2022 Job Outlook

Respondent comments on COVID-19

What lessons have been learned? | Will COVID-19 have a lasting impact on OSH?
Has it changed your feelings about the profession?

What lessons have been learned?

Keep planning for the worst case scenario.

The government will overreach the moment it has the chance, and everything is politicized.

We need more people to be safety-minded and safety-conscious, including about upcoming dangers, not just the ones we already know about.

Don't believe the government.

Sudden change can happen at any time, and we are to adapt.

Honestly there isnt enough room here on how I feel about the state of this country ... media ... government ... politics and the mass hysteria they push at people.

Hospitals need to allocate more space and material budgets for pandemic preparedness. Too many were caught off guard due to JIT supply chains and leadership disbelief that such an incident would happen with so little notice.

Masks are useless.

We need to be better prepared and have additional resources.

There will always be some people who believe what they want to believe regardless of reason or facts.

We have the ability to act quickly to ever-changing mandates.

SHE professionals need to be wary and prepared to be excluded from SHE activities which are very high profile. Management will not support educated practices over trendy public opinions.

Maximum flexibility, ability to pivot to changing situations and circumstances, better preparation and having PPE on hand, rotating stock, etc.

That our government as a whole places greater emphasis on political attitude than genuine safety of the work force.

Proper hygiene is the key to staying healthy.

People matter, in different ways than we thought. Exposure in and out of work became a challenge, education became a challenge, shifting culture and mental health became a challenge.

Prevention with good, accurate data. A political scientist is not a source for biological data.

We need to stop believing politicians, experts and CDC.

That safety plans are dynamic and need to be implemented and upheld by all levels of management, not just binders that sit on the shelf. One safety manager can not create and institute a solid safety culture unless they are supported from top to bottom with buy- in and a sense of responsibility from all employees.

Evolution of the way we do business needs to be at the forefront of our business planning to ensure we protect our most important assets first, Our People.

Don't take anything for granted.

Leadership and integrity are waning.

1. Resilience
2. Compliance
3. Thinking out of the box
4. Empathy
5. Health and Safety First
6. Proactive
7. Having a family to support during these times
8. Need to look beyond one's self – community work to be done
9. Support, cooperate with local health authorities and guidelines
10. Never ignore minor health issues.

Follow the science.

Not many. Corporate America embraces this idea that a trained professional in one skill set can take on and absorb another and another. While the brain is a magnificent machine, to effectively do three or more jobs in one day's time is absurd. Some will fall through the cracks and safety is usually the topic. Workplace accidents and injuries are the leading cost of monies lost associated with Workman's Compensation. Have a dedicated safety professional do their job and watch the statics lower.

I feel the entire United States needs to review what happen, how things were handled and what it has done to American economy as a whole. How the entire economy and supplies chain has been effected and not for the better. People are wanting a handout, rather than working for their living.

Media and government perception can sway some public opinion, however forcing changes in the way of life and demonizing non-conformers is not an effective way to govern or lead a team.

Don't believe everything you are told, conduct your own research.

Avoid knee jerk reactions, create the plans and procedures.

Too many, I guess. We are always learning new things and are always open to lessons learned.

PPE and safe work practices are key when facing a hazard that cannot be eliminated or easily contained.

People put own beliefs, right or wrong, above safety.

Have a robust business continuity plan that is reviewed every year with practice scenarios that explore the impact to supply chain and key infrastructure needs of the company, including critical PPE needs that a company relies on to function. Policies have been developed to handle a pandemic and moving forward there will be a quicker response and more people will know what to do and it won't be a reactive measure that you learn along the way because there's more experience to draw from.

Add additional staff members, if possible, during a global pandemic.

Volumes of recommendations and protocols have been developed over the last couple of years. Outlines for a logical approach to future events need to be further developed.

Government over-reaction to a pandemic leads to unintended consequences.

I think better planning and better continuity planning.

Business Continuity plans need to be up to date and health and safety need to play a bigger role in helping the departments keep them up to date. Most importantly, health and safety needs more people. We can't do it with the staff we currently have. Our EOC needs to be trained and the policy group needs to be an advisory group to the EOC rather than the run all from the top. Egos and hierarchy have no place in the EOC.

Entirely too broad a question! Literally 1000’s of lessons learned!

An infected employee can infect multiple employees if not caught immediately.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, not for anyone person in the world.

Work hard.

