Blog Interesting topic: The 'economics of safety' from a workers perspective- can I afford to say it's not safe?  This is a situation that has been seen many times- a worker is at a company that has a poor HSE culture, possibly driven by management attitude/ production focus/ supervisor ego/ set goals to achieve/ wanting to avoid conflict. When this poor culture is in place, staff will be rightly concerned for their job- if they put their hand up and say this is not safe/ not healthy then they risk being in conflict with those in power. This has been seen many times where the person that makes a stand on HSE is seen as being in conflict with management/ the power base or the way things are done. This often results in the flag raiser losing their job by having a made up 'performance issue' levelled against them OR they are the first to be dismissed from their job when time to reduce staff numbers comes up; it's just a matter of time. Their only 'crime' was to make a call on an HSE matter which had the effect of going against the grain and possibly costing time/ money. Now consider the worker- the worker likely has numerous bills to pay/ family to feed etc, which need money coming in to enable this to be maintained; this carries substantial pressure on the individual- a lot depends on the income. When the worker is faced with a decision to either make a stand for an HSE issue and put his job/ income at risk OR to be quiet, not raise a flag and turn a blind eye as it is going to better financially what do you think they will choose? Most will take the easy option and stay quiet as it makes life easier, some will make the stand as they are not in a situation where the financial aspect is a priority- they don't have big loans hanging over their head and can afford to find another job if it all goes badly. Integrity is affordable by some, others can't afford to have integrity. This is what can be seen as the 'economics of safety'- can you afford to make a stand? Hopefully your company has a positive culture and this situation is not an issue, unfortunately many companies do have priorities that don't consider HSE. *Interesting term to look up- Deindividuation Interesting topic: What is safety culture? If you are interested in this simply look up 'safety culture' online; discuss it with your safety member/ team- you may find it interesting what people think safety culture is. Then look at your business- what is your culture, a survey helps in this regard.