A Grower Perspective

For years we've heard stories of nurseries and other businesses having unexpected OSHA inspection visits. Last week was our turn.

Safety has always been a big deal to us. We have a formal safety committee and they meet regularly. We have staff safety trainings. We conduct safety walk-throughs and nursery-wide safety inspections. We keep pretty meticulous records. We send employees to safety and workers' comp workshops and bring in training videos and informational handouts. Our production crews even do morning stretching exercises. It's certainly not like we don't try. But is it enough? We would soon find out.

Our OSHA inspector was a nice guy. He wasn't the ominous, unrelenting interrogator figure we had imagined we might get someday. Over the course of two days, he was unbelievably thorough in his questioning and walk-through. Wow. If there was a stone unturned, you'd be hard-pressed to find it. We were exhausted by the time it was over - completely and totally mentally exhausted. But we survived. Hallelujah!

What did we learn? We learned that were doing a pretty darn good job addressing safety at our company. We learned that we have been more on-the-mark with our efforts than even we thought. We learned that you cannot ever document safety efforts too much. We learned that we need to always back off the regulator on a cutting torch after use. We learned to keep all our safety records and documentation and training tools stored in one spot so they're easy to find come an inspection. (Or at any time for that matter!) And ultimately we learned that, if you're making a true effort and honest in the OSHA inspection process, an OSHA visit isn't so scary. I'm guessing they can smell a company with a lack of focus on safety a mile away but if you're working hard to create a safe work environment, they'll see it and ultimately give you information and insight to make it even safer.

What's the bottom line? As the owners of the nursery, when it comes to our business, ultimately we don't care about anything more than we care about our employees' safety. If one of our employees were to get very seriously injured or if we were to experience a fatality at our workplace, you'd find both Dave and me inconsolable and curled up in the fetal position somewhere. We care deeply for these people. Nothing is worth risking their health and welfare. We work hard to do everything humanly possible to ensure every employee here a safe workplace.

While the OSHA inspection process was stressful and exhausting, mostly because we didn't know what to expect, we felt quite proud that we fared so well. We realize now that we're doing much better than we thought. Ultimately we learned a lot in the process and the inspector helped us learn to be even better in our safety efforts. So now if anyone asks us if about OSHA inspections, we can proudly say "We survived!"