How Deviance Becomes the Norm: Breaking the Cycle of Unsafe Practices
by William T. Paletski PE CSP CWCA
Senior Environmental, Health & Safety Consultant
Keystone (formerly East Coast Risk Management)
Lehigh Valley, PA
Workplace safety culture is how “things” are done around the facility. What I mean is that for tasks across the establishment, there is a way employees perform their work. This “way” is based on many characteristics of an individual. It is learned (or I should say shaped) through past experiences and from past results. This becomes a real issue when workers perform tasks unsafely and no negative consequences occur. As unsafe acts continue day after day, month after month, and year after year, without employee injury or property damage, this result becomes embedded in the mind of the individual performing the task. Employees know it is against the policy of the company and they may even know it is an OSHA safety violation, but they continue to deviate from the correct and safe way of performing the task. For example, many workers continue to perform servicing or maintenance on machines without locking/tagging it out. Why? Answer—in most cases, the work gets completed without an injury or property damage AND supervisors allow it to happen. Lucky!
Normalization of deviance occurs when people within an organization become so desensitized to the deviant practice that it no longer feels wrong. This is a bad safety culture. This concept of allowing deviance (unsafe acts and unsafe conditions) stems from poor/no company policies and poor/no company supervision. One example of this is when guards are taken off machines like CNC machines, drill presses, bench saws and lathes and work is still being performed. Where is the supervision? Remember, a key OSHA concept to understand is that legally, supervisors are “agents of the employer,” and assume the responsibilities of the employer to the degree they are given authority. The company can be cited for a safety violation for lack of guarding because the employer knew about it and did nothing to abate the hazard. Identifying hazards is an important task for company management to accomplish. Supervisors should be accountable for initiating this task because they are on the front-line of production.
With this all being said, supervisors and top management can get help by having a Safety Committee and by using 3rd party experts in worker safety. The rules of workplace safety have evolved over the years and there are many nuances within the General Industry and Construction regulations. New topics such as heat stress and now workplace violence is making the news and being enacted in State-run programs and Federal OSHA. In fact Heat Stress regulations are in the proposal stage at the Federal level – with expectations of a final stage in 2025. Even workplace violence protections are being considered at the Federal level since several States now have some sort of safety rule in effect (CA, NY, MN, NJ, WA, MD, CT, IL).
Eliminate normalizing deviance by taking action against unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. Start and maintain a consistent Safety Committee. Investigate injuries. Enforce safety rules. Discipline for egregious unsafe conduct. Educate top management and supervisors on workplace safety and their role in minimizing risk. Do this, and you are on your way to a better, safer working environment.
About the author
William T. Paletski PE, CSP
Senior Environmental, Health & Safety Consultant
Keystone (formerly East Coast Risk Management)
Lehigh Valley, PA
We are honored to have “Bill” lead our Workplace Safety Forum. With an EHS career that began in 1985, Bill brings decades of experience in manufacturing and construction safety. His impressive credentials include Professional Engineer (PE); Certified Safety Professional (CSP); Certified Workers’ Compensation Advisor (CWCA) and OSHA Outreach Instructor for General Industry & Construction. Bill’s expertise also extends to data analysis and thermography, making him a well-rounded authority in environmental health and safety.
To join the MRC Workplace Safety Forum, please contact Diane Lewis at (610) 628-4578 or diane.lewis@mrcpa.org ,