Safety first, everywhere, anywhere, anytime.There is no second chance.

Not a new lesson, just a reminder that people always hate change.

You have to be nimble and able to react to changes, and your relationship with the organizational leadership is very important.

Housekeeping is essential. Understanding the practical use of PPE. The importance of PPE. Having a response plan in place is crucial.

For an issue outside of our area of expertise, I had to self-train, so I have to be careful where am I getting my training/learning from – are they a reputable source? And how can I present this info to employees and management in an easy-to-understand format that accurately depicts the risks and calms fears of an unknown?

Our profession is evolving.

Gain experience and be versatile.

Politics will have a large impact on how willing a workforce is to accept controls that are perceived as a personal choice. Unless the hazard is immediate and clear, or the control benefits the user, public health will not be a successful lever to improve worker safety.

Messaging is very important, with COVID more than maybe anything else. People need to understand WHY the rules are the way they are, and additionally, there must be discipline and counseling structures in place for when people flaunt the rules.

Flexibility has been greatest lesson learned. Relying on daily stats to determine the course of action.

To be cautious of what information is told to you to believe and what information is actually truthful.

Too many to list.

More disaster/health emergency pre-planning and developing continuity of operations plans are necessary.

Being proactive is more beneficial than waiting for government agencies to respond. My company were having Pandemic response meetings as early as late February 2020. Purchases for sanitizer, masks, and cleaning supplies were made beginning mid February 2020. We were able to keep the company open without a shutdown through the pandemic.

How vulnerable our economic system is to worker availability.

Flexibility is key and not to take all things on face value – do your own research.

I don't like my job. I applied for four other safety jobs. Only made it as a finalist. I think employers have the cream of the crop applicants nowadays. The great resignation is a joke – it only works if you're looking down the career ladder, not up it.

Pay less attention to biased "information" and more to facts that can be supported.

The basics of safety and health stay the same. Employees have become aware of the necessity of basic hygiene and safety.

I've learned the value of building personal trust and knowing my insureds' operations before I engage them, so I can begin right away in working on falls, struck-by, caught-in hazards.

We learned how to respond to a pandemic and have SOPs in place now. If another disease becomes a pandemic threat, then we can enact many of the same protocols we had to find solutions for in regards to quarantining/isolation, implementing remote working for those job roles capable, symptoms check-ins prior to being allowed in the facility to work, employee tracking for contact tracing purposes, intensified routine cleaning and disinfecting, isolation/cleaning/disinfecting protocols for areas an infected person was working in if symptoms developed at work, and so on and so forth.

If an employee feels any kind of symptoms related to COVID they should not be made to work just because test shows negative.

It's always good to have contingencies in place for the "impossible" or "unlikely." I pitched a pandemic plan in 2008 or so when the first mentions of bird flu were made. Management thought I was overreacting. It was nice to have a head start when COVID-19 came along (and be vindicated, too!). Also, it is important for the employer to have a mental health and wellness program as well. Not necessarily a OSH topic, but we did find that this was a weak spot in general, and that expertise beyond OSHA safety and health was needed.

Please make sure your employer will allow you to make the right choice for both the company and its employees.

Many

I think it's been shown that safety applies to many more areas than previously thought.

Plan, plan, and plan. Then hope you’ve planned right.

The job of a safety professional is never finished. The profession is always changing and the way that people measure success makes long-term job satisfaction difficult.

Hygiene is important.

People are generally resilient, but components of staff are unable to deal with change.

Time will tell.

Everyone wants to do things their way, right or wrong!

React quicker but not overreact.

You can never have enough of PPE items (like masks) that do not have a shelf life associated with them.

Most of our COVID cases were NOT from getting sick from other employees at work.

Push without being seen to push. Fight, just not outright. Affect change slowly and make it look as if they came up with the fix.

Taking care of yourself and your family is a priority.

What are "acceptable" masks to wear to prevent the spread of COVID-19? There was so much misinformation spread by Dr. Fauci and the media and the rhetoric flipped halfway through the pandemic. Initially, we were told that everyone needs to wear a mask unless you are vaccinated then you don't have to wear one. Then reports came out stating that regardless if you are vaccinated or not, you need to wear a mask. It really had safety departments/divisions losing a lot of credibility and trust because of this flip-flop. Then you could spend a ton of time talking about which masks were our employees wearing? Across the board, employees were wearing either KN95 or N95 masks, surgical masks, or homemade masks made of cotton t-shirts without proper knowledge about how the "correct/proper" masks do a way better job at preventing the spread of viruses. Lastly, we learned about what acceptable hand sanitizer was in regard to which ones killed the COVID-19 virus on contact and which did not.

