September 19, 2023 • 40 mins
Could we all use a little more safety in our lives? As we navigate through the chaos of life, Perry Sylvie, a seasoned veteran of BT Construction and B-Trenchless, joins us to demonstrate how safety measures and inspections are more than just checkboxes on a list - they are crucial lifelines that keep our workspaces humming and our hearts ticking. Perry kicks off his day with a prayer and a verse, a testament to his faith and a gentle reminder to us all to carry a piece of our personal care routines into our daily grind. His 19-year-long love journey with his wife, Stephanie, beautifully underscores the importance of genuine connections and feelings in our lives.
The conversation then pivots to the power of relationships in fostering safety. Perry enlightens us with his insights on building trust with employees and crafting a culture of care that transcends mere compliance. We delve into the intriguing concept of thinking inside the box, a strategic approach aimed at shielding employees and averting the normalization of deviance. Perry's experiences and the questions he poses present a clear view of the ground reality.
We then shift gears to the Trenching and Excavation Safety Task Force, a critical outfit that helps disseminate the safety message to the most vulnerable workers. Perry discusses the upcoming October 4th event featuring OSHA and how such initiatives help reach out to field workers. We discuss strategies to elevate the Safety Task Force with the backing of the National Utility Contractors Association. As Perry shares his journey from the military to becoming a safety professional, we gain insight into how this transition shapes his management style. So, lend your ear to this enriching conversation and learn how workplace safety can foster a culture of care and trust.
Thanks for joining us at The Safety Link Podcast. Please follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Apple, Facebook, and YouTube. Don't forget to LIKE, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE!!! Again, Thank You.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are we?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
ready, I guess, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, well, let's get started.
Well, welcome to the SafetyLink podcast.
This podcast is dedicated tokeeping you safety professionals
and myself informed aboutthings that are going on in life
.
So I consider this life, thislife, I consider this part of
safety.
So every once in a while, we'lldive deep into various topics
(00:26):
such as personal safety, homesecurity, health and wellness,
finances, workplace safety,safety products, craft just a
whole bunch of different thingsthat I see can enter our lives
and maybe become a hazard orbecome something that grows into
a problem later.
(00:47):
So we'll attempt to provide youwith some valuable tips, some
strategies, practical advice,hope to empower you to be real
vigilant about taking care ofyourself.
I think, at the end of the day,when you wake up in the morning
, you got to take care ofyourself.
That's the very first thing youdo.
We always talk aboutinspections on the safety side
(01:09):
of things.
Well, inspect yourself.
It doesn't always look good,but at least you know what you
need to fix and what the problemis.
So just join us today.
I have a guy here who I'mexcited, really excited to talk
to.
A lot of you guys may know him.
(01:29):
He's on a lot of differentboards.
He's on a lot of differentthings.
He's very active within thestate of Colorado when it comes
to some safety things, and oneof the things that he's really
involved in is thinking insidethe box Not only no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Mr Perry, sylvie, I want tothank you for coming on this
(01:54):
podcast and, just so everybodyknows, we're going to talk about
Perry, we're going to get intoa couple things and then I'm
going to let him start talkingabout thinking inside the box,
which deals with trench safety,and hopefully we'll have a
couple other episodes after thisone about different areas
(02:16):
within trench and excavation,and I think it's a very big
topic.
It's sadly to say, last yearwas a very bad year for people
in trenches.
It actually doubled, I think.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
More than doubled Right from the year before.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
But please go ahead and introduce yourself to us,
let us know who you are andwe'll go from there.
Perry.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
All right, yeah, thanks a lot.
Appreciate you having me onhere.
This is pretty exciting to be apart of this and what you're
doing here, kenyon.
This is great, so thank youvery much again.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, my name's Perry Sylvie With BT Construction.
We also have B-Trenchless isour other division.
So yeah, I've been with BT nowcoming up on four years.
So yeah, I've been a greatorganization, really good people
there and just excited to beable to support and help those
(03:12):
guys and be a part of a greatorganization.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And it's funny those four years when I think about
Perry was on one of my projectstwice with two different
companies, but it's just when hesays four years, it's like
sometimes they seem like a longtime because of what you've been
(03:37):
through, but it really hasn'tbeen that long, man.
So again, yes, awesome.
So, Perry, we're just regularpeople with an expertise.
Ours deals with safety.
I think we talked about it lastnight.
(03:57):
In a servant leadership world,in our business, when I think
about safety professionals, Ialways like to highlight who are
those people.
I think their mothers, fathers,law enforcement firemen, people
behind the scenes, like peoplewho sell PPE.
(04:19):
They're a piece of us.
And then the connection withthe foreman, superintendent,
nurses, all these people thathave to take care of somebody
when it comes to their lives.
And I think we work as a bigpart of our day.
So when you talk about eight,10, sometimes 12 hours, you only
(04:42):
have 12 more hours left.
You have to sleep, you haveyour family, you gotta eat.
It's very hard, Perry, in whatwe do, to come to work with too
much on our mind.
I guess what I wanna ask youhow is it that when you, what
(05:06):
does your day, how does your daystart out?
Do you take a breather in themorning?
I know you're a Christian Idon't know if you read your word
in the morning.
I know I do.
But what do you do to get yourday started off so that you're
prepared to serve people?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, the first thing I dowhen I get up is I do have the
daily verse that comes up on myBible app, that you version app,
and it is something that I doevery morning.
I wanna make sure that that'show I start my day and a little
bit of prayer and just, yeah,get going on my day starting
(05:42):
with that.
So, yeah, I am a Christian andI'm very proud to be serving an
amazing God and, yeah, it's animportant part of my day because
it does, it starts it out insuch an important way that, yeah
, nothing goes first.
That's it.
(06:03):
That's the first thing thathappens in the morning for me
Super, super, super important.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
This was the attractive thing that I think
when me and Perry first met.
Sometimes the spirit when theyhit each other, it's a feeling
man, and it's a genuine feelingand there's really nothing we
can do about it.
But when it's living insomebody that's so important,
(06:30):
it's because it's nothing fake.
You know you have really haveno control over it when it comes
out.
So when they, when they meet up, it's, it's, it's something
nice.
So really, really again glad tohave you.
I know you said you're married,you got a family, some kids
tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, my wife Stephanie.
We've been married, let's see,coming up on 19 years, and we've
known each other since 98, whenwe started going to college
together.
And then, yeah, we, aftercollege, we started dating and
and then got married in 2004.
And we didn't have kids foreight years.
(07:11):
So we now have two girls.
Zora is 12, or, sorry, she's 11.
And it seems like she's goingon 20.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I know that feeling.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And then Hazel is eight years old.
She's actually turning ninehere in October.
Wow, yeah, these girls are, areamazing.
So one, one quick thing I wantto share that this is something
that we you and I haven't talkedabout, but just something real
cool.
That we're doing is I like todo date night or date day with
one of my daughters?
(07:46):
Okay, and the way we make itwork is, the first Saturday of
each month is my wife, we go ona date, and then the second
Saturday of the month is myoldest daughter, zora, and then
the third Saturday is myyoungest daughter, hazel, and
then the fourth Saturday is afamily date night or date day,
(08:09):
whatever we decided to do.
