December 11, 2002
Dear Everyone:
Have I mentioned Safety Stamps?
Safety is a big corporate bugaboo these days. All the big companies want their employees to be all safe all the time. If you can’t make them safe, outsource them. That way, when they get hurt, it doesn’t cost your department anything.
If you can’t outsource employees, you have to find ways of making them safe, whether they need it or not.
This is a far cry from about 15 years ago. I remember when a serious injury, or a note from a doctor, was required before a supervisor would even consider an employee’s safety. What’s changed?
The bottom line. Insurance companies don’t like paying workers’ compensation because of repetitive stress injuries, also known as cumulative trauma disorders. And those are the problems that started cropping up as everyday workers spent hours sitting in cramped little chairs, pounding on a hot keyboard all day.
So the Company wants all its little workers to be safe. But how do you measure safety?
Fewer lost workdays due to injuries is a good measure. But does that measure how safe you are, or just how lucky you are? Corporate management requires metrics. They want to know just how much “bang” they’re getting for their safety “bucks”.
Hence: Safety Stamps.
The idea is to “reward” safe behaviors with stamps. Show up for a (mandatory) quarterly safety meeting, get 5 stamps. Make a safety suggestion (no matter how ludicrous), get 2 stamps. There are companies out there who market these incentive programs. They are the grandchildren of the old grocery store green stamps that people used to collect. (Hands! How many of us are “mature and experienced” enough to remember green stamps?)
For a mere 16 stamps (that’s two safety meetings and 3 suggestions), you can acquire a 48-ounce multipurpose house and garden plastic spray bottle; or a batter bowl with lid; or just about anything else you can pick up at the drug store for under $10.00. There are “collections” and anything in the “collection” is worth the same number of stamps, from 16 all the way up to 444 (which will get you a 19” color TV, or a two-room camping tent).
But what’s a manager to do if his/her staff doesn’t really care about the Safety Stamps? That’s easy. You make acquiring a certain number of stamps per year mandatory. It goes on the employee’s “Performance Management Program” form at the beginning of each year.
Because Safety Stamps are something management can count. They’re “measurable”.
So I’ve been collecting Safety Stamps for several years now. Never bothered to redeem anything from the catalog. Figured I’d wait until I had enough for something “big”. But now, the Company has decided to change vendors from a stamps-based redemption systems to a newer, sexier “points” based redemption system. So you have to use your stamps before January 15th , or lose them.
I have enough accumulated stamps for the “K Collection”. That’s anywhere between 156 and 201 stamps (and you’re right, that is a lot of safety meetings). Trouble is, if there’s anything in the “K Collection” that I want, I’ve already bought it for myself. Nevertheless, there’s something in the American psyche that abhors passing up on “something for nothing”. If it’s “free”, you should take it, even if you don’t want it.
So here’s my plan: Instead of picking out one thing, like a clock (because God knows I don’t have enough clocks around), I’m going to have a stamp-redemption party. When Mother, “Marshall” and “Jeannie” are together this Christmas, we’re going to go through the catalog and anything anybody wants, if there are enough stamps, they can have it as a sort of belated stocking-stuffer.
Speaking of said relatives, they are still
schlepping through southern
And
Love, as always,
Pete
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