More consideration and compassion for employees.

Public health is weak in its funding and power. Forces like mandates are likely to move the field into employee protection, and the forces are moving back to business as usual.

We have to prepare and have disaster plans and contingency plans. We have to plan for things to be different in the future and nothing should be considered normal.

Political correctness keeps our seat at the table, but at the little kids table.

I have learned we can all learn from other OSH professionals across different industries to improve our organizations. I have learned that safety is not just about having an OSH professional on the payroll; it's about boots on the ground, teamwork, and organizational support from the top down. I have learned it is so important to maintain momentum and provide feedback to those employees actively participating in safety programs.

If there is a silver lining that came out of the virus it is that people hopefully have learned the need to take care of themselves and their health. The United States suffers from a large percentage of obesity and the health issues that accompany this disease. It was established very early on in the pandemic that our venerable populations as well as those with health issues were more susceptible to severe consequences from COVID-19. An emphasis on personal hygiene and washing one's hands is another positive outcome that can prevent the spread of other viruses and bacterial infections among our populations.

How truly immature too many Americans can be. Some of today's generation would not have made it through WWII rationing and sacrifices because they are so spoiled/ shallow/self-centered. How hard is it to wear a mask or get three very gentle shots?

We need to have guidance that doesn't change every day, or every week. There needs to be a standard plan on how to effectively roll out additional CONSISTENT safety "rules."

People can be productive working from home, they do not want to come back to work. Employers want people to come back to work.

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Do you believe the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on the OSH profession?

I can see more added job functions going forward.

In the end we are trying to protect against job hazards (fall protection, basic PPE, etc.) – not to stop outside factors that are also society factors.

I have a whole new aspect to my job that is noticed by upper leadership. We may even make a new public health department / function. I am glad that these new aspects are being integrated into S+H so we can collaborate with HR and focus more on "total worker health" for other reasons too.

Organizations find value with EH&S professionals including management of pandemic-related issues, among others.

It allows for virtual delivery.

It has made management more appreciative of the EHS function.

The world will eventually get back to being normal again.

I think you're going to see some EH&S folks who "survived" working in healthcare move to consulting or insurance – away from the healthcare industry. The pandemic is going to be in the minds of healthcare for the next five years for sure in terms of Emergency Preparedness.

I am over dealing with it. Time to get back to work.

Eventually there will be regulations for infectious diseases that OSHA will enforce and this will affect the safety profession.

New construction – barriers, separation – carriers own space etc.

More awareness for EHS and PPE.

It was just another issue that the profession had to manage.

I believe certain high public profile SHE in the future will result in corporations being more concerned with the politics of health matters, rather than maintaining proper, educated safety perspectives.

Need to be prepared for any situation that may arrise. There will continue to be variations of the COVID-19 virus and new viruses will come along from time to time. With this experience behind us every organization should be better equipped to respond and manage the hazards and risks.

More focus on health related aspects of the role with increased pressure to perform additional tasks while not increasing staff or bandwidth capabilities of the current team.

Create new rules as well that place a greater strain on all safety aspects. The suspicion and misguidance that anyone with a sniffle is COVID-19 positive has only been further reinforced by the political agendas of our government officials, causing many to believe that all the additional rules are being put into place to line some one pocketsm not protect the workforce.

I hope not. COVID is twice as bad as the flu, but illness happens. The huge restrictions were overregulation by the government, which did a great deal more harm than good.

The value of having someone available to employees virtually 24/7 brought the profession into a much closer view by ownership of the company.

Because of the initial "fight back" response from management on recommendations, and then conceding to the state mandates, it became frustrating. The older experts are preparing to retire perhaps a little earlier than they had planned. We are tired of fighting.

People are ready to move on with the rest of their lives. People want to perform their crafts. There is a sense of pride and self worth. Lock out, fall protection, HAZCOM are more of a concern for my customers.

Better prepared to react to incidents quickly to keep your workforce safe with limited production interruptions.

It was never a pandemic, it was a political football.

Hopefully, with the amount of government attention given to infectious disease contingency plans, other programs will get focus and attention on leading indicators.

