Once Again the Day is Safe, and Boring

BATTLING INNER WARS By JanMell Dugenio

Driven with the zeal of a rampaging horde of rogue elephants, I prepared everything spick and span—from my packed lunch to my overly pressed hanky. Thanks to my “baon”, I had something to do for the whole day. It turned out that from 8 to 11:59 am, all I did was wait for lunchtime and from 1 to 5, all I did was digest it.

Hookay, I just love hyperboles. But my point here is that there is not much “action” that day, and by action, I meant something hands on, something that can prevent you from dozing off, or simply put, something I like to do. The supervisors (who are, by the way, all chemical engineers), were generally too busy to even turn an eye on us and I found myself reading a humungous book of PPPs, (duh, its not papalapit, papalapit, panget or what we call layogenic, magandapagmalayo) or procedures, policies, and protocols. Probably the only significant moment was the safety seminar refreshment course conducted once a week in every department. It was in the form of a small group discussion which reiterates the company’s advocacy—safety. In as much as I know, the company’s safety policies equal, if not exceed, the stringiest rules and tenets. I did not expect that the level of attention safety receives from the company is this much. As the speaker said, safety is not anymore above priority, but it is already a way of life. True enough, I learned a lot, of course with the motivation of snacks, of which I ate heartily.

Just as the Roman historian Tacitus once wrote, “the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise,” which explains the apparent direct relationship of production versus risks. The more the company demands production, the more risks there are- from near misses to first-aid injuries, medical injuries and possibly being crushed by a falling crate. (di kaya ng hard hat yan, which reminds me of Final Destination). To prevent such misfortune, the management always looks for effective ways to enforce and implement safety, and believe it or not, you can actually see safety officers hovering over the whole vicinity of the plant waiting to suck the souls out of disobedient workers. (ala-dementors?)

The safety seminar reiterates one of these ways which more or less seems to be progressive reprimanding, whenever an employee, or contractor violates safety regulations. Encouragement, instead of police force apprehension. As I see it, its about establishing rapport to propagate a certain conduct. How sweet. Something’s brewing in my mind. How about replacing the plant’s slogans, and instead of “Work Safely”, or, “Safety is more than a Priority”, with,

“Take care cause I care”. Or,

“Work safely, we love you.”

In bold, intimidating letters.

I think the company needs me.

[04.19.10]