And then on the fifth Saturdayif there is a fifth Saturday,
that's my day I get to do what Iwant.
So you know video games, right,whatever.
Whatever I decided to do issomething I get to do on the on
the fifth, which is usually, youknow, two or three times a year
at most.
But it's a fun thing we've beendoing for a few years now and
(08:33):
it's a way for me to be able toget you know a little closer to
my daughters you know eachseparately and be able to have
that, that special time with you, with each one of them, so it's
a fun thing I get to do therewith my.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You just gave us some , some strategies here you know,
sometimes you know I've beenmarried for 23.
And well, tell her congrats,because you know my first five
years was was, you know, becauseof me, you know was rough man
and I'm sad to say that, but itis what it is.
(09:10):
Man, definitely we've grown,but what you talk about, you
know really mixing it up in inin your, your, your life,
because at the end of the day,we come to work, we go home,
they see us less than our workdoes and we got to really be.
(09:30):
What do you want to say?
You got to make sure you maketime for the family.
However it is that you do, Ireally like what you you had.
You you separate that, thatrelationship, and you spend that
time.
But when I think, when the kidsand the wife are made important,
(09:52):
those extra four hours that youmay not be there, it doesn't
even matter, because they knowthat when their time is up, dad,
husband, is dedicated to me andthey're making sure they're
making time for me.
So I really think that'simportant because all the way
from the craft on up, we workmajor hours, especially during
(10:15):
the summer, and sometimes it cancreate relationship issues,
whether it's with the kids, thewife or whatever it may be.
So what you, just what you justhit on is like these are the
things that we, we need to givethe people that we call our
brothers and sisters, thesesafety professionals that you,
(10:36):
there's nuggets.
I hope that we can get out ofthis podcast right and it
doesn't always have to besomething that's breaking down,
a cut or whatever these otherthings that I don't know if we
talk enough about them, and it'salso these things that cause
these, these, these, this newmental thing, this new mental
health and wealth, and you knowall these things.
(10:59):
So I'm really glad that youbrought that up about your
family and how you you make sureyou are deliberate with making
time for them, awesome.
The other thing I want to talkabout is so you, you came up
with a great idea, a great movefor empowerment because, like we
(11:22):
were talking earlier last year,double the year before, which
was 2021, in deaths, and I would, if I can't remember, three or
four of those were here therewas a lot in Colorado.
You know and he's and you know,and I'm glad OSHA, I'm glad the
(11:45):
government is sort of picking upon the responsibility and the
accountability of frontlinesupervisors, owners and people
that are watching this verything happen.
And I think it's so importantyou me, everybody out there
watching that we have to beginto make sure that when there's
(12:07):
an accident happening, peopleare standing around watching it.
They are just as accountable.
And how do we motivate andempower them to speak up before
and not after?
Do you run into seeing?
When you come to the incident,you find out that like three or
four guys might have seensomething and and it's like
(12:32):
they're really not involved, butthey are, because we always
talk about you have the right tosay no or stop work or this
responsibility that we reallywant our people to have.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Right.
If you see something, saysomething, right that culture,
that really takes time for anorganization to really instill
that in their people.
It's not going to happenovernight and that's part of
what our job is in safety is tohelp really change that
mentality.
Or, you know, look at theseguys and show them the
(13:06):
importance of a life and andreally show them what that risk
is on that.
On that you know for that jobthat they're doing that they
could get hurt or they could getkilled, and really
understanding that, not havingthat, that risk tolerance Right.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
You know, when we talk about risk tolerance, it's
uh uh.
Some people don't understandthat a lot.
You know what that is Some ofit's.
You know part of how we werebrought up, what we do, what
we're into.
It's really what I, what I findfor my, my, my, myself, is that
(13:48):
when you got a guy with a highrisk tolerance, my, I guess my
strategy is to teach the form inorder, superintendent, to
recognize that Some of thethings that that I recognize.
That may be simple stuff, butit's like when you see a guy
continually walk over a hazard,it's going to become a problem
(14:11):
at one point.
Sometimes I think that I usedto be that, that form and that
superintendent.
You get so overwhelmed with withwhat is the priority.
I just had that one day saythat, at the end of the day, I'm
working for a company whobelieves in safety, so I need to
be, I need to have that firstin mind and, plus, that's my job
(14:36):
, right, so really trying to,like you said, just trying to
reach out and it, it, it reallydoes.
It's sometimes it's frustrating.
It's nice to see progress, but,man, you're right, man, that
that culture thing, really, itreally takes time and you, you
got to do the right things andif, if anything goes wrong, it
(14:57):
sets you back very quickly,whether you've been working on
this thing for months, years,and if, if one of them don't
trust you man, it falls out offthe, it falls off and then you
got to pick it back up to, totry to, to try to run that
through.
So, going back to this thinkinginside the box, I was, I was
(15:18):
thinking about this last nightand you know it's, it's crazy
that thinking inside the box andthinking outside the box, right
, there's these two sayings thatwe were brought up.
When I was really thinking deepon this and when I was thinking
was it's, it's like us, assafety professionals and anybody
(15:38):
who's dealing with the plan ofwork, we sort of really have to
be thinking outside of box priorto them getting in the box,
because I think that if we cankeep them thinking inside the
box, we take the constraintsthat actually make you think
(15:59):
outside of the box, which wedon't want them to do.
So I, I, I, I, I really, Iguess you know, going into,
going into this whole thing, didyou ever really think that that
thinking inside the box had aconstraint to you?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Because when you I didn't mean to cut you off, but
when you, when you'reconstrained or you're put into a
place where you need to thinkabout some options, now you're
gonna innovate.
The problem with thatinnovation is is it the right
innovation?
Right, because our people, weknow they're a get it done type
(16:38):
of mentality.
Shall we say right, they'recreative, they're creative, very
creative, but we need to makesure that they think inside the
box.
Call us involve some people tomake sure that's the right thing
to do than to be spontaneous onbeing creative, because
sometimes that creativity mighthave been okay, but some corners
(17:00):
weren't covered.
So when you were thinking aboutthis, did that ever come to
mind?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, the double meaning.
With think inside the box Imean the obvious think inside
the trench box and think insidea safety device that's intended
to protect an employee and itcould be a shoring system, but
the original intent was a trenchbox because that's the most
common device, the easiestdevice to get our hands on in
(17:26):
our world.
But it's also the concept ofthinking inside the box.
We don't have to think outsidethe box, we don't have to think
about new creative ideas.
This system that's beeninstalled over and over and over
works, so use what works.
Think inside the box because itworks, because this system has
already been designed by anengineer.
(17:46):
It's already something that canwork and will work if it's used
.
So that's the important aspectof think inside the box.
Is that double meaning and howimportant it is to utilize a
system that works.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Wow, that's powerful.
So when this actually started,I was in a situation where come
up on a scene and guys were inthe box, but there were some
things that were going onoutside, about a foot and a half
outside, and when you lookoutside the box and you look at
(18:21):
the edges, you could tellthey're not very stable.
So the innovation of the formand he stayed inside the box.
What he did was is he put marksinside the trench box.
