The EHS profession has a dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about.
We already know most of what we're doing doesn't work the way we pretend it does.
Yet we keep doing it anyway.
We recycle the same slogans, the same metrics, the same posters, the same toolbox talks, and the same shallow "lessons learned." We celebrate minor administrative victories while quietly acknowledging—often in private conversations—that the system itself is fundamentally stacked against safety.
And we are afraid to say that out loud.
Safety's Core Problem: Its Success Is Invisible
Production wins are tangible.
You can see them. Measure them. Photograph them. Put them on
dashboards and earnings calls.
Safety wins are defined by the absence of events.
Nothing happened.
No one got hurt.
No incident occurred.
That absence does not photograph well. It does not excite executives. It does not drive bonuses. And it certainly does not compete with schedule, cost, or output when real pressure shows up.
As long as safety's victories remain invisible, safety will always be perceived as a cost center, a constraint, or—worse—an obstacle.
And everyone in leadership knows this, even if they won't say it.
We've Confused Activity With Effectiveness
The industry continues to confuse doing safety things with achieving safer outcomes.
We track training hours instead of competence.
We count observations instead of behavior change.
We celebrate low injury rates without acknowledging underreporting,
normalization of risk, and sheer luck.
Most EHS professionals know these metrics are weak proxies at best—and fiction at worst. But they persist because they are easy, familiar, and non-threatening to the existing power structure.
Challenging them requires courage.
And courage has consequences.
Why No One Wants the Real Conversation
Real EHS discussions make people uncomfortable because they expose inconvenient truths:
That safety often loses when it directly conflicts with production.
That frontline workers routinely solve problems by violating procedures because procedures are written for compliance, not reality.
That leadership commitment to safety is frequently conditional.
That many safety programs are designed to protect the company legally, not the worker practically.
Talking about these things threatens careers, reputations, and carefully maintained narratives. So instead, we talk about culture in vague terms. We talk about "buy-in." We talk about personal responsibility.
We avoid the system.
Safety Is Not Broken—It's Designed This Way
This is the part no one wants to admit:
Safety is not failing by accident.
It is failing by design.
It is embedded in organizations as a support function with limited authority, limited influence, and success criteria that are abstract and delayed. Then we act surprised when it cannot compete with functions whose outcomes are immediate, visible, and rewarded.
Until safety outcomes are valued as business outcomes—not moral aspirations—it will continue to struggle for relevance.
What Needs to Change (But Rarely Does)
Real progress will not come from new slogans or repackaged initiatives. It requires:
Honest acknowledgment that safety and production are often in tension
Metrics that reflect operational reality, not administrative comfort
Leadership accountability that extends beyond statements and posters
Programs built around how work is actually done, not how it is imagined
EHS professionals who are willing to challenge the system, not just maintain it
That is uncomfortable work.
And uncomfortable work is usually avoided.
Final Thought
The EHS profession does not lack knowledge.
It lacks honesty.
Until we are willing to openly discuss why safety is structurally disadvantaged—and why we keep pretending otherwise—we will continue to regurgitate the same nonsense, hold the same meetings, and act surprised when nothing changes.
Safety does not need more noise.
It needs the courage to tell the truth.