OCE Safety Moment Safety Shoutouts

FROM DAN OBERLIES - DIRECTOR OF SAFETY & RISK MANAGEMENT

Here at O’Connell, we strive to create a safe and healthy work environment with reduced hazards and free of incidents. This is our goal every day and that starts with CARING! Caring for ourselves and caring for our fellow O’Connell employees. Caring is at the root of Human Performance Improvement (HPI). Our caring needs to be “active.” It needs to be alive, observable, and impactful. Others need to know that we care about them. In this context, we care about their safety.

What does “actively caring” for our fellow employees in the workplace mean? What is the difference between “caring” and “actively caring”? I think we can all agree that no one wants to see another employee get injured on the job. This is caring. Yet, when workers are asked to muster the courage to provide advice to a peer who is working at-risk and could be injured, many admit they do not act on their caring by providing feedback. In our HPI World, actively caring can be seen by “peer-checking” and “peer-review.” We must act. If you see something, say something, and do something. Use the HPI Tools we have to counter the HPI Traps that arise. When we actively care, we continuously provide feedback and coaching to our peers when they are acting in a way that is likely to hurt themselves or another. We proactively care when we perform a peer-check before a task begins. We make sure that our co-worker has the PPE, tools and skills necessary to perform the task at hand. If not, we say something immediately and take steps to correct the situation. Let us all embrace actively caring at work. This will help ensure a safe, healthy, and incident-free workplace for everyone. I am convinced if we had increased caring and increased engagement with others when unsafe acts are happening, we would significantly reduce our number of injuries, and the overall safety of all our worksites.

"Safety Shoutout to Mike Reynolds (Local 41) for calling an “All-stop”. A crane crew arrived on site unexpectedly to pick steel beams on to the roof top. Mike and crew were installing conduit in an excavation adjacent to the crane setup area. Mike was concerned and asked if there was a pick plan, controlled access zone, communication methods in place. A good answer was not supplied and Mike called an "All-stop". He notified the GC, OCE PM and Safety. A site meeting occurred and the crane pick was canceled as a result of improper planning. Thank you to Mike Reynolds and OCE PM Chris Wall for advocating for the safety of all workers on the project. " - Submitted by Brian Chamberlain, Safety Coordinator

SAFETY SHOUTOUTS

"Pat Arnold should be recognized. He was asked to present to the entire jobsite on electrical hazards, and he did great. He presented while wearing the 40 cal arc flash suit and voltage rated gloves to demonstrate what should be worn while working around energized conductors. Pat has served on the Field Safety and Construction SOP Committees. He is currently the General Foreman at Mohawk Valley Hospital System in Utica." - Submitted by Matthew Yonts, Senior Safety Supervisor "Tim German, O’Connell’s General Foreman, had a Good Catch on 05/05/2022. He recognized an event that had the potential to create harm while a dump truck was dumping stone and breached the Minimum Approach Distance (MAD) of an energized bus in the substation. Tim immediately stopped the activity so no one was hurt and he notified both the spotter and driver of the hazard present. He immediately reiterated the MAD and also held a safety stand-down to reinforce the requirements at the next day morning tailboard. Tim deserves a Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Coin for it but also because he is always vigilant of the safety conditions of the site, making sure the requirements are met and sending everybody home safe at the end of each work day. Thanks Tim! Keep up the positive safety attitude!" - Submitted by Joselis Hernandez, AVANGRID Independent Contractor