So the guys knew that I don'twant you to go past this line
(18:43):
and, man, it made a very, verybig difference because guys felt
that, okay, maybe I got my legsin and I'm just gonna just
creep just a little bit, butthis here it created a boundary,
is what it did, and they wereable to grasp it and utilize it
(19:08):
throughout the rest of theproject and, like you said,
staying inside that box, itworks.
You know, I just got to tweaksomething.
You, because you think to, justbecause you're here, okay, well
, I'm gonna take a foot awayfrom you.
Okay, I'm gonna take a footaway from you.
Don't let me catch you goingpast here and I'm gonna keep you
accountable to that.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Well, and that's normalizing what is actually the
compliance level, whereas whattypically happens on the job
site is they're normalizing alittle bit of deviance, right
Normalization of deviance Rightand a little bit of change over
time turns into large changeswhere people could get hurt,
right?
You know like an example wouldbe.
(19:49):
Well, they've left that trenchbox off the floor.
Maybe at first it's at two feet, because that's what the rule
is, but then they're tweaking itup to two and a half feet, to
now maybe up to three feet attimes, and before you know it,
each time it gets higher andhigher, and then all of a sudden
you're at four foot of exposure, and now it's really dangerous.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And now you have to try to communicate to the team
Like guys.
That's not the way we do things.
So it takes a lot of times,some time, for that type of
deviance to start adding up tobeing something very dangerous,
whereas that risk tolerance isallowing that deviance and
allowing that normalization ofthat new standard, that new
(20:33):
system that they're getting usedto over time, because they've
seen that positive reinforcementof negative behaviors and those
continue to change their normaland their normal is now getting
more and more dangerous as theygo.
But they don't realize itbecause they're tolerant to that
risk.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right, wow, I think that's where the care factor
comes in, because most of thetime when you go to the job, you
always got those ones right.
They wanna talk, they wanna dothe right thing, they wanna make
sure, but they don't.
They're not ready to speak upyet, but they're bringing up
(21:14):
some things that, like you said,can materialize into a big
situation.
And my brother always says thatnobody cares about what you
have to say until you show howmuch you care.
And creating that relationshipas a safety professional is so
important because now you haveanother eye that is helping you
(21:42):
make the environment, thecompany, the culture a little
more safer, a little better.
And now you're gaining groundthrough the relationship.
And how is it that over time,you've gained the relationships
that you're gaining?
Because I think that carefactor in that relationship is
(22:07):
very key to our system, becauseyou and me both know that we
can't be everywhere at the sametime.
Right, really good point.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And relationships are so key and it takes a lot of
time and a lot of effort to workon those relationships and you
get to know them.
You get to know their familyand you get to know them.
You know what are some of thethings that make them tick.
You know it could be somethingas simple as this guy likes that
special safety glass that youknow and you're able to remember
(22:37):
that and take care of theseguys in a special way.
And if they ask for somethingthen you follow through, so you
create trust and thatrelationship then starts to grow
over time.
So such an important part ofour job is to build trust and
(22:57):
really take care of these people, because they are people, they
have families, they have alivelihood and we show that we
care, we truly care about thembecause of all these things that
we do to show that we care Very, very important.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Perry, very important .
I always say relationships areimportant.
You know, relationships areworth more money than you can
ever imagine.
It's really helped me.
I think.
Another thing that helped mepersonally too, is you don't
(23:35):
know everything out there, right, when you start asking the
craft of you know hey, how didyou do that?
Like you know, and beinginterested in exactly what
they're doing, it helps outevery once in a while.
You know, getting involved justfor a little bit maybe help the
guys and, like you said, reallytrying to find out who's who,
what do you like, what does helike, because that's the
(23:59):
conversation they need.
I'm a believer that every time Icome on site, I don't need to
be talking about safety.
You know, because and the reasonwhy I say that I say that to
say that sometimes you gottamake people, you gotta let
people know they're important.
(24:19):
You know, and if I can let youknow you're important safety
will sneak its way in on youbecause you're gonna start
caring about yourself, you'regonna start caring about what I
think about you and you're gonnastart caring about what other
people think or are thinkingabout you, and it's gonna help
guide you into a certain waywhen it comes to being able to
(24:46):
execute when the light isn'tshining on you and that's where
we gotta get to is like whensomebody is doing the right
things in dark places.
We don't never know how manytimes you hear of this or you
(25:07):
hear of that couple months laterand it's like, oh man, I wish
I'd had known that a little bitearlier, you know.
But definitely is importantthis whole relationship thing.
So, perry, going back to thetrench box, like I said, it's
(25:28):
been a lot.
It seems like this year it'sonly two or three.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Actually across country, it's a total of eight.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Oh, it's eight okay.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
But it's still much lower than it was this time last
year.
So we are improving, if youwere to call it that, even
though Even though eight toomany.
Eight too many.
It should be zero.
But I think we would all agreethat that number is a lot better
than it was last year.
Yes, yes, and we definitelywanna continue to drive our
(25:57):
message forward to as manypeople as we can.
Again lower that to zero.
But, yeah, it is definitelybetter this year than it was
last.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Or is OSHA?
I know OSHA in 20, I think itwas 2018, they had a national
emphasis program going on.
Is there anything new that'sbeen added to that recently?
Perry?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
No, still, 2018 was the latest on that emphasis
program, the national emphasisprogram that they put together
for trenching and excavation andsafety.
Last year, when they did putthat out and I believe it was in
June of last year in 2022, theydid put that press release out
and really to emphasize trenchsafety and to go back to what
(26:42):
they really talked about intheir 2018 emphasis program the
importance of trench safety, toreally try to lower those
numbers and minimize thosefatalities, which didn't seem to
work.
But or maybe it did and itcould have been a lot worse.
We don't know.
(27:03):
But I think the important thinghere is that we just continue
to drive this awareness campaignto as many people as we can
across country and around theworld.
Really, we've been verysuccessful in our campaign
through social media and it'sbeen growing quite a bit here as
(27:24):
of late and seeing a lot ofpeople reach out to us that have
seen what we're doing here onthat social media platform,
awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So I know you got a couple things.
I know you got some thingscoming up.
You got a trenching excavationcoming up here real soon.
I'd like you to talk about thatto the people watching, as well
as talk about, maybe, somethings that are going on with
NUCA, which is the NationalUtility.
(27:56):
Get me right.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
National Utility Contractor Association, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And the other thing is, after you answer those two
questions, perry, I would likeyou to maybe talk to maybe a
safety manager or somebody outthere that may not know that
they can either reach out toanother safety manager or
(28:25):
whatever, but they also canreach out to OSHA, who has a lot
of training things.
They'll lend theirself to youfor some, maybe some small
consulting or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
But if you can also talk about that where what's
available for folks maybestruggling in trench and
excavation, yeah, so I'll startoff with the trench safety
summit that you mentioned thereand that's a huge event that we
do and it's actually NACSA aswell as OSHA, and then the
National Utility ContractorsAssociation.
(29:01):
The Colorado chapter is a hugepartner of that and there's last
year we actually had 500 peopleshow up to that event A huge
event in person at the AdamsCounty Fairground.
This year it's gonna be October4th.
It's an all day event andthere'll be OSHA speaking, as
well as some vendors and somefolks that are experts in the
(29:25):
field of trench and excavation.
They'll be speaking in front ofthe group.
