EHS pros: Do you feel your professional skills are more respected than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic?

It has shown in many organization, that upper management will react to outside messaging faster and more diligent than their own associates. More organization need to look to their own people for direction, and have complete program in mind, a point when something like COVID will have a common sense ending.

It's been my experience that supervisors and upper management are very quick to dismiss/hush safety concerns regarding COVID-19 exposure between onsite employees. Those in authority positions choose to make decisions that most benefit themselves without any regard for how their decisions negatively affect their subordinates. I've personally received 2 formal write ups from my supervisor almost immediately after internally disclosing what I believe to be unethical safety oversights and significant biases related to pay.

Our E.H.S. program was getting minimal support from upper management prior to implementation of COVID-19 engineering controls and sanitation protocols. Now that those measures are in place and constantly evolving, upper management has been more involved and more aware of the value of dedicated and proactive safety personnel.

The work that I deliver is always welcome and respected. As per Covid 19 threath the possibility of not being there for my clients means the work can't be delivered. Therefore my work is even more appreciated now. Regards, Silvana

From my experience on HSE, I think that supervisors, engineers and upper management still don’t give enough importance to safety concerns regarding COVID-19 exposure between onsite employees and even other issues too, at least, minimize incidents occurrences. So, I feel that my EHS professional skills should be respected even more during and after the COVID-19 pandemic which gave people, in general, an idea of the importance of preventing health problems before their occurrence. Same procedure, training employees on good practices for safer clear work environment will, for sure, reduce the incidents rate.

Pre-Covid19 Pandemic, Thought process was as 'Safety is for self, Environment is some one's job, my role for others are negligible... and so on. After seeing the demise of near and dear during Covid, this pandemic gave a painful lesson, realized that adhering the safety culture and supporting environment control are the keys to keep next generation alive. Hence, listening and collaborating with EHS team is improved and value is respected.

OSHA has been weak in addressing industrial biohazards and consequently expertise among industrial and occupational hygienists is weak compared to chemical and physical agents in the workplace. Both OSHA and ABIH need to demand more expertise from HSE professionals. The Infection Preventionists are focused on patient infections and not employee biosafety hence there is a gap that has become obvious during the pandemic. Much to be done.

New World Order ,,,,Ignorance is fatal. Safety Health Environment and Protection should be made compulsive right from the primary level...

Yes, by the employees because saw that we were on the Frontline with them and we were working diligently to keep everyone safe and stay updated on new information concerning the virus. No, by leadership. It was tough to keep the hysteria down, communicate changes, plus continue daily task of a EHS professional. No recognition from Senior Leadership.

My employer is a construction company. During this pandemic, we were considered essential. Our field personnel worked everyday. The safety staff worked side by side with them. Because of our desire to work, to protect the safety of our co-workers, and share their risk, our field people do have a greater respect for our site safety personnel.

Covid created an army of armchair scientists, doctors, and risk managers. The covid precautions created made up risk management approaches that have devalued real safety or risk management.

All of the continual flip flopping on regulations and work rules has only devalued what we as safety professionals try to do on a daily basis. When you are put in a position to implement, then pull back, then re-implement different precautions, it is easy to see why the workforce has trouble trusting anything during this time.

The respect in my opinion is still the same. Upper management still feels EHS is always spending money or they feel they already are aware of issues, but as long as nothing harmful happens additional items are not needed. They do not wish for EHS to voice these changes or purchase of safety controls. This is mainly felt in not being consulted or invited to meetings. EHS has many staff that do confer with us and we do but in to Project Manges and Supervisors to discuss issue that the staff bring up. Luckily COVID has made somewhat of a change. Our area has not had it as bad the other large cities. The city and county have fought hard to oppose the state politics. EHS made recommendations and most were followed for protecting our employees and visitors. This was due to the Care funds given by the government to implement these, or at least most. Indoor Air Quality had the most impact. In addition, EHS recommended water bottle filling stations to be installed in place of drinking fountains and was approved as a sustainability matter of reducing plastic water bottle usage, as well as less sanitizing of the fountains. When upper management are this way you need inventive ways to get controls implemented.

