The Complacency Problem: How Experienced Workers Become Vulnerable to Serious Injuries
Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 2:00pm ET - 1:00pm CT - 11:00am PT
The most experienced person on your team might also be your biggest safety risk, not because they're reckless, but because expertise and routine can quietly erode the caution that kept them safe in the first place.
Complacency doesn't announce itself. It builds slowly in people who know their job well, who've done the task a thousand times without incident, who've learned, consciously or not, that the hazard probably won't catch up with them today until it does.
In this webinar, we'll dig into why experienced workers are disproportionately involved in serious injuries, what the research tells us about how complacency develops, and what safety teams can actually do to interrupt the pattern, before an incident forces the conversation.
You'll learn:
- Why tenure and familiarity increase, not decrease, certain types of risk exposure
- The cognitive and behavioral patterns that drive complacency in experienced workers
- How to identify warning signs before a near-miss becomes a recordable incident
- Practical strategies for re-engaging experienced workers without talking down to them
- How leading-indicator data can surface complacency trends across teams and sites
Register for this free webinar!
DATE: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
TIME: 2:00PM ET - 1:00PM CT - 11:00AM PT
About the Speaker:
Dita Amtey, Solutions Engineer, Novara
Dita Amtey came to Novara after working as an environmental scientist with the California Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board. So she understands regulatory pressure and real-world hazard management from the inside out. After several years as an EHS Consultant at Novara, she moved into her current role as a Solutions Engineer, where she works directly with safety teams navigating the exact challenge we're here to talk about today: keeping experienced people engaged and alert when routine starts to feel like safety.
Jeff Costlow, Director of Energy Solutions, Novara
Jeff Costlow is Novara's Director of Energy Solutions, with over 16 years of experience in health, safety, and leadership development across oil, gas, and mining. He's built safety cultures from the frontline up, which means he's seen firsthand how complacency develops in experienced crews and what it actually takes to interrupt it. Jeff specializes in behavioral safety and people-centered approaches that make habits stick long after the training ends.
