The long-awaited Mitchell Report was unleashed on baseball yesterday dropping some major names along the way such as Roger Clemens, David Justice and Eric Gagne. I'm particularly disapointed by the Gagne mention as he just finalized a 1-year, $10 Million contract with my Milwaukee Brewers - in which I am a die-hard fan. Gagne has been garbage the past two years and after being named in this report, he'll most likely be "clean" and thus continue to be terrible for the Brewers.
My personal rooting aside, what may be one of the biggest findings of this investigation is that there was significant use of anabolic steroids during the past 20 years with owners and MLB essentially turning a blind eye.
So? The NFL has eclipsed baseball in popularity (which pains me to a great extent) and this is a construction blog.
What needs to be taken away from this as a contractor is don't let a Mitchell Report come out about your business. Or more specifically - there should be no reason for OSHA to do an investigation on any of your sites. There are too many instances on jobsites where unsafe practices are ignored or worse yet, encouraged in order to make deadlines, meet quotas, etc. - which all ultimately come down to incentives of more money.
Just like in baseball, it's all good while the money is rolling in, jobs are getting completed ahead of task and major incidents have been avoided. Though, all it takes is one time or be on a big enough stage (say eclipsing the all-time home run mark) that prying eyes will be watching you.
Don't let employees practice and make habit of unsafe practices. Make sure everyone in your crew is doing things the right way, every time. Help instill an environment where not only you or your safety supervisor are the primary person responsible for safety, but the entire crew takes on the responsibility of safety.
But remember, ultimately it comes down to you and its your name on the line. When a report comes out, it will say John Smith Construction and that's the name that will stick with your current and potential clients.
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