Understanding the ‘blues of safety professionals’

Abstract

Something is not right in the safety profession. Many books written by professionals in the 2010s express a strong discontent. These professionals are highly critical of their situation, practice, role and identity. In these books, they express what this article describes as the ‘blues of safety professionals’. Although varying in writing style, tone, theoretical inspiration, emphasis and experience, they address similar issues which relate to practices corresponding, in their eyes, to outmoded, inadequate or even perverse ideas. The aim of this article is to introduce, summarize, explain and problematize the significance of this literature. Following a methodological section, the ‘safety professional blues’ is introduced. It is argued in another section that the ‘blues’ pinpoints what these authors consider to be flawed assumptions about many of the core ingredients of the safety profession. The roots of this discontent are the topic of another section, while a final section problematizes the ‘blues’.

KEYWORDS:

• safety professionals
• identity
• discontent
• new prospects
• practices
• mindset

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The coding is more distinguishable in the coloured version of the article than in the black and white version.

2 A reviewer of this article commented on the absence of a greater consideration in these books for the lack of ability of most safety professionals to influence strategies. This could be a strong, and as yet unaddressed, component of the ‘blues’. This certainly is a troubling absence, perhaps revealing a taken-for-granted reality: the fact that most safety professionals must deal with the consequences of strategies rather than contributing to their elaboration.

3 For further explanation of 1, 2 and 3 in Figure 2, see later in this section.