Showing off a positive safety culture (and how you can, too)
2017-11-15
NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) is promoting an ongoing project that highlights employees following appropriate safety procedures called “Caught Doing Right.” The goal is to promote safety culture in the workplace and make employees aware of proper safety procedures.
This is a collaborative effort run by safety managers with the NASA Safety Culture Working Group from across the agency to take pictures of employees that are “caught doing right” by supporting safety and safe behaviors. The photos, or “safies,” can be submitted to the OSMA website. All NASA contractors and civil servants are encouraged to submit “safies.”
By posting your “safies” to the website, you are not only sharing your commitment to safety with the rest of the agency, but you are sharing great work practices as well. All submitted and approved photos can be viewed in the “Caught Doing Right” photo gallery featured on the OSMA web page.
Johanna Petrocelli, NS, was “Caught Doing Right” while running through a safety checklist before a run at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. By going through the safety checklist, Petrocelli is working to reduce the potential of a mishap occurring during the run.
At the end of the year, a team of NASA safety professionals will review the “safies” and choose one to feature on a poster for all NASA centers.
Complementary to the “Caught Doing Right” project, “Safe, Not Sorry” (SNS) is another program run out of Johnson Space Center’s SMA that celebrates and rewards safe behavior. Many employees go out of their way to help others and to see that our workplace is safer. SNS is an awareness program that celebrates individual safety responsibility and recognizes those who make a difference. Honorees receive a small but impressive lapel pin with the simple letters, SNS, signifying their contribution to our personal and collective safety.
More than 2,500 SNS pins have been distributed to various organizations and individuals; both civil servants and contractors are eligible for the reward. Any employee can recognize someone on the spot or make a recommendation to management for more formal recognition. However, a story must be provided of the individual’s safe accomplishment to earn the pin award. Pins can be obtained by calling the Safety Office at 281-244-5078 or JSC Safety and Health Action Team at 281-483-3218. Individual pins may be requested, or directorates are welcome to request pins in quantity to keep on hand.
Awardees fall into four categories: proactive, courage, attitude and report.
Since the SNS program is employee-based, awardees receive pins for varying degrees of safety consciousness. One example, a group effort, involved Chris DeGli-Esposti, Christy Domalakes and Fred Rodriguez of Boeing, who showed their safety diligence when a co-worker accidentally dropped a serving spoon from the cafeteria salad bar, spilling food throughout the area. Rather than ignore the mess, DeGli-Esposti offered to watch over the area, warning others until the appropriate personnel and signage could be arranged. But rather than risk a slip while waiting, Domalakes and Rodriguez cleaned the area—all three taking time out of their lunch break to help ensure the safety of others.
Another SNS awardee, Sandra Ivison of SGT, noticed a fellow employee standing on a straight-backed chair to reach items on top of a bookcase in the Flight Operations Directorate library. Ivison took the time to show her teammate several step stools and ladders contained in the library specifically designed for that type of use and even retrieved an appropriate step stool.
Mary Kelley of the Pressure Systems Group for SAIC received an SNS pin after identifying a concern with the hydrostat testing of hoses at 3,000 psi in the 6DoF facility. She could not find objective evidence that the hazardous task had been reviewed for safe operation. Even after facing roadblocks with comments of “We have always done it way,” and, “It’s OK,” Kelley was persistent in making sure that the correct safety reviews for the test were completed.
These employees all had one thing in common—they were all safe, not sorry.
The “Caught Doing Right” and SNS projects strive to promote safety culture in the workplace and reward individuals that seek out ways to protect those around them in the NASA community.
Be a part of celebrating your team’s outstanding safety practices while encouraging others to do the same agencywide.
Rindy Carmichael
NASA Johnson Space Center
This is a collaborative effort run by safety managers with the NASA Safety Culture Working Group from across the agency to take pictures of employees that are “caught doing right” by supporting safety and safe behaviors. The photos, or “safies,” can be submitted to the OSMA website. All NASA contractors and civil servants are encouraged to submit “safies.”
By posting your “safies” to the website, you are not only sharing your commitment to safety with the rest of the agency, but you are sharing great work practices as well. All submitted and approved photos can be viewed in the “Caught Doing Right” photo gallery featured on the OSMA web page.
Johanna Petrocelli, NS, was “Caught Doing Right” while running through a safety checklist before a run at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. By going through the safety checklist, Petrocelli is working to reduce the potential of a mishap occurring during the run.
At the end of the year, a team of NASA safety professionals will review the “safies” and choose one to feature on a poster for all NASA centers.
Complementary to the “Caught Doing Right” project, “Safe, Not Sorry” (SNS) is another program run out of Johnson Space Center’s SMA that celebrates and rewards safe behavior. Many employees go out of their way to help others and to see that our workplace is safer. SNS is an awareness program that celebrates individual safety responsibility and recognizes those who make a difference. Honorees receive a small but impressive lapel pin with the simple letters, SNS, signifying their contribution to our personal and collective safety.
More than 2,500 SNS pins have been distributed to various organizations and individuals; both civil servants and contractors are eligible for the reward. Any employee can recognize someone on the spot or make a recommendation to management for more formal recognition. However, a story must be provided of the individual’s safe accomplishment to earn the pin award. Pins can be obtained by calling the Safety Office at 281-244-5078 or JSC Safety and Health Action Team at 281-483-3218. Individual pins may be requested, or directorates are welcome to request pins in quantity to keep on hand.
Awardees fall into four categories: proactive, courage, attitude and report.
- Proactive individuals actively remove or resolve immediate hazards.
- Courage means confronting, communicating and working through a safety concern.
- Attitude is exhibited through enthusiasm for safety and motivating co-workers
- Report is promptly reporting hazardous conditions
Since the SNS program is employee-based, awardees receive pins for varying degrees of safety consciousness. One example, a group effort, involved Chris DeGli-Esposti, Christy Domalakes and Fred Rodriguez of Boeing, who showed their safety diligence when a co-worker accidentally dropped a serving spoon from the cafeteria salad bar, spilling food throughout the area. Rather than ignore the mess, DeGli-Esposti offered to watch over the area, warning others until the appropriate personnel and signage could be arranged. But rather than risk a slip while waiting, Domalakes and Rodriguez cleaned the area—all three taking time out of their lunch break to help ensure the safety of others.
Another SNS awardee, Sandra Ivison of SGT, noticed a fellow employee standing on a straight-backed chair to reach items on top of a bookcase in the Flight Operations Directorate library. Ivison took the time to show her teammate several step stools and ladders contained in the library specifically designed for that type of use and even retrieved an appropriate step stool.
Mary Kelley of the Pressure Systems Group for SAIC received an SNS pin after identifying a concern with the hydrostat testing of hoses at 3,000 psi in the 6DoF facility. She could not find objective evidence that the hazardous task had been reviewed for safe operation. Even after facing roadblocks with comments of “We have always done it way,” and, “It’s OK,” Kelley was persistent in making sure that the correct safety reviews for the test were completed.
These employees all had one thing in common—they were all safe, not sorry.
The “Caught Doing Right” and SNS projects strive to promote safety culture in the workplace and reward individuals that seek out ways to protect those around them in the NASA community.
Be a part of celebrating your team’s outstanding safety practices while encouraging others to do the same agencywide.
Rindy Carmichael
NASA Johnson Space Center
Johanna Petrocelli is pictured running through a safety checklist. Image Credit: NASA