I actually speak.
I do a couple of differentthings during the event, so I'll
be doing a little talk on bestpractices for trenching and
excavation, as well as a roundtable discussion.
So what I did last year isreally just took the mic and
walked around the room andreally tried to get some good
(29:49):
discussion with everybody thatwas there.
It was really, reallysuccessful and they asked me to
come back and do it again thisyear, so excited to be able to
do that as well.
It's really, really fun to beable to share a little bit about
that and bring the generalworker into the discussion,
cause that's really the folksthat we're trying to reach in
(30:12):
our campaign.
But really OSHA really wants tosee that and really let's talk
to the worker.
You know, up at our level right,I look at safety managers.
We have a lot of resources, wereally have a great group of
people that work together, buthow do we really get the message
to the people that need to hearmost?
And so that event is just afantastic way to be able to
(30:36):
address the folks that arereally needing to hear the
message the most.
So we're really trying togather as many of those folks as
we can to get them to attendthat event.
So that's a great one coming up.
And then the greatest news thatwe've had recently is the
National Utility ContractorsAssociation that the actual
(30:58):
national group out of Washington.
They actually adopted the thinkinside the box Trenching and
excavation safety task force.
So, with their resources, withthe people that are on staff,
they're gonna help take this andhopefully take it to the next
level.
So we're working with them.
We're coming up with somestrategies to be able to grow
(31:21):
this message and build it evenfurther than it's been so far.
You know some of the ideaswe've had with that, right, our
group is called the Trenchingand Excavation Safety Task Force
, so TEST, and so we've startedto come up with some new ideas
Trenching and Excavation SafetyTraining, which is also a T-word
, so it's still TEST and maybewe can have a sticker that goes
(31:44):
on people's hard hats afterthey've been trained and it
would say Trenching andExcavation Safety Trained Wow.
So just some concepts thatwe're kinda, you know, coming up
with to try to grow what we'redoing and create a brand.
And we've got somewhat of abrand and it's not like we're
trying to make money, we'retrying to save lives, right, and
(32:05):
so utilizing this brand to geton as many hard hats as we can
Awesome.
And we've got, you know, hardhat stickers that the National
Utility Contractors Associationhas made for us and that's the
Colorado chapter, but we're alsoworking on, you know, getting
that at a national level andwhat they're planning to do is
get those stickers made forevery NUCA chapter and every
(32:28):
NUCA organization that's part ofNUCA and send those stickers
out to all of them.
We're also encouraging anybodyto make their own stickers.
So we actually have a website,thinkinsidetheboxinfo, and on
that website, when you scrollall the way to the bottom of
that website, there's a coupledifferent versions of that logo
and it's the PNG or the JPEGversion.
(32:49):
Those are free to download.
Anybody can take them and printtheir own stickers.
We would encourage folks to puttheir own logo Right and then
if you go to the website, youcan see the logo inside the box.
Have their own logo in there.
That's where they can thenprint those out and put them on
their own hard hats and startutilizing that for their own
(33:10):
organization and really share itwith themselves.
And there's been a feworganizations across the country
They've really embraced that.
You know BT Construction forone.
We've got those on all of ourhard hats and we've got either
the BTC logo or the B-Trendslesslogo two different divisions
that we run here, one inparticular, t-leveling out in
(33:31):
the Carolinas they have embracedit and they've actually created
their whole.
Their safety program is builtaround this whole message and
they've printed those.
They've also created ToolboxTalks and really embraced that.
It's been awesome to see thatthere's folks in Idaho that have
been instrumental in our growth.
(33:51):
There's a gentleman in Texasthat's been fantastic.
Somebody in California, anotherperson in Montana Just amazing
to see these people that havebeen part of our team.
I'm the chairman of our taskforce but there's no way I could
do all this without the help ofour team.
(34:12):
So we do quarterly updatemeetings.
So once a quarter we gettogether and we do some updates.
We share what we've done, whatwe've accomplished, but also we
try to plan some things.
We try to come up with somemethods that we can be able to
share this message with morepeople.
How can we get into a differentspace to be able to reach these
(34:34):
people that need to be reached?
Some of the areas that we'veseen the biggest challenge with
are these smaller organizationsthat come in to do these
residential sanitary sewerservice repairs or sanitary
sewer service installs, andthese are these areas where
these guys are gonna put theseutilities in very quickly and
(34:58):
they might get paid per each andyou know how that goes Right.
They might go a little faster,maybe not use the protective
system because they think theycan go a little faster and think
about a sewer service repair Ifthere's a saturated material at
the bottom of that excavation.
You're now dealing with a verydangerous situation.
(35:19):
So those are the kinds of folkswe're really trying to get in
touch with and really try toshow them that here's the right
thing to do.
Let's get trench protectivesystems where they're sloping,
shielding or shoring.
Those systems need to beinstalled before you put
somebody in that excavation.
That's five feet or deeper.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Awesome, wow, perry man, I'm just sitting here
listening to you, man, and it'slike just making a difference
man.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Just trying our best Making a difference man.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
And it's just so important to see because
everybody got different gifts.
You know it's genuine.
I got a friend.
He talks about gifts, talents,abilities, and there's another
one.
But you know it's to me, man,when you're utilizing your
servant leadership, your giftand man, it's just making a
(36:13):
difference.
Man, we're not gonna save theworld, you know what I mean, but
we're gonna be able to seed alot of people and let that thing
grow into fruition, man, to thetree of life and, at the end of
the day, making sure people gohome.
And I just wanna say from methank you, man, for your
(36:34):
dedication to people, yourdedication to your job, and just
your dedication, not just toyour job but even the people
outside of your job.
And that's super importantbecause today, me and you, when
I look out, you look out there,you might be working for a
different company, you guys, youmight be on a different team,
(36:58):
but we're on the same missionand we just gotta continue
finding ways to share bestpractices amongst our peers,
amongst our different companies,because we might battle on the
dollar side, but we ain'tbattling about who's better in
(37:18):
safety.
We gotta figure out ifsomebody's weak in that area.
We wanna help, I wanna help, nomatter who I work for.
I wanna help because, at theend of the day, it boils down to
the most very simple thing andit's about people, man.
It's about people.
So thank you for what you'redoing, man, and being just being
(37:43):
a part of this safety, becauselast couple of years, like I
said, I used to be an operator,I used to be a form, I used to
be those things.
I never thought I would be onthe safety side of things, but
when I saw myself coming out ofthe military being a sergeant
and all those things I actuallywas taking, I was actually
(38:03):
prepared.
Before I even got this, I wasactually taking care of people.
So just being able to do thatagain it's awesome and I ain't
gonna say it's easy, but ithelps out a lot when you've been
there a little bit and you knowwhat they're dealing with,
(38:24):
because it's almost like yougotta get down to that level so
that there's an understanding.
We forget that, the positionthat we are in management, that
people look up to us.
You just think you're just thisold person that is doing
something.
You come to work just like theother guy, but you're really
(38:45):
being looked upon and looked atas somebody and when you are
taking care of that person, whenyou're loving on them and, you
know, wanting the best for them,man, everything works out, man.
It just really does, man.
That brings joy to me.
