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July 17, 2020 12:19 PM

Marinucci: Think first, act second when risks are uncertain

Dan Marinucci
[email protected]
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    The coronavirus pandemic dictates a focused, forthright course of action: Recognize the potential dangers and avoid taking needless risks.

    Underpinning this plan is the fact that actions always have consequences. More specifically, danger and risk are unavoidably interrelated here. Taking a risk may have dire — perhaps fatal — consequences.

    Some readers may label this plan as so simplistic and obvious as to be a foregone conclusion. I may be missing something, but a sampling of today's pandemic updates suggest otherwise.

    For instance, new coronavirus cases are skyrocketing across the South and the Sun Belt. Some hospitals' intensive care units are being overwhelmed.

    Other news is sobering as well as shocking. For instance, locations of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks occurring within the last seven days may surprise you. Arizona, Florida and South Carolina lead the world.

    Marinucci

    Meanwhile, Louisiana is fifth in the world; Alabama is eighth. (These were measured in the number of new cases per million residents.)

    Closer to home, more than half of recent coronavirus cases in Ohio are persons younger than 40 years of age.

    During the years I have authored this column, I have emphasized that common folks can learn a lot just by watching.

    Some of my industry sources and I have been observing business' behavior — including at various automotive service facilities. Our overall feeling is that some are not taking sensible coronavirus precautions seriously — regardless of what local mandates require.

    In fact, these fellows also share another impression of mine. Namely, some service personnel have a knack for acting first and thinking later.

    Pandemic or no pandemic, these particular workers simply act or react — seemingly without any concern for potential dangers or possible consequences.

    In short, their modus operandi can be summed up by the expression "winging it." Worse yet, their bosses have tolerated the fact that these workers wing it out in the service bays.

    Thankfully, these rambunctious technicians and tire busters represent only a relative minority of the entire auto service workforce.

    At the same time, winging it may create a bad blunder at the wrong time. A capable boss knows that it only takes one mistake to wreak havoc in a service department.

    Indeed, winging it with coronavirus precautions could have disastrous results for you and your entire staff.

    Perhaps the pandemic could be the impetus to reign in a rambunctious worker via the appropriate oversight. The goal is to coach a capable but often-careless employee to think first, act second in the workplace.

    Risk assessment exercises

    A lengthy list of shop blunders reinforces the belief that many service personnel don't think first and act second on auto repairs — let alone on a potential deadly contagion. Workplace safety specialists might describe these employees as having poor risk-assessment skills.

    When some owners and managers hear "poor risk-assessment," however, you may just as well have said "satanic cult proclivity."

    In the spirit of clarity, let's recap some apparent failures at risk assessment that have occurred in the service bays long before coronavirus appeared.

    First of all, techs may overlook the fire potential gasoline presents in a workshop environment. Liquid gasoline is always a hazard but workers may underestimate the risk of fuel vapors.

    For one thing, techs may recognize a gasoline leak or spill more readily simply because it's relatively easy to see. However, highly volatile fuel vapors may drift through the service department unchecked because workers don't see them.

    What's more, the workers may not react readily because gasoline odors are relatively common in a workshop. The vapors may waft along until something ignites them.

    This is an example of poor risk assessment involving fuel vapor and an unseen ignition source. I have heard nearly the identical story from people in different regions of the country — long before the internet became popular.

    For instance, a tech removes a leaking or damaged fuel tank, spilling some gasoline during the job. He tries to blot the fuel as well as practically possible by covering it with powdered shop absorbent. Then the tech continues working.

    Meantime, another worker has to clean a vehicle's interior or trunk for some reason. He happens to pull this car into the bay next to the fuel tank replacement. The fellow tackles the task with one of those large, powerful, shop-style vacuum cleaners.

    Before anyone realizes what's happening, flames belch out of the vacuum cleaner and scare the worker senseless. As the guy tries to evade the flames, he falls backward, whacking his head against the shop floor or a piece of equipment.

    Later, co-workers see him nursing a painful knot on his noggin and fresh stitches.

    Second, techs may underestimate the danger of hot metal debris when wielding a cutting torch — not to mention the importance of effective work shoes.

    Over the years, I have worked with guys who strongly preferred sneakers to any kind of sturdy work shoes. In particular, I recall one fellow who wouldn't even wear socks with those sneakers during the hottest summer days.

    Meantime, "Mr. Sneakers" was cutting something off a car one day. I don't remember if it was an old exhaust system, rusted brackets — whatever — but from the next bay, I could hear a constant rain of "torched" debris hitting the shop floor. Then, at some point, he screamed and dropped the torch.

    Indeed, he was so focused on the work that he allowed a blob of molten metal burn through one of his sneakers. For one thing, he walked in pain for weeks afterward.

    For another, the wound's location on the top of his foot didn't lend itself to quick healing. He could barely tighten shoe laces above that burn.

    On the one hand, husky work shoes are not impervious to molten metal, but they do provide substantially better protection than sneakers — period.

    More from Dan
    Marinucci: Show-and-tell can mean show-and-sell for dealers
    Marinucci: Focus on solutions helps to boost workers' stock
    Marinucci: Here's the scoop on cleaning out rodent debris

    Slip and slide

    Last but not least, techs may underestimate the risk presented by a wet shop floor. I have seen hurried techs spill fluids of one kind or another, but in many cases, they continue working because they're racing to finish a repair job.

    A harried tech believes there's no time to mop up before proceeding with the work.

    OK, the tech slips on the wet floor. I watched a guy try to break his fall by extending his arm — a natural reaction to falling. The consequence was a sprained wrist that took weeks to heal. Can you imagine trying to "wrench" with that sprain?

    In other cases, I have seen guys slip on fluid or coolant. Moments earlier, they had removed parts from the vehicle and placed them on the shop floor. The guys landed on one of those parts, chipping or badly bruising a tailbone.

    For one thing, these fellows couldn't sit down without using the proverbial "whoopee" cushion. For another, it was weeks before these guys could simply walk without feeling the injury. Imagine trying to work through that sort of pain.

    When all is said and done, some employees are more inclined to think than others are. Managers must coach some workers to behave cautiously. Reasonable caution prevents painful work injuries as well as dangerous accidents in the bays.

    But these days, coaching sensible precautions may keep that vicious virus from your door. Please take it seriously.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Tire Business would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor Don Detore at [email protected].

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