I Understand It, I Don’t Do It

Safety, I understand it, I don’t do it… Yes that’s really bad but I usually don’t take all the risks into consideration. Whether it’s going into a dirty tackle in soccer, not moving when I have a ball flying at my face, or while I’m doing regular things that seem simple like lifting heavy objects or using a ladder. So this unit was probably extremely important for me cause it was all about safety, well, safety in the workplace but that’s better than nothing.

Even better, I wasn’t here for all of the lessons we did on safety!! The one who gets injured the most would miss it, but hey, I was training with the Junior National Field Hockey Squad so I think that’s a valid excuse. How ironic would it have been if I’d gotte injured during that? Anyways, moving on.

To start things off with this unit I had to take a test. It asked questions about our jobs, how safe we feel working there, what sort of training did we receive etc. etc. I’ve only ever had one job and that was over the summer. I was working with little kids and training them at a soccer and field hockey summer camp in the NSGSC bubble.

After we did this quick test we watched a video about workplace hazards and real, life threatening situations that have happened in the workplace. Some of the scenes were pretty gruesome but made me realize how easily things can go sideways just by being confused about somehting and not asking. All the people that had accidents we doing something they weren’t sure of, not trained properly or were being overworked. Everything they were doing didn’t seem threatening in the moment but was later proven otherwise.

Now that we were aware of what could happen if we didn’t take proper precautions, it was time to know about our rights in the workplace. For this we had a little worksheet to fill out. One side of the sheet was multiple choice question and the other had spaces to fill with regulation numbers. Yes it may seem boring but it was actually really useful. Most employers don’t even bring up workers rights during orientation so it’s a very good thing to know and understand.

Next thing on the list, to learn about hazards and possible harmful situations that might occur in the workplace. Some were chemical diseases that we could pick up, some were as simple as lifting boxes incorrectly. As before this made me even more aware of how taking proper precautions can be life saving.

Since this is one of our planning units I thought I was going to get away with just the couple of worksheets and a watching a video, but nope, with PLP we also had to do a project. What a surprise. This one was totally fine though, it was simple, create a visual component to show your learning of this unit.

I went sort of based off of the “preventable, have a word with yourself” ads and created a simple advertisement to raise awareness about workplace injuries.

This whole unit made me do a lot of thinking and helped me understand the ways I can deal with my workplace safety. I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from this is we have our own rights as a worker. The biggest one for me is the right to refuse unsafe work. Whether we feel it’s not safe to do because of ourselves, being tired, sore or overworked, or because it is just not a smart thing to do, using a broken harness when climbing to heights or even simply lifting too many boxes at a time.