SAFETY ALERT
2021/02/MTOD
February 9th, 2021
Complacency
We are seeing an increase in incidents that have been directly linked to complacency. The objective of this short
brief is to raise the awareness on the dangers of complacency in our business by clearly defining what it is and
how we can prevent it.
What is Complacency?
It is a human behavior that can develop from over-confidence, familiarity, distractions and sometimes boredom.
Complacency related incidents occur when one is focused only on the outcome rather than the process to get to
the outcome properly.
Effect of Complacency
Complacency gives people a false sense of security in that familiarity with an operation can result in possible
consequences of something going wrong being forgotten. Put simply ''familiarity breeds contempt''.
It is far too often the case that a bad situation or accident occurs due to established procedures in our safety
management system not being followed and if they had then the safety barriers or mitigating procedures would
have prevented the incident from ever occurring.
Complacency needs to be recognized and acted upon before it becomes chronic in the work place. If not re-
solved then we will quickly see an increase in human error related incidents.
How can we prevent Complacency?
• Remove ALL distractions during Operations i.e. mobile phones, paperwork, unauthorized persons.
• Encourage use of Safety management systems such as ISM Checklists for vessel operations. We need to
empathize the importance of this whilst also highlighting the danger of check lists becoming a “tick-box” ex-
ercise due to familiarity or overconfidence. Think about airline pilots. No matter how many times Pilots fly the
same plane, they still complete pre-departure and pre-landing check lists. This simple action mitigates risk of
human error failures.
• Encourage compliance with safety management system tools such as: Job Safety Analysis (JSA), Tool Box
Talk (TBT) and Risk Assessments (RA). These tools are designed to slow us down and to think! The JSA
and TBT can be completed within a very short period and are established simple tools that prevents inci-
dents by highlighting risk to the team involved in the task.
• An employee Ship and/or position rotation can be an effective action in reducing boredom and familiarization
which is highlighted as a cause of complacency.
In order to respond, we need to have sustained education and supervision to break existing poor habits and en-
courage safer working methods; we need to assign accountability to those both upstream and downstream; peri-
odically review procedures and engage the workforce by encouraging feedback. We need to challenge the cul-
ture of punishing bad behavior and instead recognize and reward positive behaviors.
Conclusion
Let us not underestimate the issue. Complacency exists in all industries, on board all vessel types and with all
crews. It is endemic and contagious and will not go away of its own accord. Its symptoms can be catastrophic in
our industry, including; injuries, fires, groundings, collisions and mooring accidents. Therefore, we must encour-
age an approach where each task is approached with the same caution as if it were the first times it was being
undertaken!