1.1: Reflection - Introduction to Occupational Safety and Health

It's Your Turn

New World of Work (NWOW) Assessment: What kind of worker are you? How do you view worker safety?

Self Awareness

As we begin our exploration of work it is only fitting that you reflect on your experiences and perspectives of and with work. One of your first activities was to introduce yourself and share some of your background. This next activity is one designed to have you get a better understanding of why you may have certain views on work and worker safety, being ever mindful of who you are.

The Keirsey assessment is one of many types of personality profiles that seek to place individuals in groups with specific traits that may align with career paths or competencies. It is therefore reasonable that personality traits may also shape how you will view and approach safety in the workplace.

Access the Keirsey Assessment here  or the 16personalities assessment and record your results. If you use the 16personalities assessment you will need to contrast your results with slides 6 and 17 below to determine which quadrant you belong. You may also just speak to your attribute without associating with it with the Keirsey temperament.

Reflect on your assessment by choosing one of the self image attributes (slide 17) of the Keirsey Overview sharing how that attribute would make you a safer worker. Provide detail, minimum one paragraph.

Using the Four Keirsey Temperaments

The Four Keirsey Temperaments

Guardian ESTJ, ISTJ, ESFJ, ISFJ dependable, helpful, and hard-working. loyal mates, responsible parents, and stabilizing leaders. dutiful, cautious, humble focused on credentials and traditions. concerned citizens who trust authority, join groups, seek security, prize gratitude, and dream of meting out justice.	Artisan ESFP, ISFP, ESTP, ISTP fun-loving, optimistic, realistic focused on the here and now. unconventional, bold, and spontaneous. make playful mates, creative parents, and troubleshooting leaders. excitable, trust their impulses, want to make a splash, seek stimulation, prize freedom, and dream of mastering action skills.
Idealist ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP, INFP enthusiastic, they trust their intuition, yearn for romance seek their true self, prize meaningful relationships dream of attaining wisdom. loving, kindhearted, and authentic. giving, trusting, spiritual, focused on personal journeys and human potentials. intense mates, nurturing parents, and inspirational leaders.	Rational ENTJ, INTJ, ENTP, INTP pragmatic, skeptical, self-contained focused on problem-solving and systems analysis. ingenious, independent, strong willed. make reasonable mates, individualizing parents, strategic leaders. even-tempered, trust logic, yearn for achievement, seek knowledge, prize technology dream of understanding how the world works.

Seeing yourself in the Four Temperaments

Self Image of the Four Temperaments

	Artisan	Guardian	Idealist	Rational
Self Confidence	Adaptability	Respectability	Authenticity	Willpower
Self Esteem	Action	Reliability	Empathy	Ingenuity
Self Respect	Audacity	Service	Benevolence	Autonomy

NWOW-Do you value all workers?

Social Diversity

Respecting and valuing differences is a basic tenet for the future of work. How you view yourself and co-workers shapes your perspective on who matters and what matters in a work setting. When there are differences in who matters, there will be challenges to keeping all workers safe. The following personal reflection activities are designed to encourage you to value differences to ensure all workers matter.

Gender and Ethnicity

Use the the following excerpts from the NWOW social diversity lesson 1 to complete the questionnaire and class discussion at the end of the lesson.

Attributes of Social Diversity Awareness

• Respectful of differences in others’ backgrounds and beliefs in local communities and the world at large.
• Values diversity in the workplace, including gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and age. Understands these differences can actually improve products, services, or work processes.

Understanding Sex and Gender

Sex vs Gender

Sex Characteristics	Gender Characteristics
Biological sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between men and women.	Gender combines several elements: chromosomes (X or Y), anatomy, hormone levels, psychology, and culture.
Best identified through DNA, the clearest division between a male human and a female human is the type of chromosomes they carry.	“Gendering” refers to the psycho-social division of labor in a society; not to the biological and physiological differences between men and women.
A female human carries two X chromosomes while a male human carries one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008)	Gendering patterns begin early to develop particular skills, beliefs, and attitudes in young “men” vs. young “women”
But, there are cases where an XY embryo fails to develop male anatomy and is identified as female at birth, while an XX embryo can develop male anatomy and is identified as as male at birth. (National Geographic, 2016)	Gendering varies dramatically across cultures. The degree of gender differentiation in a country is highly dependent on its national culture.
	Self-identifying one’s gender, and a rejection of the traditional him/her categories, can be both a social and political statement

Gendering in the Workplace

• There are still inequalities that exist in modern work environments for the types of jobs considered more appropriate for men and women.
• Can you name some examples of types of work where you feel there is a stereotype of it being a “male” job or a “female” job?
• There are also inequalities in pay scales for men and women occupying the same positions.
• The 2017 Economic Justice Report showed a 20% wage gap between men and women in the United States. It estimated that based on the rate of pay from 1960-2015, women are not projected to reach pay equity until 2059.
• This pay gap increases for both women and men of color.

Understanding Race and Ethnicity

Race vs. Ethnicity

Race	Ethnicity
Sorts people into ethnic groups according to perceived physical and behavioral human characteristics	Allows people to self-identify with groupings of people on the basis of presumed (and usually claimed) commonalities including language, history, nation or region of origin, customs, ways of being, religion, names, physical appearance, and/or genealogy or ancestry
Associates differential value, power, and privilege with these characteristics and establishes a social status ranking among the different groups	Can be a source of meaning, action, and identity
Emerges (a) when groups are perceived to pose a threat (political, economic, or cultural) to each other’s world view or way of life; and/or (b) to justify the denigration and exploitation (past, current, or future) of, and prejudice toward, other groups	Confers a sense of belonging, pride, and motivation
So, defining someone by “race” is not only an outdated category, but it is based upon a history of exclusion and prejudice	When asking about background, ask what a person self-identifies as their ethnicity, not their race

Class Activity

Having open discussions and striving to understand others from their own perspective, not from yours, is the first step in Social/Diversity Awareness.

What is your global literacy quotient? Take the Quiz. The passing score averages 30%

Next answer the following questions:

1. What is your self-identified ethnicity?
2. Have you ever felt you were defined by gender and/or race, and what impact did this have on you?
3. How do discussions of what makes us different help expand the idea of what is “normal”?
4. Is it important to include physical/cognitive impairments and workforce generation in the conversation of what is "normal" in Social Diversity?

Remember, you want to avoid situations like this:

Diversity Awareness

 

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