We can't go back. The lack of focus on biological issues in the workplace needs to be a continued focus for all trades.

OSHA now has it as an agenda item to handle it as a communicable disease and how employers are to handle and record.

COVID-19 and its variants are not going away for a long time, if it ever does. Only after everyone is vaccinated and continues to use personal distancing will we overcome it. It is my personal opinion the virus was genetically engineered to do exactly what it is doing. The virus was programed to have a new variant every three or so months. This keeps the government off center and continues to require large budgets for research. Eventually lets hope a vaccine will be developed that can address all of the variants to alleviate the virus for good. We have done it before with polio, and some others but is going to be slow for the pharmaceutical companies to do this.

A narrative gone wrong on so many fronts.

Without doubt! It will be a cornerstone for all economic activity – in decision making!

Infectious disease prevention is at the fore now. Much more emphasis on health and well-being.

Doing more with less is never the correct approach to safety and this is exactly what was happening before COVID and now after because so many people left their jobs.

In my position I was told not to discuss it with anyone, and Quality Control would advise and handle anything COVID-19 related. I have been handling safety at this plant for over 17 years – received and discussed pandemic parameters with management back in 2000 – they ignored the attempts to discuss. So as this continued I went about life with no changes. As a manufacturing food facility our GMP was already in place to ease the spread of the virus. No program or plan has been discussed.

COVID-19 was handled by a mix of safety professionals and human resources at my company. Had the ETS been made into a standard then it may have some impact, otherwise I don't foresee the profession changing based on the virus.

I believe it will have many lasting impacts some of which may not have even occurred or been contemplated yet.

Reduces job opportunities.

COVID-19 caught everyone off guard. The temporary measures of working remote are now a fact of business and will create new challenges beyond the office/field workplace ...

We are of course worried about protecting the workplace as a whole. Biological is part of the system and safety at the workplace.

Increased focus on personal hygiene and disease transmission.

Do not expect much change to the profession.

There were a lot of lessons learned and benefits that came from our experiences with the pandemic. Business continuity planning and emergency response as well as preventative measures were all important aspects of protecting the health and safety of our employees. HSE professionals were front and center to make a lot of the important decisions that had direct impact on the workforce and business. HSE professionals were pivotal in this time of crisis.

Additional tasks were thrown on almost every EHS professional I spoke with during the pandemic. I'm a director-level employee who is a salaried employee, so I'm not shy about putting in additional time when it is required. However, nearly no organizations I know of added additional support to the safety department during the pandemic. This resulted in working 75+ hour work weeks for months on end. I'm burnt out at this point and even as we come out of the pandemic I've noticed a large number of employees are on edge. I don't know that this will be something that we see for years, however for the next few months, or possibly years, this will have an effect on EHS professionals.

Regulations will be set forth to help manage infectious diseases and occupational hazards brought on by pandemics or world health issues.

The COVID pandemic may result in a change in focus for many safety professionals to be more concerned about virus outbreaks than other safety and health hazards.

The pandemic has hopefully prepared us for the future and we will now have processes in place that we didn't have in place prior. Let's hope we learn from this.

“Lasting” only in the sense that it could and will likely happen again. Will be better prepared going forward.

By having to learn more and watch other variables pertaining to airborne pathogens.

COVID "items" will subside over time once hospitalization rates continue to be stable for the illness with increased vaccination rates as needed.

Safety has to be practised not only in the workplace but everywhere that man interacts with the environment

Our job is to train personnel on our policies and procedures. To me it makes no difference what the training covers.

It is just another "hazard" that is new and needs to be addressed with the proper protocols. It is just more complex because it impacts everyone. Unlike many other hazards, you can recommend protocols to management and they do not necessarily need to follow them.

The need for health and safety professionals within an organization will be needed to manage future emerging diseases as well as the conventional injury and illness prevention challenges.

We have to become knowledgeable about issues (like COVID) that may be outside of our area of expertise. And like COVID, constantly updating our knowledge to be on top of a constantly evolving/changing issue.

Hopefully, clean workplaces, trash collection and keeping sick people from spreading what they have will become standard practices and norms.

Adjustments to new rules, CDC guidelines and procedures have effected training and interactions for professionals working in the field of safety.

More attention to PPE in general. More employees are aware of what PPE is available.

Different areas of safety concerns very few thought about.

We have learned the hazards and they are like having the flu. We need to continue to follow cleaning procedures as we have been taught since kindergarden.

