And so, another week comes to an end...
We worked on the Riskmaq assignments again, and luckily we are in the home stretch now. The fourth assignment, as anticipated, caused some frustration and it was pretty long as well! Because we didn’t have access to a functioning Health and Safety System, we couldn’t examine or review the documented measures that should be in place for a H&S Representative to function properly. Instead we interviewed Carel and Francois on Wednesday, and that was a situation...let me tell you. Anyway, after reviewing the questions that we asked, we eventually got what we needed and mostly finished the fourth assignment on Thursday.
In conjunction with the assignments, we also worked on the OHS System that we must develop and implement for IRCA. Unfortunately, none of us have ever been part of the implementation of such a system, and due to this we spent a whole lot of time throwing ideas around, debating the angle of approach, and basically trying to convince all the people around you that you had the right idea and it should be done in this way..... Honestly, I think we wasted time, BUT, I realised that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to re-invent the wheel!!!!! Together with this we were getting floating suggestions from people that were complicating our thoughts so much, that every time we started a conversation we started from scratch. It is imperative, that when you want someone to learn something by doing the work, the people who advise on the matters relating to the work must speak from the same voice! If two different people advise two different things to someone who doesn’t know much about the subject, it is CONFUSING!
But anyway, I made a few calls, spoke to some people, and within a day, I felt like we made more progress with this system, than we did in a month and a half! I mean, we’ve got all this people at our disposal, why not use them.(Might I add: Use them correctly.) I think everyone was so focused on doing it their way, and doing it themselves that no-one even thought of the idea of tapping the knowledge of people other than the mentors. I mean seriously, if we had started doing this whole system piece by piece – first a very general framework, then assessing what is already in place, then doing a new risk assessment and gap analysis, then moving on the ways to mitigate the identified risks, and then... – we would’ve been much further than what we are at this stage! I concede that “process” in blue is extremely simple, but I’ve heard so many times from different people that “Simple is good in Safety”, and “Don’t over complicate things!”
I’ve learnt a helluva lot, but it could have been done in a much shorter time, and in the long run that would make us competent in a shorter time, and in so doing IRCA would see return on investment much faster too! Don’t get me wrong, I value the experience and the learning immensely, I just feel it could have been done in a more effective way.
Now how was that for a clearing of the throat! I just hope I don’t sound negative! On the contrary, I would much rather be faced with challenges like these and have fun solving the problems, than working somewhere where you are yelled at, working under stressful conditions and worst of all not enjoying what you’re doing. I am having a ball here, and I know the other people are too. So all in all, it was a busy week, and we got stuck in thoroughly and that, with Wesley being away for two days. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but now it is time to enjoy the weekend. So in time old fashion,
Stay Classy Guys.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
25 March 09
This morning we got off to flyer....
I downloaded some material to assist in the development and implementation of the Health and Safety System here at IRCA Head Office. I did this while we were waiting to spend time with Carel and Francios so as to complete the fourth assignment of Riskmaq part 1.
We started with the "interview"/"conversation" and according to them our questions were not structured enough. We spoke for a while obout how to structure our questions, to get the most out of the interview, and for a good part of the rest of the day we spent our time on this.
We will conclude the interviews tomorrow, and hopefully we got it right this time round. Now, some research on the Health and Safety system and then hopefully we will be able to spend some more time on the System tomorrow.
Stay classy guys
I downloaded some material to assist in the development and implementation of the Health and Safety System here at IRCA Head Office. I did this while we were waiting to spend time with Carel and Francios so as to complete the fourth assignment of Riskmaq part 1.
We started with the "interview"/"conversation" and according to them our questions were not structured enough. We spoke for a while obout how to structure our questions, to get the most out of the interview, and for a good part of the rest of the day we spent our time on this.
We will conclude the interviews tomorrow, and hopefully we got it right this time round. Now, some research on the Health and Safety system and then hopefully we will be able to spend some more time on the System tomorrow.
Stay classy guys
Friday, March 20, 2009
20 March 09
This week was a little more relaxed, although still busy with some things. We did the RCAT course at the office, and Wim Nortier presented.
RCAT is seriously an amazing tool! If you search for the facts, keep objective and don’t let your assumptions lead your thinking, you can really add value to a company by identifying root causes and isolating the critical few. It is, however, not so easy to keep objective, and ignore assumptions, etc. It is a skill that one acquires over time and that was reaffirmed by Wim. I think it is going to be a good experience when we start gaining exposure to the practical use of the RCAT, and I am looking forward to that! All in all the course was good and fun to attend.
On Thursday and Friday we spent time on the Riskmaq assignments, conducting interviews and reading profusely to ensure that we do everything that is in fact asked of the trainee. It was a good thing, and it gave me the opportunity to just sit and work at it without worrying about anything else that has to be done. Sitting down, grafting and sharpening our skills so that we can make the transition to practice a little bit easier. All in all, the last week was a nice one and I enjoyed it! An important thing these days in one’s work!
We are playing Adventure golf/ Putt Putt this afternoon, and I would like to wish everyone well. Just remember the number 2 on my back..... Anyway, enough with all this competition, hava great weekend!
Stay classy guys....
RCAT is seriously an amazing tool! If you search for the facts, keep objective and don’t let your assumptions lead your thinking, you can really add value to a company by identifying root causes and isolating the critical few. It is, however, not so easy to keep objective, and ignore assumptions, etc. It is a skill that one acquires over time and that was reaffirmed by Wim. I think it is going to be a good experience when we start gaining exposure to the practical use of the RCAT, and I am looking forward to that! All in all the course was good and fun to attend.
