Peer Pressure: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Most of us think of peer pressure as something bad kids exert on good kids in high school to get them to misbehave. But every word and action between adults have some subtle effect (sometimes, not so subtle) on the choices at least one of them will make. That effect is peer pressure.

You ask a coworker to help you move some wooden packing crates out of the way from the switchgear you need to work on. In response, he says, “Let me get my gloves.” You know you’ll have to wait nearly 10 minutes for that round trip to the shop. How do you react?

Would you point out it’s only a few crates, and this won’t take but two minutes? Would you get mad and do it without his help? Would you look at your own bare hands and thank him for showing you the way to prevent painful slivers and possibly a nasty infection?

Each of you exerts peer pressure on the other. You can pressure a safe coworker to behave less safely or even to behave unsafely. You can pressure a coworker to put safety first, both by your example and what you say. And it works vice-versa.

If your company is trying to establish or maintain a safety culture, each employee is in the perfect position to pressure other employees to strengthen that effort or undermine it.

Bob encounters James, who is wearing his safety glasses in his front pocket instead of where they belong. Does Bob carry on a conversation as if nothing is wrong? If so, James is (intentionally or otherwise) pressuring Bob into deviating from the safety culture. And Bob, by his silence, is doing the same thing to James.

It should never be the case that someone says, “Here comes a supervisor; better put your safety glasses on.” It should always be the case that words and actions provide a nudge or even a push to behave safely. Bob could simply point to his eyes; James would get the message.

If you ever feel the wrong kind of pressure for using the three-step method for voltage verification, wearing the correct PPE, performing a tool count, replacing damaged test leads, refusing to use a ladder that has (possibly conductive) paint all over it, insisting on adding a guardrail to the first level of scaffolding because it is 6 feet above grade, or “wasting time” with any other standard safety practice — don’t let that pressure change your mind.

The pressure is usually subtle; your example alone may serve to lower it over time. In cases where the pressure is of the aggressive sort or comes from a supervisor, you have what the EEOC calls a “hostile work environment,” and your management needs to be made aware of this. Document the incident and discuss it with your supervisor.

If the behavior is repeated, take the issue up with your human resources department. You can bet you’re not the only employee being treated this way. Your company is also a victim because the behavior hurts retention rates, attendance, and job performance. In all but the worst-run companies, hostile work environment problems get immediate attention and the full support of management to resolve.