(39:05):
That's why I get up everysingle day, man, because I know
there's somebody out there thatneeds some help and I'm willing
to do those things.
So, and I see that that's inyour heart, in your mind and in
your career of what you do, man.
So again, thank you for that.
(39:27):
I'm not gonna ask you too manymore questions because I want
you to come back on.
We're gonna dive a little bitmore deeper, maybe on some
trench and excavation, and thenthroughout the year, hopefully,
man, we can talk about someproducts you guys are maybe
using, maybe somebody you don'tknow about a best practice that
you guys are doing, but justreally getting this information
(39:48):
out.
Perry, this won't be your lasttime and I hope this in your
mind this won't be your lasttime, because your knowledge,
your love and what you do for us, man, we really need you on
here.
They need you on here, and Ithink that you're definitely
making a difference, man, andthanks a lot, man.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Thank you.
Are we?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
ready, I guess, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, well, let's get started.
Well, welcome to the SafetyLink podcast.
This podcast is dedicated tokeeping you safety professionals
and myself informed aboutthings that are going on in life
.
So I consider this life, thislife, I consider this part of
safety.
So every once in a while, we'lldive deep into various topics
(00:26):
such as personal safety, homesecurity, health and wellness,
finances, workplace safety,safety products, craft just a
whole bunch of different thingsthat I see can enter our lives
and maybe become a hazard orbecome something that grows into
a problem later.
(00:47):
So we'll attempt to provide youwith some valuable tips, some
strategies, practical advice,hope to empower you to be real
vigilant about taking care ofyourself.
I think, at the end of the day,when you wake up in the morning
, you got to take care ofyourself.
That's the very first thing youdo.
We always talk aboutinspections on the safety side
(01:09):
of things.
Well, inspect yourself.
It doesn't always look good,but at least you know what you
need to fix and what the problemis.
So just join us today.
I have a guy here who I'mexcited, really excited to talk
to.
A lot of you guys may know him.
(01:29):
He's on a lot of differentboards.
He's on a lot of differentthings.
He's very active within thestate of Colorado when it comes
to some safety things, and oneof the things that he's really
involved in is thinking insidethe box Not only no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Mr Perry, sylvie, I want tothank you for coming on this
(01:54):
podcast and, just so everybodyknows, we're going to talk about
Perry, we're going to get intoa couple things and then I'm
going to let him start talkingabout thinking inside the box,
which deals with trench safety,and hopefully we'll have a
couple other episodes after thisone about different areas
(02:16):
within trench and excavation,and I think it's a very big
topic.
It's sadly to say, last yearwas a very bad year for people
in trenches.
It actually doubled, I think.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
More than doubled Right from the year before.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
But please go ahead and introduce yourself to us,
let us know who you are andwe'll go from there.
Perry.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
All right, yeah, thanks a lot.
Appreciate you having me onhere.
This is pretty exciting to be apart of this and what you're
doing here, kenyon.
This is great, so thank youvery much again.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, my name's Perry Sylvie With BT Construction.
We also have B-Trenchless isour other division.
So yeah, I've been with BT nowcoming up on four years.
So yeah, I've been a greatorganization, really good people
there and just excited to beable to support and help those
(03:12):
guys and be a part of a greatorganization.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And it's funny those four years when I think about
Perry was on one of my projectstwice with two different
companies, but it's just when hesays four years, it's like
sometimes they seem like a longtime because of what you've been
(03:37):
through, but it really hasn'tbeen that long, man.
So again, yes, awesome.
So, Perry, we're just regularpeople with an expertise.
Ours deals with safety.
I think we talked about it lastnight.
(03:57):
In a servant leadership world,in our business, when I think
about safety professionals, Ialways like to highlight who are
those people.
I think their mothers, fathers,law enforcement firemen, people
behind the scenes, like peoplewho sell PPE.
(04:19):
They're a piece of us.
And then the connection withthe foreman, superintendent,
nurses, all these people thathave to take care of somebody
when it comes to their lives.
And I think we work as a bigpart of our day.
So when you talk about eight,10, sometimes 12 hours, you only
(04:42):
have 12 more hours left.
You have to sleep, you haveyour family, you gotta eat.
It's very hard, Perry, in whatwe do, to come to work with too
much on our mind.
I guess what I wanna ask youhow is it that when you, what
(05:06):
does your day, how does your daystart out?
Do you take a breather in themorning?
I know you're a Christian Idon't know if you read your word
in the morning.
I know I do.
But what do you do to get yourday started off so that you're
prepared to serve people?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, the first thing I dowhen I get up is I do have the
daily verse that comes up on myBible app, that you version app,
and it is something that I doevery morning.
I wanna make sure that that'show I start my day and a little
bit of prayer and just, yeah,get going on my day starting
(05:42):
with that.
So, yeah, I am a Christian andI'm very proud to be serving an
amazing God and, yeah, it's animportant part of my day because
it does, it starts it out insuch an important way that, yeah
, nothing goes first.
That's it.
(06:03):
That's the first thing thathappens in the morning for me
Super, super, super important.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
This was the attractive thing that I think
when me and Perry first met.
Sometimes the spirit when theyhit each other, it's a feeling
man, and it's a genuine feelingand there's really nothing we
can do about it.
But when it's living insomebody that's so important,
(06:30):
it's because it's nothing fake.
You know you have really haveno control over it when it comes
out.
So when they, when they meet up, it's, it's, it's something
nice.
So really, really again glad tohave you.
I know you said you're married,you got a family, some kids
tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, my wife Stephanie.
We've been married, let's see,coming up on 19 years, and we've
known each other since 98, whenwe started going to college
together.
And then, yeah, we, aftercollege, we started dating and
and then got married in 2004.
And we didn't have kids foreight years.
(07:11):
So we now have two girls.
Zora is 12, or, sorry, she's 11.
And it seems like she's goingon 20.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I know that feeling.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And then Hazel is eight years old.
She's actually turning ninehere in October.
Wow, yeah, these girls are, areamazing.
So one, one quick thing I wantto share that this is something
that we you and I haven't talkedabout, but just something real
cool.
That we're doing is I like todo date night or date day with
one of my daughters?
(07:46):
Okay, and the way we make itwork is, the first Saturday of
each month is my wife, we go ona date, and then the second
Saturday of the month is myoldest daughter, zora, and then
the third Saturday is myyoungest daughter, hazel, and
then the fourth Saturday is afamily date night or date day,
(08:09):
whatever we decided to do.
And then on the fifth Saturdayif there is a fifth Saturday,
that's my day I get to do what Iwant.
So you know video games, right,whatever.
Whatever I decided to do issomething I get to do on the on
the fifth, which is usually, youknow, two or three times a year
at most.
But it's a fun thing we've beendoing for a few years now and
(08:33):
it's a way for me to be able toget you know a little closer to
my daughters you know eachseparately and be able to have
that, that special time with you, with each one of them, so it's
a fun thing I get to do therewith my.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You just gave us some , some strategies here you know,
sometimes you know I've beenmarried for 23.
And well, tell her congrats,because you know my first five
years was was, you know, becauseof me, you know was rough man
and I'm sad to say that, but itis what it is.
(09:10):
Man, definitely we've grown,but what you talk about, you
know really mixing it up in inin your, your, your life,
because at the end of the day,we come to work, we go home,
they see us less than our workdoes and we got to really be.
