Is your job a safe place to work? Do you know? Should we be analyzing our jobs to see whether they are safe?

There was a time when citizens could feel safe at work unless they were employed in a high-risk job like law enforcement, fire service, the military, or maybe construction.

There was a time when mothers and fathers taught their children that they would be safe if they went to work or school and “stayed out of trouble.”

Today, you may have a responsible, high-paying, accident-free job in a high-class company located in a high-rent district and still be unsafe.

The only machine you operate may be a computer; yet you could still face debilitating illness from your job.  You may make a business trip to another company location and encounter a terrorist’s bomb.

Unfortunately, all jobs are not safe, so everyone should be concerned about safe jobs. About 8% of all private sector employees will suffer lost time during any given year due to injuries or illness. Over a million American workers each year suffer disabling injuries.

Shouting “everyone is going to die,” a fired Fort Lauderdale maintenance employee walked into a meeting of his former co-workers, chased them around the office, and methodically shot them — killing five and injuring another.

A female teacher was left dead and a second critically wounded after an expelled student at a South Carolina high school returned to the school building and starting shooting.  He then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

After re-organization, downsizing, or restructuring, employees are expected to assume more duties and work longer hours with no change in their pay.  Mandatory overtime is required by many employers, placing a burden on employees but particularly those with families with small children.  Higher levels of stress often lead to workplace violence.

Such incidents have become all too common in organizational life.  As a result, many people have become interested in learning more about job safety and, in particular, which jobs seem to present the lowest risk to people holding those jobs.

Think about it.  How may YOU be able to make your company or your child’s school a safer place to work?