By John Groves, DPT
Chief Executive Officer, Fit For Work
It’s this simple: If your employees appropriately perceive normal, everyday soreness on the job as just that – normal soreness – they’re not going to have OSHA-recordable injuries. However, if they assume their soreness confirms some physical damage has occurred to their body and that the job is “chewing them up and spitting them out,” you will have OSHA recordables.
So how can you as a Safety Professional (who has never had training in the study of pain) appropriately help these altered perceptions? While at first pass it sounds complex, there are some very simple things you can do to help your employees be more appropriate in their response to pain and thus decrease the number of injuries your organization will see.
Understanding Threats
Pain science is the understanding that pain is an output of the brain in response to a threat. So, what are the threats?
Think back to being a small child and touching a hot stove. That’s a pretty universal threat. In no circumstance is continuing to touch a hot stove a safe choice. But what about a worker who has back or shoulder soreness? Where should we place that threat? Doesn’t that mean there is a herniated disc or torn rotator cuff? And isn’t this job (that may be unsatisfying and mundane) going to cause their body to break down?
As you can imagine, there is quite a bit more variability in the perception of the “threat” when in comes in the form of soreness or job satisfaction as compared to the hot stove example.
Reducing Threat #1: Normalizing the Job
It is often thought that physical jobs are detrimental to the body, but in actuality, the research doesn’t bear that out. The truth is that sedentary jobs wreak havoc on bodies because bodies are meant to move. And overall, people who move regularly are in better shape and live longer.
Take for instance a study involving hotel maids . In the study, one group was informed that the physical nature of their job was actually classified as healthy, calorie-burning exercise. A month later, that group had shown considerable improvements in blood pressure, bodily measurements, and weight – while the other group experienced no such improvements. This was all a result of their change in perception.
This is one of many studies that highlights the enormous impact of perception on pain. Imagine the impact for your workforce if they understood their physical job is providing significant health benefits that those in the sedentary executive suites are lacking. Motion is lotion
Simply sharing this concept and reframing the positives of having a job that gives you the embedded gift of movement is a surefire way to improve the lives of your employees and prevent injuries.
Reducing Threat #2: Normalizing Discomfort
Decades of studies show we can effectively alter the perception of pain to influence health and wellness, but this awareness alone doesn’t mean much unless we know how to put it into action.
First off, as a safety supervisor, when an employee tells you they are sore, don’t share war stories of how your uncle Fred nearly died from his shoulder surgery and once he was out of the hospital was on disability for three years. While it is tempting and instinctive to share your experiences, comments like that can land on someone who internally is very anxious about being sore and perhaps is worried that this is the beginning of the end for their physical career. This can amplify the intensity of the issue.
Understanding and then helping the production employees realize that soreness is not abnormal and is in fact common is very helpful. Just like a seasonal cold isn’t the end of health, neither is soreness. Emphasize that “motion is lotion” and that movement is good. Also highlight that the proper mechanics and work procedures you have implemented are designed to help them avoid unnecessary soreness. This gives them some ability to have some control in an environment that likely feels very controlled.
Practice saying something like, “Hey, I’m no doctor, but I did get some great advice onetime that in the vast majority of cases, soreness heals and the pain will get better. You can count on that. ” This alone will help the healing process. Recent research has identified the power of words and as someone who is often the first to hear of a soreness, safety professionals are in a perfect position to make an impact.
Work with Fit For Work
While the above are some easy and impactful things you can do right now to make a difference, bringing in outside help to specialize in injury prevention can really move the needle.
Fit For Work provides onsite injury prevention that impacts leading indicators to an injury: early soreness, ergonomics, and behaviors and beliefs. To achieve maximum benefit, it’s no longer enough to just focus on proper lifting or responding to soreness. To truly get ahead of things and actually shift your culture toward proactivity, you need to systematically infuse actionable pain science.
Through our thousands of 1:1 interactions with your workforce out on the floor and in the field, our Onsite Injury Prevention Specialists deliver comprehensive prevention to your workforce in a turnkey fashion. We also work with your leadership to ensure they are able to confidently and systematically infuse pain science principles into their interactions with employees. This helps appropriately reframe the many pain experiences that are happening and thus reduces the threats, improve your OSHA log, and save you money.
Fit For Work is the only prevention firm in the country that has this training and enjoys the unmatched advantage of leveraging our sister company Evidence In Motion, who leads the nation in pain science education and research to musculoskeletal providers, to be the backbone of our internal training.
Contact Fit For Work today for personalized support in educating your team on the reality of pain science for a happier and more productive work environment.