(09:30):
What do you want to say?
You got to make sure you maketime for the family.
However it is that you do, Ireally like what you you had.
You you separate that, thatrelationship, and you spend that
time.
But when I think, when the kidsand the wife are made important,
(09:52):
those extra four hours that youmay not be there, it doesn't
even matter, because they knowthat when their time is up, dad,
husband, is dedicated to me andthey're making sure they're
making time for me.
So I really think that'simportant because all the way
from the craft on up, we workmajor hours, especially during
(10:15):
the summer, and sometimes it cancreate relationship issues,
whether it's with the kids, thewife or whatever it may be.
So what you, just what you justhit on is like these are the
things that we, we need to givethe people that we call our
brothers and sisters, thesesafety professionals that you,
(10:36):
there's nuggets.
I hope that we can get out ofthis podcast right and it
doesn't always have to besomething that's breaking down,
a cut or whatever these otherthings that I don't know if we
talk enough about them, and it'salso these things that cause
these, these, these, this newmental thing, this new mental
health and wealth, and you knowall these things.
(10:59):
So I'm really glad that youbrought that up about your
family and how you you make sureyou are deliberate with making
time for them, awesome.
The other thing I want to talkabout is so you, you came up
with a great idea, a great movefor empowerment because, like we
(11:22):
were talking earlier last year,double the year before, which
was 2021, in deaths, and I would, if I can't remember, three or
four of those were here therewas a lot in Colorado.
You know and he's and you know,and I'm glad OSHA, I'm glad the
(11:45):
government is sort of picking upon the responsibility and the
accountability of frontlinesupervisors, owners and people
that are watching this verything happen.
And I think it's so importantyou me, everybody out there
watching that we have to beginto make sure that when there's
(12:07):
an accident happening, peopleare standing around watching it.
They are just as accountable.
And how do we motivate andempower them to speak up before
and not after?
Do you run into seeing?
When you come to the incident,you find out that like three or
four guys might have seensomething and and it's like
(12:32):
they're really not involved, butthey are, because we always
talk about you have the right tosay no or stop work or this
responsibility that we reallywant our people to have.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Right.
If you see something, saysomething, right that culture,
that really takes time for anorganization to really instill
that in their people.
It's not going to happenovernight and that's part of
what our job is in safety is tohelp really change that
mentality.
Or, you know, look at theseguys and show them the
(13:06):
importance of a life and andreally show them what that risk
is on that.
On that you know for that jobthat they're doing that they
could get hurt or they could getkilled, and really
understanding that, not havingthat, that risk tolerance Right.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
You know, when we talk about risk tolerance, it's
uh uh.
Some people don't understandthat a lot.
You know what that is Some ofit's.
You know part of how we werebrought up, what we do, what
we're into.
It's really what I, what I findfor my, my, my, myself, is that
(13:48):
when you got a guy with a highrisk tolerance, my, I guess my
strategy is to teach the form inorder, superintendent, to
recognize that Some of thethings that that I recognize.
That may be simple stuff, butit's like when you see a guy
continually walk over a hazard,it's going to become a problem
(14:11):
at one point.
Sometimes I think that I usedto be that, that form and that
superintendent.
You get so overwhelmed with withwhat is the priority.
I just had that one day saythat, at the end of the day, I'm
working for a company whobelieves in safety, so I need to
be, I need to have that firstin mind and, plus, that's my job
(14:36):
, right, so really trying to,like you said, just trying to
reach out and it, it, it reallydoes.
It's sometimes it's frustrating.
It's nice to see progress, but,man, you're right, man, that
that culture thing, really, itreally takes time and you, you
got to do the right things andif, if anything goes wrong, it
(14:57):
sets you back very quickly,whether you've been working on
this thing for months, years,and if, if one of them don't
trust you man, it falls out offthe, it falls off and then you
got to pick it back up to, totry to, to try to run that
through.
So, going back to this thinkinginside the box, I was, I was
(15:18):
thinking about this last nightand you know it's, it's crazy
that thinking inside the box andthinking outside the box, right
, there's these two sayings thatwe were brought up.
When I was really thinking deepon this and when I was thinking
was it's, it's like us, assafety professionals and anybody
(15:38):
who's dealing with the plan ofwork, we sort of really have to
be thinking outside of box priorto them getting in the box,
because I think that if we cankeep them thinking inside the
box, we take the constraintsthat actually make you think
(15:59):
outside of the box, which wedon't want them to do.
So I, I, I, I, I really, Iguess you know, going into,
going into this whole thing, didyou ever really think that that
thinking inside the box had aconstraint to you?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's a great question.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Because when you I didn't mean to cut you off, but
when you, when you'reconstrained or you're put into a
place where you need to thinkabout some options, now you're
gonna innovate.
The problem with thatinnovation is is it the right
innovation?
Right, because our people, weknow they're a get it done type
(16:38):
of mentality.
Shall we say right, they'recreative, they're creative, very
creative, but we need to makesure that they think inside the
box.
Call us involve some people tomake sure that's the right thing
to do than to be spontaneous onbeing creative, because
sometimes that creativity mighthave been okay, but some corners
(17:00):
weren't covered.
So when you were thinking aboutthis, did that ever come to
mind?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, the double meaning.
With think inside the box Imean the obvious think inside
the trench box and think insidea safety device that's intended
to protect an employee and itcould be a shoring system, but
the original intent was a trenchbox because that's the most
common device, the easiestdevice to get our hands on in
(17:26):
our world.
But it's also the concept ofthinking inside the box.
We don't have to think outsidethe box, we don't have to think
about new creative ideas.
This system that's beeninstalled over and over and over
works, so use what works.
Think inside the box because itworks, because this system has
already been designed by anengineer.
(17:46):
It's already something that canwork and will work if it's used
.
So that's the important aspectof think inside the box.
Is that double meaning and howimportant it is to utilize a
system that works.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Wow, that's powerful.
So when this actually started,I was in a situation where come
up on a scene and guys were inthe box, but there were some
things that were going onoutside, about a foot and a half
outside, and when you lookoutside the box and you look at
(18:21):
the edges, you could tellthey're not very stable.
So the innovation of the formand he stayed inside the box.
What he did was is he put marksinside the trench box.
So the guys knew that I don'twant you to go past this line
(18:43):
and, man, it made a very, verybig difference because guys felt
that, okay, maybe I got my legsin and I'm just gonna just
creep just a little bit, butthis here it created a boundary,
is what it did, and they wereable to grasp it and utilize it
(19:08):
throughout the rest of theproject and, like you said,
staying inside that box, itworks.
You know, I just got to tweaksomething.
You, because you think to, justbecause you're here, okay, well
, I'm gonna take a foot awayfrom you.
Okay, I'm gonna take a footaway from you.
Don't let me catch you goingpast here and I'm gonna keep you
accountable to that.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Well, and that's normalizing what is actually the
compliance level, whereas whattypically happens on the job
site is they're normalizing alittle bit of deviance, right
Normalization of deviance Rightand a little bit of change over
time turns into large changeswhere people could get hurt,
right?
You know like an example wouldbe.
(19:49):
Well, they've left that trenchbox off the floor.