We've shown the powers that be that we are able to take on responsibilities outside our current scope of work.

I believe it adds on more tasks within the work industry for safety professionals. Safety professionals will be the key to solutions for new issues.

Better prepared for future pandemics.

I think it was valued by upper management; but at the labor level, I think there was more hostility over mask and vaccine mandates.

Again, for some people it's really brought S&H to the forefront of their thoughts and that can be good. On the other hand, several S&H skeptics feel that their skepticism is justified because we required them to follow rules which their favorite talk show hosts deride as propaganda.

Pandemic procedures were not considered priority since SARS.

I believe we have learned to live with COVID and will treat it like the flu or common cold.

Extra work

There maybe procedural and regulatory changes due to disease transmission but overall occupational safety and health has not changed. The thing that should change is having people wear masks when the respiratory disease load in a county is high not just COVID. COVID is a respiratory disease and the steps you take to protect yourself from COVID will help with influenza and the common cold.

More people will become engaged and keep a focus on safety and health for their employees.

I think the pandemic will heighten safety professionals' response to future epidemics and pandemics. Knowing a road once traveled allows one to refine responses and actions for future disruptions.

Healthy people as part of safety will be more focused and consistent.

Anyone with the word "safety" in their job title has a little more respect than pre-COVID.

The only somewhat lasting effect is the residue involving politics and misinformation.

Government and some employers are hellbent on making this pandemic, now epidemic, carry on as long as possible as it makes firing and draconian rules easier to implement.

The federal and states' responses to the pandemic to often deputize their professional OSH corps to enforce matters of public health has made it harder for me to earn trust among the insured clients I serve in an injury prevention capacity, If our profession didn't have enough of a "cop" image before, it sure does now.

It will because it provided a real example for preparing and planning for unexpected events. As a manufacturer, we had never considered protocols and contingency plans for a pandemic. Now that the blueprint had to be created in response to COVID-19, non-healthcare entities have plans that would address another pandemic such that companies are more prepared to not be caught off guard by such an event that they are starting from scratch like we had to. OSH professionals outside of healthcare have now been introduced to infection control practices, risk assessment and mitigation for communicable diseases that the majority of OSH professionals had previously no reason to really think about and plan for.

Adds to an already long list of things we are responsible for. And when it comes right down to it, it is my name on the programs so I will be the responsible one for lack of upper management following in place.

We are the ones who most employees turn to for answer, about what, how, and will that get paid.

Only a matter of time before the next issues comes about.

Holding employers to a higher standard for protecting employees from diseases.

More people now now what PPE is. What we say does matter.

Changes are needed to keep up with the new outbreaks and to stay ahead of the game.

I feel it has made additional positions that will be converted from COVID to regular H&S work moving forward.

Compared to all that safety entails, the impact has been minor.

The legacy of mental health issues is likely to outlive the pandemic by a decade or more.

I think that procedures and processes that we implemented during the pandemic will be kept ready to dust off immediately if we see this again. Also, our business will be more receptive to illness.

No going back to where we were. The world has changed. We may require years before we can fully appreciate just how much things have changed.

Keeping up with the daily changes of must do and don't do's. The additional stress that it has added to our positions can never be measured. Trying to keep up with the ongoing daily changes is almost impossible. And trying to get owners to understand that things have to be followed in a certain manner is again almost impossible.

Yes, I hope the profession will learn lessons from this pandemic and use them to respond better in the future without overreaction.

Just in what we track, organizationally how we set up projects.

I feel that safety professionals are in a great position within organizations to direct efforts throughout the multiple job classifications concerning most any global issue due to the knowledge of the diversity of activities that should be address to include all employees and how best to go about doing just that. Additionally, employee and management trust should already be there for safety efforts, which streamlines the efforts to make positive impacts.

Not in the construction aspect.

I think the pandemic was more of a political agenda or what information (either accurate or erroneous) the media would share with the public in reference to the current political climate. Initially, everything was about making the vaccination mandatory (ETS failure) and forcing people to get a vaccination that did not prevent a person from getting the virus or worse yet, infecting other people with it.

I have seen more companies take an interest in wellness programs for employees.

Employers will want to forget the pandemic ever happened. The cost to the bottom line is too great, and they believe another pandemic will not happen for another 100 years. I do not think like this.

It has required us to take on a bigger role with managing infectious disease and partnering with janitorial, facilities and HR even more closely than before.

