If you cannot describe the miss, you cannot prescribe a fix. Perhaps the supervisor is correct and the employee will never make it. Or perhaps they are just lazy and do not want to spend the time in training.

• The “ this isn't rocket science” supervisor Because of this supervisor’s experience, he or she has determined

that the job is simple. In reality, very few jobs if any are simple if they are jobs which require compensation.

What are these supervisors really telling us? (cont)

• The “ I have had it! We need to get rid of this guy now” supervisor This supervisor might be taking things too personal. That is not

always a bad thing. Ownership of problems is normally what we like to see. However, emotions such as these cause problems with terminations. If all avenues of training were followed and enforced and the problem still exist, the employee needs to go. Take the emotions out of the equation before preceding. However, if the supervisor is just irritated and reacting because the employee is not performing properly, without prior training, he or she could just be lazy.

• The “ I told Joe to help the new person out. I will have to ask him why training is not getting done” supervisor

This supervisor is the master of delegation. The “I am too important for this kind of task” kind of supervisor who perhaps has forgotten that delegation is a “hand across” rather than a “hand down”. The responsibility still exist for all involved. Or he or she could just be lazy.

Everyone wants an easier way to accomplish difficult tasks. We preach to the employees not to cut corners in working safely. However, do we as managers and supervisors, cut corners with employee training? Are we lazy in some respects?

Lazy is usually not the correct word.

• Lazy attitudes could possibly be redefined as “a failure to act”.

• This could be a symptom of other difficulties.• Must be addressed to be successful

• For most of this presentation, we are speaking of supervisors in small and possibly to even large businesses. They supervise productivity, disciplinary actions, safety, issue reports, and interview prospective hires. They work long hours. They become the worker when someone is absent. They think they wear several hats. They cannot be lazy if they do all of this.

We must convince them that there is only one hat they wear. And we, as managers, are determined to make sure it fits properly. Safety and productivity is the same hat.

Possible methods

• We should assign the supervisor’s duties in a way that he or she can fulfill them. The design may not be perfect, but believable and enforceable.

Believable• One of the more difficult task in safety involves the approach to

risk. There are two huge hurdles that get in the way.• First: Too many people do not believe accidents will happen to

them. • Second: Too many people in management of the risk do not

always firmly believe that the steps they are taking will actually prevent injuries. After all, there is no cure for just a “mistake”. Or how do you expect an employee who works with raw steel everyday that they should never suffer a cut- forever?

For example: A supervisor performs his safety duties flawlessly and an employee has an accident. Another supervisor does little if anything and has no accidents. How do you explain that? (Actually, some of it can be explained to some degree but not all of it other than it was just an error.)

Believable

• As we will never be able to scare our employees in to safe behavior, the best we can do is have them believe that it is their job to administer the safety program in a way that has been designed for them. The "lazy supervisor” therefore should at least believe that he or she is doing what is expected, and done in a positive way. We should also give them the history and knowledge of how positive safety measures do work, along with what happens with the absence of them.

Enforceable

• It is difficult to almost impossible to enforce responsibilities that are too vague, untimely, or just unknown to the supervisor until a time of crisis. What ever design we have should be enforceable without a lot of muddy water residue.

• Hire properly. If we do not hire properly, there will be a lot of enforcement and not the positive type. Here, we are talking about supervisors and employees. Bad hires can make even excellent supervisors appear lazy or incompetent.

Ending thoughts

• Not all supervisors and managers should be thought of as lazy if results are not attained. Other issues may be present and must be addressed.

• Some are, in fact, just lazy. If they continue in their jobs, the boss may be lazy.