Originally posted on May 15, 2021 @ 9:39 AM
Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright in Safety
One of Dylan’s greatest songs is about the power of indifference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Y3KfJs6T0 ), not just to love but to people in general. There’s nothing quite like the masquerade of care when in reality you don’t give a s&*t.
The clip that captures the movement of people through life with the track overlay of Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright really speaks to me about the tokenism played to safety when we know that lives are expendable in the crusade to get the job done.
I got a phone call from a friend today on a building site where he experienced a near death incident. The managing contractor is a well-known Tier 1 builder that spruiks all the ‘safety first’ spin to mask the real agenda, make money, pump the job, get the job done and screw down the subbies.
Unfortunately, nothing changes because the industry hasn’t much a clue about culture so they don’t even know what to do. Many don’t. If your looking for guidance on culture in the AIHS BoK, good luck. Tweaking the edge of behaviours with a few slogans is not culture change. Shifting vigilance to systems and paperwork actually makes culture worse. This is why nothing changes in Building and Construction and neoliberalism rules the waves.
Dylan knew all about disappointment and the pain of nihilism.
· ‘There ain’t no use to sit and wonder why babe, if you don’t know by now’ captures beautifully the indifference of an industry to care and helping workers who are viewed as fodder for financial outcome. There is no ethic of care or helping in the AIHS BoK (how convenient).
· ‘There ain’t no use to sit and wonder why babe, it’ll never do somehow’. Tells us that all the talk and spin doesn’t make up for the reality that the contractor simply doesn’t give a s*^t, its dollars, dollars dollars with a fake slogan tacked on the end – zero harm!
· ‘When the rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window and I’ll be gone’ yes, another fatality in the industry accepted as normal and normalised through cultural indifference.
· ‘You’re the reason I’m travellin’ on, Don’t think twice it’s alright’ tells us why so many leave the industry and why bashing your head against a brick wall is soul destroying.
In my friends near death experience I can bet the generic SWMS was completed. I could bet there was a toolbox lecture that morning. I bet the CEO of the company spruiks ‘safety first’ every day and that managers lecture workers about ‘safety first’. But when the job is behind and money is the be made, ‘don’t think twice it’s alright’.
Maybe that’s that’s call that comes from the police to tell you that your loved one is dead?