We will continue to cave in to political correctness and exclude science.

I believe more decision makers will see the importance of these professionals for the productivity and sustainability of their organizations. Whether a significant shift in how OSH professionals are viewed in the context of organizational viability remains to be seen.

Even as the world's population has learned so much about viruses, COVID-19 has not been eradicated and possibly never will. We are still in a waiting game as different strains and variants continue to arise. Safety and health professionals must remain vigilant and stay on top of these developments indefinitely.

We have so many other issues to tackle besides COVID.

I believe it will add more responsibilities and reinforce old ones. It may have shown the importance of health and safety professionals.

With more and more people working from home, then I see companies laying off safety people

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Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your feelings about the occupational safety and health profession?

I haven't seen the profession change since COVID. I have always felt that we must prepare for the worst to happen and hope for the best.

Will be we asked in the future to make up plans for pandemics, and how does safety work with HR on those plans and responses.

We are more noticed and appreciated now, though at times we have to make unpopular decisions (like requiring masks because CDC and OSHA do, even if the local area does not).

The COVID is a hoax.

There is an increased tendency to collaborate with EH&S professionals.

Technology allows for virtual delivery.

The university shut down classroom training and went to web-based training. I felt that I didnt get the hand- on training like before, especially when it came to asking for information or a question.

I'm burned out from working in a hospital during all of this.

If anything it is a distraction to the field as we have been focused on COVID.

OSHA's guidance documents and ETS I felt overstepped their boundaries for employee health and safety. I am glad the Supreme Court ruled differently on the ETS, otherwise EHS would have changed for the worse as precedence would have been established to now start monitoring and addressing other types of illnesses such as the flu.

For some reason management believes that safety professionals should handle anything related to health.

Added mandated protocols along with normal activities but not getting more resources/support.

The profession is being forced to move into areas that are not truly work-related.

We are taken a little more seriously &ndahs; value has been seen through appropriate pandemic response.

It was just another issue that the profession had to manage.

COVID exposed a shift to use HR and legal functions to drive health policy to the exclusion of SHE professionals. The public nature caused management to not rely upon SHE groups and instead focus on public perceptions and politics.

The pandemic was and continues to be a reality. The H&S professionals had a role in ensuring organizations maintained healthy and safe workplaces which included preparing and implementing plans for managing the hazards and risks associated with, stemming from the pandemic, and ever-changing governmental regulations.

The majority of the tasks prior to COVID-19 for the health and safety professional focused on the safety aspect of the role; however, following COVID-19 more emphasis and focus is on the health side of the role.

My feelings have not changed.

Safety has always been a top priority. We just made a few changes during the height of COVID.

When the daily focus was on employees' (and their families') health, and how an organization was required to provide methods of ensuring said health, suddenly there was a shift in the importance of configuration of the plant, personal hygiene and other mitigating measures beyond how to safely run a machine or work with chemicals.

Now, more than ever, our expertise is needed to help keep everyone in the facility safe. This includes employees, contractors, visitors and even the truck drivers picking up parts.

We became the COVID Safety Police and it seemed like there were fewer resources available.

It has affected our business. I use science-based data from multiple sources to ensure accuracy in my training. COVID has discredited many of the agencies I obtain data from.

It is a flu, way over-acted.

The pandemic was the best thing for health and safety at my job – it forced upper management to take notice of the need and requirements for workplace safety programs. However, the company, overall, keeps taking on new employees and new projects without any thought of the foundational safety programs that still aren't in place for what we already have, nor the capacity of a one-person department to catch up and keep up.

If anything it has shown more value to the safety and health position with more responsibilities.

I do not feel OSHA and/or the Biden Administration handled the COVID-19 pandemic well. They were forcing employers, and still are to a point, to be the enforcer for employees (people) to get vaccinated.

Facts needs to be the basis for what we do in safety to keep our employees safe – not the propaganda and lies put forth from the government or anyone else. The facts were rejected on COVID and this has lead to mistrust of everything that comes out pf most any government institution on this topic.

How to work safely in a virtual setting.

I believe the profession bowed to their knees going with the "flow."

It's made our jobs a lot more complex.

It heightened the importance of the survival of the hunan race and organization/economic activity.

S&H was always important.

Just one more thing on the list. I've had to change the handbook, not the safety manual, to cover any sickness in general that may be viral

We still need these professional employees to help businesses succeed and stay ahead of the ever-thrown curve ball that happens almost daily. Someone who is already overworked and overwhelmed is not your best safety advocate.

