Saturday, December 09, 2023
The holiday session has arrived, and it is a wonderful time to spend with family and friends. I hope each of have an incredible set of holidays in the coming weeks. You are all valuable assets and important to the company. More importantly, there are people that love you, need you and rely on you at home and who are expecting to have you walk through that door every day and come home to them safe and sound. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its report for work related fatalities in the United States. The numbers are sobering. In construction, in the United States, there were 974 fatalities. There are 240 workdays in a calendar year if you consider Mon- Fri a workday. There are 290 if you consider Mon- Sat workdays. Based on the six-day work schedule, there were over 3 deaths every workday. I want you pause and let that sink in for a moment……… Over three people died every single workday, just in the United States. All of these were your fellow construction workers, doing the same thing you are doing every day. Each of them went to work, buckled down and did their jobs. Took pride in their work, took pride in their ability to think outside of the box, get the work done and find solutions. All of them had stress, bills to pay, arguments with their wives, husbands, and kids, things breaking down at the worst possible time. They also had celebrations, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, sports wins. They fully expected, without giving it conscious thought, that they would be going home to those stresses and celebrations. They kissed their loved ones and told them they would see them later..........and never did. They left their loved ones alone, without them in their lives. They left them to fend for themselves. They broke the unspoken promise in those words.... see you later. They broke the promise to be smart, to take care of yourself, to follow safety procedures and rules, to focus on what you are doing and to make their family and friends more important to you than just getting the job done. .......................................Every one of those people that died in construction day was just like you..........pay attention, follow safety rules and requirements, watch out for each other, if you see something, say something, don't just get it done, get it done right........Don't be a person that breaks that promise you made to your family and friends......don't be next year’s statistic.......It is just not worth it.
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