Complacency can lead to diminished attention to safety, a reduced sensitivity to hazards, lower productivity levels, a decline in the quality of work and decreased employee engagement. The problem with complacency is that people often don’t recognize the state until it’s too late and an incident or a near miss has occurred.
It’s important to identify the signs of complacency in order to make a conscious effort to change the behavior that can increase the risk of injury. These lists of individual-level and organizational-level complacency can be used to identify complacency in yourself, your employees or your company.
Individual-level complacency
Allowing human factors to impede work.
As defined in SafeStart’s A Framework for Managing Human Factors white paper, human factors are the people elements of individual and system conditions that influence performance and reliability. A classic example of a human factor affecting individuals at work is fatigue. The effects of fatigue are similar to those of alcohol impairment—20 hours without sleep is the equivalent of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08% (the U.S. legal limit).
If it’s dangerous for someone to work or drive after drinking, then it’s just as dangerous for them to do it if they’re fatigued. But instead of considering the impacts of fatigue like they would alcohol, most people think they can push through and overcome fatigue in order to drive or get a job done. Complacency is a big factor in this because the person has likely been tired at work or driven tired more times than they can count and nothing bad has happened because of it, further supporting their belief that fatigue won’t impact their safety.
Mind not on task.
Mind not on task, which is an issue that can be found in any industry, is when a person’s mental focus detaches from the task at hand and they become consumed by other thoughts or distractions. For many people, this stems from habitual behavior and can result in low-quality work, decreased production and errors.
Consider the example of a worker who has fought with their significant other before coming to work. There was a lot of yelling back and forth, but the issue was not resolved before it was time for them to go to their job. Opening duties for the worker include checking the perimeter of the building to ensure that no one has broken in overnight and that there aren’t any suspicious people or vehicles around before entering the building.
The worker was still going over the fight with their partner in their mind, so they didn’t even notice the owner pull in and walk up behind them when they went to open the door. The fact that the worker jumped ten feet in the air told the owner that the perimeter check wasn’t done with full attention.
Complacency plays a part in the familiarity of this task, since it’s done daily and the outcome usually doesn’t change. The worker may not have even realized that they were being complacent or that their mind wasn’t on task if the owner hadn’t unexpectedly shown up.
Shortcuts.
Taking shortcuts can compromise the quality and successful completion of a project. A common shortcut seen on construction sites is poor housekeeping. Housekeeping on a jobsite should be a continuous process, cleaning as you go to prevent materials or debris from being left as hazards like: slip, trip and fall hazards, blocked walkways or fire exits, reduced visibility, or potential for injuries. Complacency will lead workers to believe that this shortcut is a task that can be done later and to continue doing their work.
Disregard for PPE and safety gear.
Forgoing PPE or ignoring safety gear is something that is observed on almost every jobsite that requires PPE. There are a myriad of excuses when questioned on why PPE wasn’t worn, like I just needed to do this one task real quick, or nothing bad is going to happen. Complacency is represented by the excuses that overlook the risk. A worker not wearing their hearing protection while running a skill saw all day may not feel immediate consequences, but it’s a complacency-influenced decision that will catch up to them.
Multitasking.
Multitasking is a myth and anyone who thinks they can do multiple tasks well simultaneously has fallen victim to complacency. A workplace example of an individual multitasking is an employee constantly checking their phone while they’re working. Whether it’s text messages, emails, social media or other apps, the phone is taking their attention away from the job task they are meant to be performing. Complacency can lull people into a false sense of security and if the hazards associated with checking their cellphones in the workplace were downplayed, it also likely created a bad habit. People expect to be distracted by their cellphones so much that they start hearing or feeling phantom phone calls or phantom vibrations, with research finding that “anticipating a phone call or anxiety over not hearing your phone and missing the call are major causes of phantom ringing and are often experienced when running loud machinery and driving.”
Completing tasks on autopilot.
Performing the same tasks regularly will cause them to be performed as a habit and increase the chance of slipping into autopilot (performing tasks without much thought). Let’s go back to our driving example of someone who uses a forklift. If they’re just going through the same motions, driving the same path and not anticipating pedestrians because they don’t regularly see them, it could result in injuries or worse. Repetitive tasks allow a person to become so skilled that they don’t require much thought to perform them, but the complacency of the situation means they’re not giving any thought to the dangers of the task either.
An increase in conscious risky behavior, skipping safety checks and near misses.