Maybe at first it's at two feet, because that's what the rule
is, but then they're tweaking itup to two and a half feet, to
now maybe up to three feet attimes, and before you know it,
each time it gets higher andhigher, and then all of a sudden
you're at four foot of exposure, and now it's really dangerous.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And now you have to try to communicate to the team
Like guys.
That's not the way we do things.
So it takes a lot of times,some time, for that type of
deviance to start adding up tobeing something very dangerous,
whereas that risk tolerance isallowing that deviance and
allowing that normalization ofthat new standard, that new
(20:33):
system that they're getting usedto over time, because they've
seen that positive reinforcementof negative behaviors and those
continue to change their normaland their normal is now getting
more and more dangerous as theygo.
But they don't realize itbecause they're tolerant to that
risk.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right, wow, I think that's where the care factor
comes in, because most of thetime when you go to the job, you
always got those ones right.
They wanna talk, they wanna dothe right thing, they wanna make
sure, but they don't.
They're not ready to speak upyet, but they're bringing up
(21:14):
some things that, like you said,can materialize into a big
situation.
And my brother always says thatnobody cares about what you
have to say until you show howmuch you care.
And creating that relationshipas a safety professional is so
important because now you haveanother eye that is helping you
(21:42):
make the environment, thecompany, the culture a little
more safer, a little better.
And now you're gaining groundthrough the relationship.
And how is it that over time,you've gained the relationships
that you're gaining?
Because I think that carefactor in that relationship is
(22:07):
very key to our system, becauseyou and me both know that we
can't be everywhere at the sametime.
Right, really good point.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And relationships are so key and it takes a lot of
time and a lot of effort to workon those relationships and you
get to know them.
You get to know their familyand you get to know them.
You know what are some of thethings that make them tick.
You know it could be somethingas simple as this guy likes that
special safety glass that youknow and you're able to remember
(22:37):
that and take care of theseguys in a special way.
And if they ask for somethingthen you follow through, so you
create trust and thatrelationship then starts to grow
over time.
So such an important part ofour job is to build trust and
(22:57):
really take care of these people, because they are people, they
have families, they have alivelihood and we show that we
care, we truly care about thembecause of all these things that
we do to show that we care Very, very important.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Perry, very important .
I always say relationships areimportant.
You know, relationships areworth more money than you can
ever imagine.
It's really helped me.
I think.
Another thing that helped mepersonally too, is you don't
(23:35):
know everything out there, right, when you start asking the
craft of you know hey, how didyou do that?
Like you know, and beinginterested in exactly what
they're doing, it helps outevery once in a while.
You know, getting involved justfor a little bit maybe help the
guys and, like you said, reallytrying to find out who's who,
what do you like, what does helike, because that's the
(23:59):
conversation they need.
I'm a believer that every time Icome on site, I don't need to
be talking about safety.
You know, because and the reasonwhy I say that I say that to
say that sometimes you gottamake people, you gotta let
people know they're important.
(24:19):
You know, and if I can let youknow you're important safety
will sneak its way in on youbecause you're gonna start
caring about yourself, you'regonna start caring about what I
think about you and you're gonnastart caring about what other
people think or are thinkingabout you, and it's gonna help
guide you into a certain waywhen it comes to being able to
(24:46):
execute when the light isn'tshining on you and that's where
we gotta get to is like whensomebody is doing the right
things in dark places.
We don't never know how manytimes you hear of this or you
(25:07):
hear of that couple months laterand it's like, oh man, I wish
I'd had known that a little bitearlier, you know.
But definitely is importantthis whole relationship thing.
So, perry, going back to thetrench box, like I said, it's
(25:28):
been a lot.
It seems like this year it'sonly two or three.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Actually across country, it's a total of eight.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Oh, it's eight okay.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
But it's still much lower than it was this time last
year.
So we are improving, if youwere to call it that, even
though Even though eight toomany.
Eight too many.
It should be zero.
But I think we would all agreethat that number is a lot better
than it was last year.
Yes, yes, and we definitelywanna continue to drive our
(25:57):
message forward to as manypeople as we can.
Again lower that to zero.
But, yeah, it is definitelybetter this year than it was
last.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Or is OSHA?
I know OSHA in 20, I think itwas 2018, they had a national
emphasis program going on.
Is there anything new that'sbeen added to that recently?
Perry?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
No, still, 2018 was the latest on that emphasis
program, the national emphasisprogram that they put together
for trenching and excavation andsafety.
Last year, when they did putthat out and I believe it was in
June of last year in 2022, theydid put that press release out
and really to emphasize trenchsafety and to go back to what
(26:42):
they really talked about intheir 2018 emphasis program the
importance of trench safety, toreally try to lower those
numbers and minimize thosefatalities, which didn't seem to
work.
But or maybe it did and itcould have been a lot worse.
We don't know.
(27:03):
But I think the important thinghere is that we just continue
to drive this awareness campaignto as many people as we can
across country and around theworld.
Really, we've been verysuccessful in our campaign
through social media and it'sbeen growing quite a bit here as
(27:24):
of late and seeing a lot ofpeople reach out to us that have
seen what we're doing here onthat social media platform,
awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So I know you got a couple things.
I know you got some thingscoming up.
You got a trenching excavationcoming up here real soon.
I'd like you to talk about thatto the people watching, as well
as talk about, maybe, somethings that are going on with
NUCA, which is the NationalUtility.
(27:56):
Get me right.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
National Utility Contractor Association, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And the other thing is, after you answer those two
questions, perry, I would likeyou to maybe talk to maybe a
safety manager or somebody outthere that may not know that
they can either reach out toanother safety manager or
(28:25):
whatever, but they also canreach out to OSHA, who has a lot
of training things.
They'll lend theirself to youfor some, maybe some small
consulting or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
But if you can also talk about that where what's
available for folks maybestruggling in trench and
excavation, yeah, so I'll startoff with the trench safety
summit that you mentioned thereand that's a huge event that we
do and it's actually NACSA aswell as OSHA, and then the
National Utility ContractorsAssociation.
(29:01):
The Colorado chapter is a hugepartner of that and there's last
year we actually had 500 peopleshow up to that event A huge
event in person at the AdamsCounty Fairground.
This year it's gonna be October4th.
It's an all day event andthere'll be OSHA speaking, as
well as some vendors and somefolks that are experts in the
(29:25):
field of trench and excavation.
They'll be speaking in front ofthe group.
I actually speak.
I do a couple of differentthings during the event, so I'll
be doing a little talk on bestpractices for trenching and
excavation, as well as a roundtable discussion.
So what I did last year isreally just took the mic and
walked around the room andreally tried to get some good
(29:49):
discussion with everybody thatwas there.
It was really, reallysuccessful and they asked me to
come back and do it again thisyear, so excited to be able to
do that as well.
It's really, really fun to beable to share a little bit about
that and bring the generalworker into the discussion,
cause that's really the folksthat we're trying to reach in
(30:12):
our campaign.
But really OSHA really wants tosee that and really let's talk
to the worker.
You know, up at our level right,I look at safety managers.
We have a lot of resources, wereally have a great group of
people that work together, buthow do we really get the message
to the people that need to hearmost?
