Workplace safety goes beyond physical well-being and isn’t being comfortable all the time. Safety is about creating an environment where employees can thrive without fear of retribution or harm.
Table of Contents
Defining safety at work
Trauma-informed approaches do not work without safety. What exactly do we mean when we say “safe”? Most people at work aren’t facing daily threats of physical harm, life-threatening injuries, or deadly diseases. So, does that mean they’re safe?
Physical safety is fundamental. To the extent that the nature of our job allows, we should expect to be kept physically safe at work. There should indeed be measures to help you avoid bodily harm on the job.
But, physical safety is not the only element of safety. To expand your idea of safety beyond the physical, consider these additional dimensions of safety:
Psychological: Do I feel capable and confident at work?
Emotional: Can I express and share my feelings openly?
Social: Will I be accepted by my colleagues or excluded?
Moral: Can I act in alignment with my values?
Ethical: Does my organization uphold its commitments?
Cultural: Can I be my authentic self here?
Racial: Am I at risk of harm because of my race?
Financial: Am I being compensated fairly?
Professional: Am I at risk of losing my job?
How do I know if I’m unsafe at work?
Feeling unsafe can make us hyper-aware of our behavior and become preoccupied with hypothetical scenarios: If I do X, Y will happen. If we can predict danger, we can avoid the situations and choices that lead us to it.
If you work in an environment that is unsafe in any way, physical or otherwise, you may fear danger. Danger at work looks like retribution for the actions we take. This retribution can include ridicule (private or public), being avoided by your peers, exclusion from decision-making, or getting a reputation for being difficult.
You can look for other signals indicating you feel unsafe at work. Perhaps you feel isolated from your colleagues or consistently question other people’s motives. Or maybe you simply don’t like the kind of person you are at work or like how being at work makes you feel. These are signs you feel in danger.
If you work in an unsafe environment, these behaviors are often seen as likely to receive consequences:
Challenging the status quo
Drawing a boundary to protect work-life balance
Saying what you really feel, even when done respectfully
Asking “why” questions
Asking for adjustments or accommodations to your tasks
Trying something new that didn’t work
Giving new ideas (“What if we…?”)
Asking or giving constructive feedback
Disagreement, especially with those in a higher position than you
What does safety at work look like?
In contrast, a safe work environment encourages open expression, trust, and collaboration. Here are signs of safety at work:
You feel free to express humor, creativity, and spirituality
You feel others trust you
You are unafraid of judgment or personal rejection
You and your colleagues engage in conversations about ethics
You embrace and celebrate differences (of identity, ideas or influence)
You give and receive compassion
You know what is expected from you
You can have hard conversations and know what to expect when having them
Safety is the cornerstone upon which the entire structure of trauma-informed care is built. Without safety, we cannot access the other vital components of trauma-informed change, such as trust, accountability, community building, authenticity, and more.
Safety opens the door for honest, deep, and powerful conversations where we can access our executive functioning (where logic and reason reside). When we are disconnected from our executive functioning skills, we struggle with impulsivity, reactivity, emotional dysregulation, brain fog, memory issues, and cognitive distortions.
An unsafe workplace is constricted, dulled, critical, and petty. A safe workplace is flexible, creative, patient, and collaborative. In an environment where we feel safe, we trust ourselves, our colleagues, and our leaders. In this space, innovation, risk-taking, and recovering from mistakes is possible. If this is the work culture, productivity is high, and turnover is low.
Is safety the same as comfort?
Many leaders and employees resist having conversations about safety and outright defy actions created to promote safety. To some, it feels like coddling. They feel that work is work and spending time making it feel better for people is a ridiculous waste of time.
To be clear: Discomfort should not be confused with danger, and the absence of comfort does not mean that you are unsafe. It is very possible to feel both safe and uncomfortable. In fact, this is where growth occurs.
On a recent Mindful Management podcast, Shenandoah Chefalo discussed with Dr. Amelia Franck Meyer, founder and CEO of Alia, what safety (or lack of safety) feels like in the field of child welfare. Many child welfare workers are experiencing what Dr. Frank Meyer calls moral injury. Our accumulating body of research says the harm done to children when separated from their families is severe.
Workers, then, removing children from their homes for less than the most egregious, acutely life-threatening situations causes harm not only to the child and family, but to the worker. When your job duties require you to do harm to others, that is more than uncomfortable. That is a harmful, unsafe work environment.
Being uncomfortable and feeling unsafe can feel similar, but they are not the same. For example, if you are provided with feedback on ways you have harmed others, you may feel angry, guilty, and embarrassed, but it does not necessarily mean you are unsafe. Having your ideas challenged or your team holding you to a high standard of work is not unsafe, even though you may feel uncomfortable.
Building resilience
Self-awareness can help us navigate through discomfort and build resilience. Notice your behavior. Take note of how your body is responding in times of discomfort. Ask yourself, “Am I safe right now? What do I need in this moment?”
Trust and belonging also build resilience. Dr. Frank Meyer reminded the podcast audience of getting through the pandemic. Essential workers, especially, were required to work nonstop with little sleep and no end in sight. What people would say kept them going was a team of people who were committed to the work and to each other.
Final thoughts
Safety at work is not just a nice thing to have. It’s essential to well-functioning teams. Creating safety for ourselves and our teams does not shield us from going through hard times or feeling hard feelings. Rather, safety helps us get through those times together.
Join us in March for our workshop on building safety at work: The Number One Obstacle to Trauma-Informed, People-First Systems.