A construction worker is more comfortable using his own circular saw on the jobsite. Years ago, he removed the guard that prevents the blade from being exposed during operation in order to see the blade and make more precise cuts. One day on a jobsite, the saw unexpectedly kicks back and, luckily, the carpenter is able to pull back his hand in time, avoiding a very serious cut. Complacency shades the chance of injury, creating the illusion that the task is less risky.
Overconfident in their abilities.
This is where the famous line “I’ve been doing it this way for 25 years and nothing bad has ever happened, I’m not going to change now” comes in. When a worker becomes overconfident in their abilities, it may overshadow new or existing job hazards. There’s a casual lack of concern. This leads to workers disregarding safety protocols and failing to recognize dangerous situations. Employees may underestimate risks in familiar tasks or fail to notice changes in their environment. Inexperience can also show itself as a form of complacency. An innate need to mask inexperience can obscure the risk involved in new tasks, creating an overconfidence in abilities.
Organizational-level complacency
The safety program is treated as a remedy instead of an ongoing process.
Companies that have a one-and-done mentality have become complacent about the risks in their industry. This overconfidence in their compliance opens up the company to feel safe because they’ve checked the box instead of establishing a process to continuously look for risks. Companies often provide training when employees first start with the company, but not following up or having a continuous improvement plan will hurt their safety record (and their employees). Another level of organizational complacency is when companies only check the box for regulatory compliance instead of finding training solutions for other hazards/concerns.
Outdated training materials.
When a company has outdated training materials, it creates a gap in safety awareness and knowledge. This is a conscious risk that companies take. Not only are the employees at risk, but the organizations have increased their liability should an incident occur. Companies should strive for continuous improvement, which would negate the complacency of thinking outdated training materials were “good enough” when the reality is they may not cover hazards specific to the organization.
Missing routine equipment maintenance.
Sometimes companies will push back maintenance schedules in order to move production forward or save money. Because there are no mechanical breakdowns, it’s easy to become complacent and think that maintenance isn’t required. The risks of not doing routine maintenance become less obvious and companies may switch to a reactive plan as opposed to a proactive plan.
JSA/JHA is not performed regularly.
A surefire sign that organizations have become complacent is when safety audits are not conducted prior to employees attending a job. A belief in past success and time constraints can be two major reasons that organizations think conducting an assessment before every job is not necessary. This runs the risk that hazards will not be addressed or mitigated, leaving the company open to incidents.
Failure to communicate hazards.
In companies that have been operating for years, there’s an assumption that informal communication is happening naturally between all levels. But without formal communication or training sign-offs, it’s hard to know what information workers are getting. Regular toolbox talks are a great way to control the safety message that workers are receiving and ensure that they understand the risks.
Normalization of small deviations.
Synonymous with complacency, overlooking small deviations can become a real problem for organizations when the nonstandard practice becomes a standard practice within an organization. This includes when safety hazards are overlooked or feedback is ignored. A common example of this is when employees are observed not wearing PPE on jobsites but nothing is said or done about it. This small deviation becomes part of the culture and new employees may be told, “The sign says to wear eyeglasses, but no one ever does around here.” In companies that have few incidents, an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality can creep in. Employees may try to be proactive in their feedback, but if the organization does not address it, that can cause workers to become disengaged and the climate can suffer.
Investigations were not conducted properly.
When complacency sets in, near-misses can be viewed as a free pass instead of an opportunity to prevent similar incidents with potentially worse outcomes in the future. These close calls should be reviewed by the company to determine if any safety measures could prevent them from happening. When companies normalize overlooking risk by not enforcing near-miss reporting, it can impact safety. A level of communication is required to let workers know that near-miss reporting is not a trap and that the worker will not be blamed for reporting.
Failure to follow established procedures or complete required safety drills.
A common outcome of low incident rates is companies thinking that they do not need to follow preventative measures. Fire drills are likely the most common procedure that companies overlook when they become complacent about the risk. They seem like common sense and they take time away from production. By not practicing the drill, if a real event occurs, the workers will not have the good habit they created by repeatedly performing the drill to help them navigate the panic that is present in a real fire.
There’s a reason that complacency is called the silent killer, but you don’t need to stay quiet. Knowing the signs of complacency at both an individual-level and organizational-level can go a long way in preventing the complacency that increases the risk of injury. Action these lists in your facility before it’s too late.
This blog post is an excerpt adapted from Fighting Familiarity: Overcoming Complacency in the Workplace. It defines complacency, discusses individual and organizational complacency, offers insights into its contributing factors, and provides a straightforward overview of what organizations can do about it. Download it to proactively reduce complacency in your workplace.