And so that event is just afantastic way to be able to
(30:36):
address the folks that arereally needing to hear the
message the most.
So we're really trying togather as many of those folks as
we can to get them to attendthat event.
So that's a great one coming up.
And then the greatest news thatwe've had recently is the
National Utility ContractorsAssociation that the actual
(30:58):
national group out of Washington.
They actually adopted the thinkinside the box Trenching and
excavation safety task force.
So, with their resources, withthe people that are on staff,
they're gonna help take this andhopefully take it to the next
level.
So we're working with them.
We're coming up with somestrategies to be able to grow
(31:21):
this message and build it evenfurther than it's been so far.
You know some of the ideaswe've had with that, right, our
group is called the Trenchingand Excavation Safety Task Force
, so TEST, and so we've startedto come up with some new ideas
Trenching and Excavation SafetyTraining, which is also a T-word
, so it's still TEST and maybewe can have a sticker that goes
(31:44):
on people's hard hats afterthey've been trained and it
would say Trenching andExcavation Safety Trained Wow.
So just some concepts thatwe're kinda, you know, coming up
with to try to grow what we'redoing and create a brand.
And we've got somewhat of abrand and it's not like we're
trying to make money, we'retrying to save lives, right, and
(32:05):
so utilizing this brand to geton as many hard hats as we can
Awesome.
And we've got, you know, hardhat stickers that the National
Utility Contractors Associationhas made for us and that's the
Colorado chapter, but we're alsoworking on, you know, getting
that at a national level andwhat they're planning to do is
get those stickers made forevery NUCA chapter and every
(32:28):
NUCA organization that's part ofNUCA and send those stickers
out to all of them.
We're also encouraging anybodyto make their own stickers.
So we actually have a website,thinkinsidetheboxinfo, and on
that website, when you scrollall the way to the bottom of
that website, there's a coupledifferent versions of that logo
and it's the PNG or the JPEGversion.
(32:49):
Those are free to download.
Anybody can take them and printtheir own stickers.
We would encourage folks to puttheir own logo Right and then
if you go to the website, youcan see the logo inside the box.
Have their own logo in there.
That's where they can thenprint those out and put them on
their own hard hats and startutilizing that for their own
(33:10):
organization and really share itwith themselves.
And there's been a feworganizations across the country
They've really embraced that.
You know BT Construction forone.
We've got those on all of ourhard hats and we've got either
the BTC logo or the B-Trendslesslogo two different divisions
that we run here, one inparticular, t-leveling out in
(33:31):
the Carolinas they have embracedit and they've actually created
their whole.
Their safety program is builtaround this whole message and
they've printed those.
They've also created ToolboxTalks and really embraced that.
It's been awesome to see thatthere's folks in Idaho that have
been instrumental in our growth.
(33:51):
There's a gentleman in Texasthat's been fantastic.
Somebody in California, anotherperson in Montana Just amazing
to see these people that havebeen part of our team.
I'm the chairman of our taskforce but there's no way I could
do all this without the help ofour team.
(34:12):
So we do quarterly updatemeetings.
So once a quarter we gettogether and we do some updates.
We share what we've done, whatwe've accomplished, but also we
try to plan some things.
We try to come up with somemethods that we can be able to
share this message with morepeople.
How can we get into a differentspace to be able to reach these
(34:34):
people that need to be reached?
Some of the areas that we'veseen the biggest challenge with
are these smaller organizationsthat come in to do these
residential sanitary sewerservice repairs or sanitary
sewer service installs, andthese are these areas where
these guys are gonna put theseutilities in very quickly and
(34:58):
they might get paid per each andyou know how that goes Right.
They might go a little faster,maybe not use the protective
system because they think theycan go a little faster and think
about a sewer service repair Ifthere's a saturated material at
the bottom of that excavation.
You're now dealing with a verydangerous situation.
(35:19):
So those are the kinds of folkswe're really trying to get in
touch with and really try toshow them that here's the right
thing to do.
Let's get trench protectivesystems where they're sloping,
shielding or shoring.
Those systems need to beinstalled before you put
somebody in that excavation.
That's five feet or deeper.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Awesome, wow, perry man, I'm just sitting here
listening to you, man, and it'slike just making a difference
man.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Just trying our best Making a difference man.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
And it's just so important to see because
everybody got different gifts.
You know it's genuine.
I got a friend.
He talks about gifts, talents,abilities, and there's another
one.
But you know it's to me, man,when you're utilizing your
servant leadership, your giftand man, it's just making a
(36:13):
difference.
Man, we're not gonna save theworld, you know what I mean, but
we're gonna be able to seed alot of people and let that thing
grow into fruition, man, to thetree of life and, at the end of
the day, making sure people gohome.
And I just wanna say from methank you, man, for your
(36:34):
dedication to people, yourdedication to your job, and just
your dedication, not just toyour job but even the people
outside of your job.
And that's super importantbecause today, me and you, when
I look out, you look out there,you might be working for a
different company, you guys, youmight be on a different team,
(36:58):
but we're on the same missionand we just gotta continue
finding ways to share bestpractices amongst our peers,
amongst our different companies,because we might battle on the
dollar side, but we ain'tbattling about who's better in
(37:18):
safety.
We gotta figure out ifsomebody's weak in that area.
We wanna help, I wanna help, nomatter who I work for.
I wanna help because, at theend of the day, it boils down to
the most very simple thing andit's about people, man.
It's about people.
So thank you for what you'redoing, man, and being just being
(37:43):
a part of this safety, becauselast couple of years, like I
said, I used to be an operator,I used to be a form, I used to
be those things.
I never thought I would be onthe safety side of things, but
when I saw myself coming out ofthe military being a sergeant
and all those things I actuallywas taking, I was actually
(38:03):
prepared.
Before I even got this, I wasactually taking care of people.
So just being able to do thatagain it's awesome and I ain't
gonna say it's easy, but ithelps out a lot when you've been
there a little bit and you knowwhat they're dealing with,
(38:24):
because it's almost like yougotta get down to that level so
that there's an understanding.
We forget that, the positionthat we are in management, that
people look up to us.
You just think you're just thisold person that is doing
something.
You come to work just like theother guy, but you're really
(38:45):
being looked upon and looked atas somebody and when you are
taking care of that person, whenyou're loving on them and, you
know, wanting the best for them,man, everything works out, man.
It just really does, man.
That brings joy to me.
(39:05):
That's why I get up everysingle day, man, because I know
there's somebody out there thatneeds some help and I'm willing
to do those things.
So, and I see that that's inyour heart, in your mind and in
your career of what you do, man.
So again, thank you for that.
(39:27):
I'm not gonna ask you too manymore questions because I want
you to come back on.
We're gonna dive a little bitmore deeper, maybe on some
trench and excavation, and thenthroughout the year, hopefully,
man, we can talk about someproducts you guys are maybe
using, maybe somebody you don'tknow about a best practice that
you guys are doing, but justreally getting this information
(39:48):
out.
Perry, this won't be your lasttime and I hope this in your
mind this won't be your lasttime, because your knowledge,
your love and what you do for us, man, we really need you on
here.
They need you on here, and Ithink that you're definitely
making a difference, man, andthanks a lot, man.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Thank you.
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