A handful of issues always seem to factor into utility knife incidents. Using dull blades is one, and so is cutting towards the body instead of away from it. Ditto with using excessive force to cut, which can lead to employees inadvertently slicing or stabbing themselves. And that’s not to mention that cutting with too much pressure can also lead to damage of material or equipment.

Another factor is improperly storing a knife by leaving the blade exposed. So is a failure to wear safety gloves and other personal protective equipment. And while we’re at it, let’s also add a few human factors to the list. Distraction is often a factor—a worker who momentarily takes their eyes off a task is more likely to use excessive force in cutting or unintentionally change the direction of a cut. Being in a rush can also be a problem when using a knife. Same with fatigue.

If you ask any safety manager who supervises workers using utility knives, they’ll tell you that they’re well acquainted with most, if not all, of the issues mentioned above. But there’s one major contributing factor that you might not hear about, because it often flies under the radar with utility knife incidents. Complacency is a hidden human factor that can play a huge role in knife-related injuries in the workplace.

Dull awareness sharpens risk

Complacency is the phenomenon where a task becomes comfortable through repetition. Once complacency sets in, people can go on autopilot when they complete an overfamiliar task, and that causes their mind to drift or zone out when focus is required to maintain safety. Symptoms of complacency include reduced vigilance, lowered risk awareness, overconfidence and the heightened risk of making mistakes.

This makes complacency a serious concern when it comes to utility knives. Knives are a frequent-use tool, meaning that many workers pick them up and put them down countless times a day. The frequent use of utility knives causes complacency to build up, and once complacency becomes entrenched, every time a knife is used, there is an increased risk of injury.

The bad news is that there’s no simple solution to complacency, even for seemingly minor tasks like using a box cutter or other knife. Some knife-safety issues have basic solutions—a dull blade can be changed out for a new one, and hand safety strategies can be implemented to improve PPE use—but there’s no straightforward method to make complacency disappear. After all, it’s a natural brain process.

Resheathing blade complacency

Fortunately, as pointed out in the guide Fighting Familiarity: Overcoming Complacency in the Workplace, there are several ways that safety professionals can mitigate the effects of complacency:

• Awareness training is a great strategy, helping workers to better understand how complacency functions and why it’s important to deal with it.
• Habit-building can take that knowledge and put it into practice by giving workers a safer baseline for when they fall under the spell of complacency.
• Teaching supervisors to be more proactive with complacency and other EHS issues can help provide an additional safety net for when this human factor strikes a member of their team.

All of those anti-complacency measures can help with other utility knife safety problems as well. A safety-conscious supervisor will be more likely to notice a worker isn’t wearing safety gloves and will also have the communication skills to positively intervene and correct the issue. Stronger habits can contribute to better PPE compliance and can also reduce the frequency of putting down knives when the blade is exposed. Meanwhile, comprehensive human factors training can combat distraction, rushing and a host of other mental and physical states along with complacency.

The initial step, though, is for safety managers to recognize the hidden role that complacency plays in utility knife injuries. Because what might seem like a basic problem with knife blades or a lack of gloves could be compounded by this stealthy human factor. Complacency can turn a near-miss with a knife into a small cut. Or it can turn a small cut into a serious laceration. And in order for safety folks to do something about all these utility knife safety problems, they need to first recognize just how much of it is caused or made worse by complacency.