Stopping the Worst Jobs

It’s not me it’s them... stopping the s*!t jobs

Can you put your hand on your heart and really say that you consistently do everything you can to improve your place of work?

• Do you regularly think about your colleagues and what they have to do on a daily or weekly basis?
• Do you really know how people do the jobs on site, even the jobs that are a bit awkward or hard?
• Do you have any awful jobs carried out on site and you are glad you don’t have to do them?

I remember I used to work in Wales. A guy called Dennis had to empty the dust collector on the bag house about four times a week. It was a rubbish job. He backed a dumper under the plant and set off a screw to feed the dust out. The discharge had water suppression that sometimes flooded out and if the bottom of his dumper body got wet he had to dig it out by hand. Sometimes the water didn’t work and he got covered in dust. This job was dirty; this job was hard work; this job was done after production when others went home; this job was bad and, in hindsight, it was wrong.

So what jobs are carried out on your site that are wrong?

• Poor access at height?
• Loads and loads of spillage that needs shovelling out?
• Exposure to excessive noise or dust?
• Working in confined spaces with no simple escape plan?
• Gunning out a mixer or a drum?
• Fitters getting covered in grease?

Do you have any jobs that are so bad you get contractors in to do them?

Ask yourself and your team:

• Who on site has the worst job?
• What makes it the worst job?

Start to look at the job and have a really meaningful discussion. 

• Step 1 – Stop doing the really bad jobs today.
• Step 2 – If you have to do that job, what could be done straight away to make it better for that person?
• Step 3 – Can the issue be designed out? Get your team together, do a damn good risk assessment and come up with a better way of doing it.
• Step 4 – Ask what job is next to look at.

So stop looking at yourself and what’s in it for you. That awful job may mean production is better but at what cost? Remember, a s*!t job today could be an ‘oh s*!t’ tomorrow.

IMG are here to help. Tell us about the bad jobs you have identified but, more importantly, sorted. Throughout the year we will post them on here. Our very own ‘shortlist of rubbish becomes great practice’. These jobs will be going on elsewhere so hopefully you help others get it right. 

For more information on how we practically work in business please contact me at [email protected] or tel: 07799 656303