On Thursday and Friday we spent time on the Riskmaq assignments, conducting interviews and reading profusely to ensure that we do everything that is in fact asked of the trainee. It was a good thing, and it gave me the opportunity to just sit and work at it without worrying about anything else that has to be done. Sitting down, grafting and sharpening our skills so that we can make the transition to practice a little bit easier. All in all, the last week was a nice one and I enjoyed it! An important thing these days in one’s work!
We are playing Adventure golf/ Putt Putt this afternoon, and I would like to wish everyone well. Just remember the number 2 on my back..... Anyway, enough with all this competition, hava great weekend!
Stay classy guys....
Friday, March 6, 2009
6 Mar 09
The Bulls whooped the Lion cubs, we’re still top of the log and this weekend it is the mermaids from Cape Town’s turn! Come and see how we Dutchmen play rugby Watson, and by the way, look out for the naartjies boet. Well, let’s forget about the trivial things for now...
This week we moved to another site where paving needs to be done. A smaller site, but still no respect for health and safety, on the contrary. Where we spent this week there wasn’t even an induction. The bright, never had this high vis bib do any work, walking around ignoring critical substandard acts – Safety officers were present here for about 15 minutes of the whole week. I can understand why people get so pi$$ed off with Safety, because it is still a finger pointing kind of thing. The way people approach Health and Safety makes their workers feel like it is a waste of time. I wonder what it would take for these people to start taking safety seriously. This is going to sound bad, but I wonder if someone died on site, and the company responsible was taken apart in court because of their uselessness and ignorance if they would start doing something. I am furious as I am writing this. I can’t believe these people. I hope I can start making a difference soon. I get extremely worked up when I think about this whole thing!
I spent more time in the sun this week because the site we are at doesn’t have these high buildings shielding the sun. As a result, I have this lekker tan to show for it! A little painful at first, but not so bad now.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Cheers.
Stay classy
This week we moved to another site where paving needs to be done. A smaller site, but still no respect for health and safety, on the contrary. Where we spent this week there wasn’t even an induction. The bright, never had this high vis bib do any work, walking around ignoring critical substandard acts – Safety officers were present here for about 15 minutes of the whole week. I can understand why people get so pi$$ed off with Safety, because it is still a finger pointing kind of thing. The way people approach Health and Safety makes their workers feel like it is a waste of time. I wonder what it would take for these people to start taking safety seriously. This is going to sound bad, but I wonder if someone died on site, and the company responsible was taken apart in court because of their uselessness and ignorance if they would start doing something. I am furious as I am writing this. I can’t believe these people. I hope I can start making a difference soon. I get extremely worked up when I think about this whole thing!
I spent more time in the sun this week because the site we are at doesn’t have these high buildings shielding the sun. As a result, I have this lekker tan to show for it! A little painful at first, but not so bad now.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Cheers.
Stay classy
26 Feb 09
I am pretty astonished that my backside has not yet detached itself from what I used to know as my mostly able bodied body....Moeg, gatvol, irritated.
We started pretty slowly, observing Reece Kahn training a group of guys. On Wednesday morning though, we arrived at a construction site in Johannesburg. Let me not name any names as to who’s site it is, but allow me to note that with regard to health and safety IT WAS A SHOCKER!! Desperately disappointing that people still have to work on sites that like that. Anyway, let’s not get caught up in that as the focus was for us to experience the manual labour environment and subjecting yourself to the conditions found in the industry.
At first I didn’t really know why we had to do this but we did learn a few things. We saw how labourers blindly follow what their employers ask of them because they pay their salaries. Labourers unfortunately do not know what they are entitled to according to the OHS Act. In my opinion, somehow this has to change. There were so many substandard acts, conditions and procedures. If I had to mention all of these it would take me a week. Non-compliance with regard to work at heights was especially prominent. Hopefully some of you can one day attend a course that I present so that you can hear some of the examples that I use, which I gained from these experiences.
So, from this moeg Dutchman as Mr. L. Watson refers to us - have a great weekend, May the Bulls whoop the Lions, and the sun shine where your cattle grazes....
Stay classy,
We started pretty slowly, observing Reece Kahn training a group of guys. On Wednesday morning though, we arrived at a construction site in Johannesburg. Let me not name any names as to who’s site it is, but allow me to note that with regard to health and safety IT WAS A SHOCKER!! Desperately disappointing that people still have to work on sites that like that. Anyway, let’s not get caught up in that as the focus was for us to experience the manual labour environment and subjecting yourself to the conditions found in the industry.
At first I didn’t really know why we had to do this but we did learn a few things. We saw how labourers blindly follow what their employers ask of them because they pay their salaries. Labourers unfortunately do not know what they are entitled to according to the OHS Act. In my opinion, somehow this has to change. There were so many substandard acts, conditions and procedures. If I had to mention all of these it would take me a week. Non-compliance with regard to work at heights was especially prominent. Hopefully some of you can one day attend a course that I present so that you can hear some of the examples that I use, which I gained from these experiences.
So, from this moeg Dutchman as Mr. L. Watson refers to us - have a great weekend, May the Bulls whoop the Lions, and the sun shine where your cattle grazes....
Stay classy,
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