A Note on Complacency

Watching the lifeguard at my local YMCA doze off recently has me thinking about complacency. Having been a bridgetender for nearly 20 years, it is my utterly unscientific opinion that the vast majority of injuries due to operator error on drawbridges come not from inexperienced bridgetenders. No, they’re caused by very experienced bridgetenders who have become complacent. I suspect it’s the same with lifeguards.

I think most humans, by their very nature, are prone to take shortcuts. We get lazy with time. We become overconfident. We derive false security from our past success.

This doesn’t just happen in my job of choice, but by way of example, a seasoned bridgetender might say, at least on a subconscious level, “I don’t have to make an extra effort to see if someone is standing in that blind spot, because no one ever stands there.”

That can be your undoing. Killing someone is what we bridgetenders most need to avoid. It’s important to remain vigilant.

I’m well aware that the bridgetending audience is rather minute. I’m not just talking to bridgetenders. This one is for all those people who operate power tools or climb on ladders or drive or walk or take care of others. It’s for the nurses and the truck drivers and the managers and the factory workers and the chefs. It’s for the parents and the teachers. It especially applies to voters!

It’s for us all. Don’t slack off. Avoid shortcuts. Don’t get lazy. What you do matters.

Now is the perfect time to stay at home and read a good book. Try mine! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5