Safety Tip of the Week – Cell Phone Safety

Cell phones can be a dangerous distraction in the workplace. Just like other workplace distractions such as horseplay and chattering with co-workers, cell phones can cause us to lose focus on the task at hand. When used inappropriately these devices can get employees in trouble at work as well as potentially cause serious injury.

Recognizing and responding to unsafe cell phone use:

• To avoid committing unsafe acts, we must make safety our top priority in every task we perform.

• We must adopt an attitude that our primary goal is doing every job as safely as possible. Maintaining this attitude will help us recognize situations where use of cell phones would not only interfere in our ability to perform our tasks without injury, but also hinder us from completing our jobs in a timely manner.

• We must be able to recognize and reject the excuses we often make for texting when we know it is unsafe and/or prohibited by policy.

• Finally, we must be willing to speak up when we see people putting themselves in harm’s way by texting while performing their job duties.

• It takes “two to text.” If you are on the receiving end of prohibited or unsafe texts being sent at work, don’t respond. Let senders know, in person, that texting at work is unsafe and inappropriate and that you will not participate.

• Similar to other safety issues, putting a stop to dangerous texting or other distracting phone use requires a corporate culture of speaking up and refusing to participate. When employees help to create this type of work environment, they create a safer workplace for everyone.

  Don’t tempt fate…that text can wait!!