The Departure of the Undernourished Farmhand

Successful farmers support, encourage and nourish the farmhands tending to their fields. The story in this paper illustrates how the farmer’s yearly reviews crushed and starved the farmhand. No matter how many tasks the farmhand successfully completed each year, the farmer pounded the farmhand on the one calamity which had occurred that year. Then, based on the review, would not give the farmhand a raise. During the first year cows trampled the seed. Pound. No raise. In the second year crows feasted on the seeds. Pound. Teeny raise. The farmhand began to dread the planting and harvesting time. A swarm of locusts devoured the shoots during year three. Pound. Eentsy teeny raise. And during the fourth year, the hot sun scorched the field. Pound. Not enough sales for a raise, again. The farmhand had fixed the neglected fence, had added the missing scarecrows, had used more robust seeds, and had begun irrigating the field, all to no avail. The farmer starved the farmhand with each discouraging performance review. On the fifth year there was a new farmhand tending the farmer’s field. The defeated and undernourished farmhand had departed and moved on to greener pastures.

Successful managers support, encourage, and nourish the process safety professionals tending to their process safety programs. Unfortunately, when managers pound them during their annual reviews, there can be tragic consequences to people, the environment and property. Especially when hazardous materials and energies must be understood and safely managed. Pounding will have the same result as illustrated in the farmhand’s story: frustration and ultimately turnover. The organization’s process safety performance will most likely degrade due to lack of leadership support and commitment.

This paper concludes with an approach which has been used successfully to improve process safety performance. Our journey is to better understand and reduce the risks associated with the handling of hazardous materials and energies. An effective process safety program has a strong process safety culture and leadership (as illustrated in the farmhand’s story), effective process safety systems, and operational discipline by everyone in the organization. Feeding the farmhand and process safety professionals will help nurture them as well as the farm and process safety programs.