I recently had to attend a seminar on workplace safety that was given in-house where I work. In my industry, there are numerous hazards that one can run into on a daily basis. For myself, its mostly has to do with the different types of chemicals we work with on a daily basis. At a minimum I have to wear safety glasses and a labcoat while I’m in the laboratory. Occasionally we have to wear aprons and/or face shields if the chemical we are working with is particularly hazardous, a concentrated acid, or a concentrated caustic.
Something that surprised me during this seminar/class was the addition of a lockdown procedure. It was something that caught me off-guard but looking back seems to make a lot of sense. We now have a system outlined that we are supposed to follow if there is an event or a person in the building or on the property that has a weapon and intends to do harm. It’s not something that I normally think about, or ever really thought of for that matter, but it is definitely a reality in today’s day and age. It’s rather scary to think that if something like this were to happen, we as employees are pretty much defenseless. I’m not sure if anyone else has any experience with this type of policy at their company, but I’d love to hear more about it.
The lockdown procedure and recommendations found on this site: http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-School-or-Workplace-Shooting are very similar to the ones that were covered the seminar I attended. I think what bothers me the most is how helpless most people would be in these types of situations. I believe everyone should be able to fight back when they have to, but in cases like this where someone is armed and you are not, it just wouldn’t be logical. I’m not sure what can be done about that, but it bothers me a great deal…
I hope it bothers everyone as much as it bothers the two of us, Jeff. As I was reading through that article all I could keep thinking was, "Man, I hope that this never happens to me." I've been through some slightly traumatic situations, just like everyone else has, in my life, but living through a shooting at work, home, or anywhere else is one that I hope I never check off the list.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think it's helpful to have some training so that you can think a bit more level-headedly in those types of situations, I think that you can never really prepare for, or know how you'll react during, a situation like that. Let's just hope that none of us every has to find out.
It is sad to say that a number of the policies are really more there to make people feel safer and avoid lawsuits but really do little to help people. I worked at a police that make everyone wear id around their neck so people would know who was an intruder nice thought but one there was no checking at the door so any one could just walk in and even you saw a person without an id who is going to be the unlucky person to try to stop them. In my three years in the infantry the only time the person without the gun win the contest is if the person without one has far better skills and is fast then person can pull the trigger. Think of the first matrix movie when they storm the military building if security is not ready to stop people security just becomes a speed bump. It might be a better idea and more effect in the long run to help emplyess get the needed help to prevent them from going so far.
ReplyDeleteJeff, luckily, I've never had to deal with this problem either, and after reading that guide, I'm pretty thankful for that. I went to high school at Allentown Central Catholic, so being in Center City Allentown, we dealt with a locked building on a daily basis and there were prodecures for an event like that. We actually had a bomb scare called in my junior year, and the evacuation was pretty hectic. We did all get out and it turned out to be a hoax, but still, I can sort of relate, although not to the level that you've described here.
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