Breaking the Silence: Part 1: The Dangers of Assumptions in the Workplace

A 7-part series on How Questioning Assumptions Enhances Workplace Safety.

The Comfort of Routine

Let's face it—when we do the same tasks day in and day out, it's easy to fall into a pattern of comfort and familiarity. We start to trust that things are safe simply because they've always been that way. It's human nature to rely on routine, especially in the workplace, where familiarity often feels like security. But here's the catch: this comfort can lead us to make dangerous assumptions. We assume that nothing will go wrong now because nothing has gone wrong in the past. And that's where the danger lies—when we let our guard down and stop questioning, we open the door to potential disasters.

My Near-Fatal Assumption

I learned this lesson the hard way. On a day that started like any other, I made an assumption that nearly cost me my life. We were working on a tower 125 feet in the air, and I had unbelted from the steel to move across the structure. I assumed everything was under control, just like it had been in countless jobs before. After all, we had always done a pre-flight inspection of all work locations, so proceeding was safe.

But as I moved, I came into contact with an electrically induced fiber optic ground wire (OPGW). The moment I touched it, I was electrocuted. The electricity coursed through my body, causing my muscles to constrict and locking me in place. I was held there, helpless, as the induction bled off the OPGW five times before I could figure out how to break free. During those terrifying moments, I was a path to ground for the induction on that fiber. The assumption I made when I unbelted from the steel robbed me of my safe escape. Had I connected to the steel as I moved along, the moment I first felt the shock, I could have dropped into my harness and avoided being held there, paralyzed by the electricity. But because I was unbelted, I had no choice but to hang on until I could figure out how to escape.

But that wasn't the only assumption made on that job. Earlier in the day, I assumed the pre-flight inspection had been completed. I didn't speak up at the pre-job brief to challenge that assumption, so we missed a critical safety check. Had we taken the time to verify, we would have discovered that the inspection hadn't been done. Conducting that pre-flight inspection would have led us to identify the vertical run of OPGW at our first location. From there, we could have researched proper mitigation methods instead of relying on past experiences. Unfortunately, with inadequate mitigations in place, the stage was set for disaster.

Challenging What We Think We Know

This experience was a turning point for me, underscoring a critical truth: safety isn't just about following the rules—it's about constantly challenging what we think we know. It's easy to assume that because something has always been done a certain way, it's the safest way. But in reality, this kind of thinking can be incredibly dangerous. Safety is a mindset, a culture that requires us to be vigilant, to question assumptions, and to never take anything for granted. The moment we stop paying attention to the details is the moment we put ourselves and our teams at risk.

As we continue this series, we'll dive deeper into why challenging assumptions isn't just a good idea—it's essential for reducing workplace incidents and transforming safety culture. In the next part, we'll explore the nature of assumptions in the workplace and how they become so ingrained in our daily routines.

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