A typical day in the life of the EH&S manager might go something like this:


Get in the office at 7 AM and go over all the previous days reports about any incident(s) that occurred.  Next you get that cup of coffee to spill over all those reports.  Now you check out the 50 or so E-mails of which at least 30 require a response.  Now it is time to walk the facility and do a short audit to make sure the people are wearing their PPE.  Go back and check more e-mails, and go over the budget for this month.  It’s 9AM and time for your first managers meeting of the day.  You report on 1 incident and what is happening to the employee.  Now back to the office to write your agenda for the weekly safety meeting and go over the OSHA 300 log.  After a short break you need to go over training records to see who needs what training and when can you get it done. Time to start designing a hazardous materials training class for new employeesas some of your MSDS sheets have changed.  Lunch, and then back to designing the training class you use to outsource, but not in this year’s budget.   Call coming in from the floor about a machine-guarding problem (no one hurt).  Have to go on the floor with maintenance to check the machine (lockout/tagout), they need it running for the production line.  Another call on the Nextel that employee requires minor first aid.  Go back to the office to call supervisors to schedule training, but hey are NOT happy to have to take people away from production.  Your boss calls and wants a report about safety to give to his/her boss.  Day almost over, you go back and check on machine to make sure it is properly guarded and find some flammable hazardous materials left out unattended.  Talk with supervisors about this and how to put them away correctly. 5:30PM, time to leave the building, but have to keep Nextel on just in case.  Oh no, I forgot to get the safety meeting agenda put together, well tomorrow is another day.

Here is who I was today:

  • A manager
  • An IT person
  • Asafety person
  • Administrative assistant
  • A finance person
  • An instructional designer
  • A maintenance person
  • A medic
  • An arbitrator
  • An employee
  • Oh Ya! a family person too!!!


So what do you think, sound something like your day?  How many other jobs do you do that I left out?  Send a comment and we will compile a complete (as possible) of all the jobs a safety manager has to do.  Let’s hear from you.