One follow-up question: who are safety managers? How are they trained, what’s their seniority in the org structure, and what sorts of resources do they have access to?
In the bio case it seems that in at least some jurisdictions and especially historically, the people put in charge of this stuff were relatively low-level administrators, and not really empowered to enforce difficult decisions or make big calls. From your post it sounds like safety managers in engineering have a pretty different role.
A Safety manager (in a small company) or a Safety Department (in a larger company) needs to be independent of the department whose safety they monitor, so that they are not conflicted between Safety and other objectives like, say, an urgent production deadline (of course, in reality they will know people and so on, it’s never perfect). Typically, they will have reporting lines that meet higher up (e.g. CEO or Vice President), and this senior manager will be responsible for resolving any disagreements. If the Safety Manager says “it’s not safe” and the production department says “we need to do this,” we do not want it to become a battle of wills. Instead, the Safety Manager focuses exclusively on the risk, and the senior manager decides if the company will accept that risk. Typically, this would not be “OK, we accept a 10% risk of a big explosion” but rather finding a way to enable it to be done safely, even if it meant making it much more expensive and slower.
In a smaller company or a start-up, the Safety Manager will sometimes be a more experienced hire than most of the staff, and this too will give them a bit of authority.
I think what you’re describing as the people “put in charge of this stuff” are probably not the analogous people to Safety Managers. In every factory and lab, there would be junior people doing important safety work. The difference is that in addition to these, there would be a Safety Manager, one person who would be empowered to influence decisions. This person would typically also oversee the safety work done by more junior people, but that isn’t always the case.
Again, the difference is that people in engineering can point to historical incidences of oil-rigs exploding with multiple casualties, of buildings collapsing, … and so they recognise that getting Safety wrong is a big deal, with catastrophic consequences. If I compare this to say, a chemistry lab, I see what you describe. Safety is still very much emphasised and spoken about, nobody would ever say “Safety isn’t important”, but it would be relatively common for someone (say the professor) to overrule the safety person without necessarily addressing the concerns.
Also in a lab, to some extent it’s true that each researcher’s risks mostly impact themselves—if your vessel blows up or your toxic reagent spills, it’s most likely going to be you personally who will be the victim. So there is sometimes a mentality that it’s up to each person to decide what risks are acceptable—although the better and larger labs will have moved past this.
I imagine that most people in biolabs still feel like they’re in a lab situation. Maybe each researcher feels that the primary role of Safety is to keep them and their co-workers safe (which I’m sure is something they take very seriously), but they’re not really focused on the potential of global-scale catastrophes which would justify putting someone in charge.
I again emphasise that most of what I know about safety in biolabs comes from your post, so I do not want to suggest that I know, I’m only trying to make sense of it. Feel free to correct / enlighten me (anyone!).
Thanks, this is really interesting.
One follow-up question: who are safety managers? How are they trained, what’s their seniority in the org structure, and what sorts of resources do they have access to?
In the bio case it seems that in at least some jurisdictions and especially historically, the people put in charge of this stuff were relatively low-level administrators, and not really empowered to enforce difficult decisions or make big calls. From your post it sounds like safety managers in engineering have a pretty different role.
Indeed,
A Safety manager (in a small company) or a Safety Department (in a larger company) needs to be independent of the department whose safety they monitor, so that they are not conflicted between Safety and other objectives like, say, an urgent production deadline (of course, in reality they will know people and so on, it’s never perfect). Typically, they will have reporting lines that meet higher up (e.g. CEO or Vice President), and this senior manager will be responsible for resolving any disagreements. If the Safety Manager says “it’s not safe” and the production department says “we need to do this,” we do not want it to become a battle of wills. Instead, the Safety Manager focuses exclusively on the risk, and the senior manager decides if the company will accept that risk. Typically, this would not be “OK, we accept a 10% risk of a big explosion” but rather finding a way to enable it to be done safely, even if it meant making it much more expensive and slower.
In a smaller company or a start-up, the Safety Manager will sometimes be a more experienced hire than most of the staff, and this too will give them a bit of authority.
I think what you’re describing as the people “put in charge of this stuff” are probably not the analogous people to Safety Managers. In every factory and lab, there would be junior people doing important safety work. The difference is that in addition to these, there would be a Safety Manager, one person who would be empowered to influence decisions. This person would typically also oversee the safety work done by more junior people, but that isn’t always the case.
Again, the difference is that people in engineering can point to historical incidences of oil-rigs exploding with multiple casualties, of buildings collapsing, … and so they recognise that getting Safety wrong is a big deal, with catastrophic consequences. If I compare this to say, a chemistry lab, I see what you describe. Safety is still very much emphasised and spoken about, nobody would ever say “Safety isn’t important”, but it would be relatively common for someone (say the professor) to overrule the safety person without necessarily addressing the concerns.
Also in a lab, to some extent it’s true that each researcher’s risks mostly impact themselves—if your vessel blows up or your toxic reagent spills, it’s most likely going to be you personally who will be the victim. So there is sometimes a mentality that it’s up to each person to decide what risks are acceptable—although the better and larger labs will have moved past this.
I imagine that most people in biolabs still feel like they’re in a lab situation. Maybe each researcher feels that the primary role of Safety is to keep them and their co-workers safe (which I’m sure is something they take very seriously), but they’re not really focused on the potential of global-scale catastrophes which would justify putting someone in charge.
I again emphasise that most of what I know about safety in biolabs comes from your post, so I do not want to suggest that I know, I’m only trying to make sense of it. Feel free to correct / enlighten me (anyone!).