Hello Safety Pros,
With the heatwave just passing through Chicago, and the unusual violent storm system that damaged the Midwest states leaving devastation along the way this past week, it is a good reminder for you and your field and “essential” employees to watch for signs of heat stress and be prepared to respond to natural disasters as recommended by OSHA’s water, rest, shade and Tornado preparedness and response programs.
Post COVID-19, our “new normal” lingo using terms such as essential employees, social distancing, and positivity rates, and many other recently introduced terms by both, safety and non-safety professionals.
I wish my first newsletter as a President for the ASSP Greater Chicago Chapter had a more positive tone, but hey! toxic positivity is also a new term used these days, and is defined as “the over-generalization of a happy, optimistic state that results in the denial, minimization, and invalidation of the authentic human emotional experience.” So, why don’t we try to work through this without denying that it is exhausting, our job as safety professionals is to lead the way for a safer tomorrow, show a positive attitude combined with a real smile. But we need to refuel frequently, lean on each other, be a Team more than ever to go through these uncertain times.
