Rethinking the Safety Hero

Our obsession with individualism may be undermining workplace safety—here’s why collective responsibility and interdependence are key to real safety culture.

• By Robert Slocomb
• Nov 20, 2025

There are many myths that we Americans embrace, and the myth of triumphant self-reliance is in the top five. 

Let’s list our heroes: lone tycoons, solo cops, misunderstood dreamers, lone and desperate parents; each is resourceful, strong-hearted, and stubborn as nails. These are characters who achieve unbelievable results on their own time and dime. Fantasy industries are built on our self-reliant myth. Seriously, what would a movie be like that didn’t celebrate this tireless character?

So, my question is this: Yes, self-possessed people are special, but should their personal DNA weigh so heavily in safety programs?

Safety programs focus too often on safe workers, and why not. These workers practice what we preach, acting as we wish every worker would. We hold them higher than all others, especially when they are safe.  We should reward resourceful workers in our safety programs, so what’s my beef?  Bureau of Labor statistics.

For years, injury and fatality rates have been plateauing around 10% of OSHA’s 1971 founding levels. That’s fifty-four years ago.  Why don’t these numbers ever drop below 10%, to say 5% or 2%?  Or have we reached some impenetrable line?

I do not propose doing away with Safety Heroes, but instead I would like to see us stop elevating individuals above their teams. Celebrate small safety steps that our teams make every day. Go past the person and concentrate on people instead. Think of how meaningful it would be if everyone showed up on the safety poster and it was sincerely earned by each one of them? 

In her piece, ‘Beyond the Myth of Individual Responsibility,’ Rosa Antonio Carrillo, MSOD asks, “Why are people still dying or getting seriously injured in the workplace?”  She puts forward many sensible reasons for this inadequacy. To Ms. Carrillo, 

“Safety is a social science. It is relational. It is an outcome of human interactions with each other and the organizational and social system.” Carrillo believes that the kind of self-worship we Americans promote “can erode empathy, hinder genuine relationships, and ultimately create a less safe environment.” 

Good and lasting Safety missions take many believers, and many influencers. Carrillo advocates that ‘it takes a village to raise safe people,’ to edit the phrase.

She goes on, saying, “Individuals (usually) prioritize their own needs and ambitions over the safety or well-being of their colleagues…”

• “Individuals may be less likely to assist coworkers in need, report unsafe conditions or speak up when they witness unsafe behaviors.”
• “A narcissistic culture can foster an environment of competition and blame.”
• “An over individualistic culture can create a climate of fear and insecurity.”
• This can lead to “Individuals disregarding safety protocols and taking unnecessary risks to achieve their goals.
• “A similar erosion of collective responsibility can create a workplace where individuals are less likely to prioritize safety or look out for one another.”

If this sounds familiar to you, then you may be looking at a negatively based Safety policy that you didn’t think was there.  Consider how many incident reviews conclude with Operator Error.  These conclusions are lazy and needless, terrible in the case of injuries and fatalities.   If we celebrate an employee’s good behavior, let’s own their failures too.  Try applying “safer safety” on site.  Connect, interconnect, influence, and receive what you are looking for in a safety environment: a reliant ecosystem, where all parties – production, quality, and safety join for good.

Modern research, says Rosa Antonio Carrillo, in neuroscience and social psychology finds that “we are far more interconnected than previously thought, influencing each other’s decisions and perceptions through emotions and feelings… (such) that people can sense each other’s emotions.” 

Now, management may not really realize this -- that successful businesses work like interdependent ecosystems.  Sometimes it takes full-on self-examination of a business to understand that there are things missing that lead to success.  Is it interdependence? Is it honest mutual support?  All business drivers are team-driven, be they production, quality, or safety departments.  It helps if you picture a three-legged stool; when one leg is slashed or cut out, we cannot rely on it, and we immediately lose our way. The culture we wanted so much to build will be instantly defeated by neglect. Which areas of your business need reconsideration?  

In conclusion, we really do live a social platform way of life now. Rather than deny it, we should celebrate interdependence among ourselves and see reliance and support on others as worthy efforts for lasting success.

Source: Rosa Antonio Carrillo MSOD, Beyond the Myth of Individual Responsibility [for Safety] IILSC Insights 2025/2

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2025 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.