Covid response has been so politicized and mis-used for political gain, that when something controversial like locking down businesses, shutting people in their homes, depriving people of their constitutional rights, hospital death policies, forcing people out of their livelihood or forcing masks/vaccinations in the name of "safety," it actually damages the safety profession and makes it harder to get people to value safety. If the pandemic had never happened my job as a safety professional would be more respected rather than discredited.

Kindly I can say yes because so many online schools have been created, like us in DR Congo we don't have any school where you can sturdy HSE courses but know we can be able to study it so that I replied on this question: Do you feel your professional skills are more respected than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic? Yes I will get my Diploma in HSE management soon Thank you. Regards Philemon Kamabu

In my experience, my safety knowledge, experience, and skills are more valued and utilized/called upon than my health knowledge, experience, and skills. I attribute this to the fact that I'm working in a non-healthcare work setting. I don't feel that this changed, for me, during the COVID-19 pandemic. All directions regarding COVID-19 policies and procedures came from a corporate committee with very little or no input from EHS managers at other facilities. Contact tracing and communication with associates regarding COVID-19 was handled by Human Resources. Should/Can EHS professionals be better equipped and called upon to assist in responding to endimic and pandemic response? Absolutely. It's a skillset I plan to work on in the coming months.

It's been my experience that supervisors and upper management are very quick to dismiss/hush safety concerns regarding COVID-19 exposure between onsite employees. Those in authority positions choose to make decisions that most benefit themselves without any regard for how their decisions negatively affect their subordinates. I've personally received 2 formal write ups from my supervisor almost immediately after internally disclosing what I believe to be unethical safety oversights and significant biases related to pay.

Everyone seems to be a "physician" nowadays; EHS is NOT qualified to answer any questions in regards to ANY illness outside of how it applies to the OHS laws; unless they are trained in medicine, otherwise it's an opinion and/or interpretation. As an EHS professional and Physician, it's offensive that a non-medical professional would assume to know more than anyone else; meaning a manager, supervisor, worker, etc.; ego gets in the way of worker health & safety every day... know your limits and this is where you must take personal responsibility for your health and safety. Proper sourcing of information is crucial at ALL stages of any risk assessment and policy implementation; this is OSH 101.

From the onset of COVID and through the peak, it has helped inspire professionals as now the workforce is all ears and taking us seriously, now we feel needed, instead of an inconvenient expense. the desire for guidance in safety and regulations are the now on the forefront of everyone's mind.

workers was Not told if another employee had covid even if they worked side by side and got sick they were pointed attendance points if unable to work when HR said for the employee to come back to work was told the dr had no right to tell her employees when to come back to work she did and they did not have to let anyone know about an employee being sick even though no names mentioned if the health dept or dr office told a person to quarentine for 10 days and HR said only 5 needed and did not come back in those 5 days following dr orders they were attendance pointed which at the time was Not supposed to happen

Absolutely not. We were forced to try to enforce a load of lies and unattainable expectations or lose business and possibly face fines. We wrote rules that we knew were unrealistic or unenforceable, and, together with our employees, became experts at doing what was required (even if it was blatant nonsense) and nothing more.

Covid response has been so politicized and mis-used for political gain while leaving the medical Doctors confused without finding an amicable solution to this virus which is the disappointing part for me.

I don't know why we would be more respected when following CDC guidance made us look like contradictory fools. "Masks aren't needed. Save them for the people working in health care". "Masks are mandatory for all people in every work place". We knew before the pandemic that anything less than a N-95 mask was practically useless, yet we bowed to the CDC who was not basing their recommendations on science. I think the whole pandemic experience damaged our credibility and certainly the credibility of the CDC.

I feel like this was a time when our expertise should have been used but was ignored and the information from outside sources was used. CDC was the go-to for my employer and my opinion was not even requested and even ignored. Even knowing our working environment better, I was not included in any decisions. I feel most safety and EHS professionals were not even asked to be included in guidelines and plans when it should have been our area to provide it.