We worked thru COVID, with very little change. The only effect was in 2021 we had several employees decide to leave the company with no work lined up. I find that very odd and can't even begin to understand how a person just leaves with no other job lined up. I am assuming they found several better options available as we work a 24/7 operation with 6-day rotation, very seldom having weekends off.

It's helped bring value to the profession by establishing how important the role is. I hope companies don't go backwards once it gets better.

OSHA's push for an emergency technical standard addressing COVID did nothing to provide a solution for managing the pandemic, but it did everything to emphasize holding employers accountable for a world health issue. COVID brought forth the OSHA emphasis on enforcement.

We are always worried about safety whether it's pandamic or worksite. It is always changing for the better.

Still feel the same. It is important but management does not think so.

I was and still am greatly opposed to OSHA trying to mandate vaccinations, etc.

There's more focus on safety than there has been before, and more value put on the HSE profession. The HSE professional is a more desirable role and in high demand.

Since COVID-19 I have lost my love for the profession. I understand we made the necessary changes to combat the COVID-19 virus and it was for the better of our community. However people are now more on edge than ever before and I missed the ability to get hands on with a craftsmen/women and show them with personal training. Social distancing made this nearly impossible and also the general attitude of the workers isn't what it was pre-pandemic. I have a passion for safety and seeing that all the men and women on my project sites are given the ability to go home to their loved ones daily. However I have thought about switching career fields numerous times since the pandemic occurred.

Local, state and federal changes and constant re-evaluation of policies and protocols has created a significant burden for most safety professionals. It detracts from the enjoyment of the safety responsibilities.

The U.S. Department of Labor has taken OSHA's focus off overall workplace safety and placed the majority of the focus on pandemic-related issues, especially in the healthcare industry.

I think it brought us more but different work.

With the pandemic, within my organization, I have had to do more with less. It has been an extremely stressful two years.

COVID-19 is a “risk/hazard” not unlike any other we deal with in the EHS profession. I took it all in stride with a company that navigated the pandemic confidently with full transparency!

Just by taking more precautions to keep employees safe.

COVID "items" will subside over time once hospitalization rates continue to be stable for the illness with increased vaccination rates as needed.

You have to exercise all the skills that you know in order to overcome the pandemic.

Our job is to train personnel on are policies and procedures. To me it makes no difference what the training covers.

Just added some additional complications.

The pandemic validated the necessity for safety and health professionals as essential members of the organziation.

I still have my same drive for H&S; however, with COVID I had to become knowledgeable about a medical issue, rather than a chemical/physical/biological issue. At first I didn't understand why employees were looking to me for H&S info on COVID? Is it because I have "health" in my job title?! It has been stressful to be looked at for H&S knowledge of a subject I'm not formally trained in, and at the beginning of COVID there wasn't a lot of H&S info I could provide.

Protection from workplace hazards would include dealing with infectious agents and preventing/limiting spread so it is another aspect of safety and health.

Just like any other health issue. As a safety person we have to adapt and overcome.

Not enough response to government overreach regarding guidance, regulations and mandates.

We are consistently being asked to add to our job functions.

It was the second-worst thing I have had to work through as a professional. I (and many others) were completely unprepared for this. Our education or continuing education was woeful and felt like a major blindspot. I doubt I would have wanted to become a safety professional if I would have realized the amount of politics that came with this pandemic.

Well, I think it's helped bring safety and health to the forefront, so that's good. On the other hand, good safety reps deliver clear, consistent messaging, and most COVID messaging delivered by state and federal health authorities has been anything but. So then we as safety professionals look like stooges when we require compliance with rules that seem to change frequently, but don't always seem to make sense.

It has not made a change about how I feel about the industry.

My feeling remains the same, but the focus and priorities have changed. Working from home has created new challenges.

I do not feel safety has changed due to COVID. The way we did things before has not changed what we do now. We did make some adjustments for about six months, but we got back to doing things the way we did pre-pandemic.

I believe the need for our profession has become more evident and we are no longer looked at as the "compliance cops."

No effect.

My main purpose is to keep workers safe from occupational illnesses and injuries. COVID-19 was just a disease that introduced itself and the population had to adjust. In time it will become an endemic disease and the main focus of occupational safety and health will be back to the workplace and the injuries and illnesses caused there.

