Woody the Safety Bloke asks you to ask questions of the people around you.
Who would get the phone call if you were hurt?
How would that person get to the hospital?
How would that person react to you getting hurt?
How would your life change if you could not work for a period of time?
How long would you cope financially?
How would you cope mentally & emotionally?
What would you miss most?
Good day, Woody again, hey listen I want to do something a little bit different this week for Woody’s words. I’m going to ask you a few questions and what I would like you to do is write down each of the questions that I ask you and when you get a minute, speak to your partner, a family member or a good mate and just ask them the questions that I’m going to ask you.
Now the first question is, who would get a phone call if you got hurt at work? Will be your partner, husband, wife or other, will be your parents and how would they react to that phone call?
Now the second question I want to ask you is how would that person get to the hospital and what would they have to do to get to where they were taking you for medical treatment? If they’re at work, would they have to arrange to get time off work? If you’ve got kids, would they have to organize to get someone to pick the kids up? Just take that a minute or so to think about some of the things that your partner or your, you know, significant other or whoever cares for you, what they would have to do to get to the hospital if you got hurt?
And the third thing I want to ask you to write down and ask someone that cares about you is how would they react to you getting hurt? now that’s a simple question but maybe discuss it with someone that you care about and that cares about you and have a think about their reaction to you being hurt.
Now the next question I want to ask you is how would your life change or how would you and your family be effected if you were unable to work for a long period of time and when I say a long period of time, I mean maybe a month, three months, six months or even if you’re out of work for twelve months, just have a think about some of the things that would have to change in your current situation that if you couldn’t work.
And what about financially, if you couldn’t earn the income that you’re earning currently for a long period of time or an extended period of time, do you have things in place or do you have the resources to be able to survive without earning an income for three months, six months, twelve months or even longer? Have to think about how would you cope financially?
And what about emotionally? I mean can you imagine what it’d be like not to be able to go to work for a long period of time, now I know we can have a joke about this and say might be great to have three months off for six months off but I think you know for me personally getting back to work was really important. I don’t think I would have coped if I couldn’t get back to work as quickly as possible so just think about how you’d survive emotionally and mentally if you were out of work for a period of time.
I think the last thing I want to ask you to think about for today is have a think about something that you really enjoy doing, something that you love doing on a daily basis or a weekly basis or a regular basis and then just try and imagine what it’d be like if because you were hurt or you’re injured, you couldn’t do it? How do you think you’ve coped not being able to do something that you really enjoy doing?
Well I hope that’s given you something to think about and maybe a little bit of a discussion with your family or good friends, you know, the reason I ask these questions is I don’t think I thought about any of those things before I got hurt and it’s not until after something like this happens to you that you start to realize just how much an injury changes your life and affects a lot of the people around you as well, so don’t yourself people, stay safe Australia.