Safety and health is a major concern for city government.

The pandemic has been a challenge for me over the last two years. First of all, it was nothing I have experienced before as a safety professional. Standards, regulations, and requirements to reduce the spread of the pandemic has driven me to drive my senior management team to take a serious look at preventing the spread while maintaining production rates. I don't know if I would have taken the position 2.4 years ago, if I knew I would have to face the challenges of the pandemic.

Much more to consider than before.

People now know what PPE is.

Too much misinformation, too much politics and too little "bottom line" facts – too political and too much biased information.

Emphasized the need for the profession. Highlighted the essential nature of the job. Highlighted the need to keep abreast of matters and continuing professional updates.

It's helped clarify the need to focus on what's truly work-related and what directly causes injuries and illnesses, and not become a victim of mission-creep.

Me personally, I am the one that has been assigned to do the COVID-19 testing for our company. I have received a lot more than average when it comes to exposure.

It made me that person, for management to go to concerning employees who have COVID-19, and how to ensure other employees are safe and are following CDC and state health guidelines.

I think it's making us look at diseases that could possibly affect the workplace.

Turned us all into “infectious disease experts” because we were “safety.”

I feel it has shown our worth as a profession but also how non-H&S professionals feel they can give their opinion on COVID/H&S matters when we are the experts. It's been frustrating to have to argue with others about policy, when we wouldn't be giving input into their expertise.

COVID has presented significant staffing challenges. With the shortage of employees, and the frequency of new employees, the job of ensuring a safe workplace has dramatically changed. We now have to be much more mindful of the inexperience and ensure that new hire training is very robust.

This was not an occupational disease.

Made it clear how important qualified and experienced professionals and people with knowledge are. Professionals do not have a corner on the market for quality H&S personnel in the workplace.

Safety from communicable diseases is now a major factor.

Safety positions should be at the executive level.

It has added a lot of extra stress!

Even though we have had to focus more on the "health" aspect, it is still a part of the safety focus for EHS professionals.

It gave me extra duties when the pandemic broke out. I became an essential employee at my work and never missed a day of not being here through that time period. I was also given the extra title of Health and Safety Coordinator for tracking COVID illnesses with our employees. That title was a requirement by the state to identify an individual who could do that job.

What was unsafe before 19 is still unsafe!! Until safety reps are given protection from the companies they monitor it will never be truly safe. Just ask those pushed out.

No major changes. I am an RN as well as a safety mManager so I have not changed many of the preventive processes.

I believe it allowed all safety professionals the golden opportunity to research programs that probably have been in place for years (BBP, infectious disease, respiratory protection, and PPE assessments) to ensure they are still relevant and applicable to the pandemic. Plus, many safety professionals had an opportunity to be a resource to HR departments with regard to cleaning chemicals, cleaning schedules, PPE use, social distancing, etc.

I have always held safety and health in a high regard.

I worked in medicine before taking this safety position in construction and have always believed infectious diseases needed more attention. in the field.

We are now recognized for being able to cover a bigger scope, but my feelings have not changed.

We didn't take the lead. We let the public health people take the lead and fell into the "back seat." We allowed the poor science to dominate because we felt that speaking up would put us in a bad light. We lost our questioning attitude that got us where we once were. We didn't do the right thing and are all guilty of ethical violations for going along with the political science and not real science.

As our office of management and budget removed positions (more than 70) due to budget constraints precipitated by the pandemic I observed in disbelief as OSH positions were included and the management staff I approached about writing a justification to keep even one of those positions that related to OSH were denied. Reasons included "Not needed at this time, but we can re-visit when the need becomes critical or is mandated." I now believe more education and awareness at the senior management level, across work groups (i.e. finance, administration, operations) are vital to the profession being aligned as integral to organizations and not just something decision makers can prioritize and in this case deprioritize based on circumstances.

While this has always been the goal of the profession, the pandemic certainly added another layer of work within the scope of safety professional's responsibilities. The novel nature of it coupled with unprecedented overreactions in many cases by the United States, and world thrust safety and health professionals into potentially more prominent roles of decision-making as they were looked to for developing protocols and procedures to help keep their workforces safe and healthy. The CDC was looked to and highly used for guidance, but the organization struggled to stay above the political fray of the virus unfortunately.

But it confirmed in my mind how truly stupid the alt-right and their followers are!

It's hard to be a safety person to people that work from home!!

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