“WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY.”Four words that could be hiding a fire risk in your workplace

Compiled by Schalk W. Lubbe

“We've always done it this way.”

Four simple words.

Words that are heard in workplaces every day.

And when it comes to fire safety, they can be far more dangerous than they sound.

Because sometimes, “we've always done it this way” really means:

We've never stopped to question it.

We've become used to it.

Nothing has gone wrong yet.

Everyone knows it's like that.

It's not really a problem.

But the absence of an incident does not mean the absence of risk.

In fact, one of the biggest challenges in fire risk management is that hazards can become so familiar that people simply stop seeing them.

WHEN A HAZARD BECOMES PART OF THE BACKGROUND

Walk through your workplace today.

Look carefully.

You may notice a fire exit that has become partially obstructed.

An extension lead that has been running across an area for months.

A fire door that is routinely propped open.

Boxes that have slowly started accumulating near an exit.

Equipment that makes an unusual noise but has "always done that."

A storage area that has gradually become more crowded.

Individually, these things may appear insignificant.

And because they have been there for some time without causing an incident, people begin to accept them.

They become part of the workplace.

The problem is that familiarity can make risk invisible.

“NOTHING HAS HAPPENED SO FAR”

This is perhaps one of the most dangerous assumptions in workplace safety.

A business may have operated for five years with a particular practice and experienced no fire.

Ten years.

Twenty years.

Nothing happened.

So the practice must be safe.

But that isn't how risk works.

The fact that something hasn't caused an incident does not prove that it cannot.

A blocked exit may never become relevant during an emergency — until the day employees desperately need it.

An overloaded electrical connection may function normally for months — until it overheats.

A fire door may remain open every day without consequence — until it is needed to help contain smoke and fire.

The risk existed before the incident.

The incident simply made the risk visible.

WE BECOME BLIND TO WHAT WE SEE EVERY DAY

Human beings naturally become accustomed to their surroundings.

When something is new, we notice it.

When something remains unchanged, we stop paying attention.

That is useful in everyday life, but it can create problems in a workplace.

The employee who walks past the same obstruction every morning may no longer register it.

The manager who sees the same storage arrangement every day may stop questioning it.

The maintenance team may become accustomed to a piece of equipment behaving in a particular way.

Eventually, what should be identified as a potential hazard becomes "just the way things are."

And that is where complacency begins.

“BUT EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT IT”

Another common response is:

“Everyone knows that's there.”

Knowing about a hazard and addressing a hazard are two very different things.

Everyone may know that the fire exit is partially blocked.

Everyone may know that the extension lead has been there for months.

Everyone may know that the fire door is normally left open.

But if everyone knows and nobody acts, the risk remains.

Fire safety depends on more than awareness.

It depends on action.

A strong workplace safety culture encourages employees to speak up when something doesn't look right — and encourages management to take those concerns seriously.

THE VALUE OF A FRESH PAIR OF EYES

This is one reason independent fire risk assessments can be so valuable.

People who work in a building every day understand their environment extremely well.

But that familiarity can also make certain hazards difficult to recognise.

An independent assessor approaches the workplace without the same history.

They don't know that the box has "always been there."

They don't know that the door is "always left open."

They don't know that the machine has "always made that noise."

They can simply ask:

“Why?”

Why is it there?

Why is it being done this way?

Why hasn't it been addressed?

And most importantly:

“What could happen if it isn't?”

Sometimes, those simple questions are enough to make an invisible risk visible again.

CHALLENGE THE NORMAL

Fire safety isn't about creating fear.

It is about creating awareness.

Businesses should regularly challenge the things that have become normal.

Look at the workplace as though you were seeing it for the first time.

Look at the exits.

Look at the storage.

Look at electrical equipment.

Look at fire doors.

Look at housekeeping.

Look at the things employees walk past without noticing.

Then ask:

Would we accept this if we saw it for the first time today?

If the answer is no, why are we accepting it now?

“WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY” SHOULD NEVER BE THE END OF THE CONVERSATION

It should be the beginning of a question.

Why?

Why have we always done it this way?

Is it still appropriate?

Is it still safe?

Has anything changed?

Could we do it better?

Because workplace risks don't disappear simply because people have become accustomed to them.

Sometimes, the greatest risk isn't the hazard that nobody has noticed.

It's the hazard that everyone has noticed so many times that nobody sees it anymore.

At Collaborative Risk Applications, we believe effective fire risk management means looking beyond the obvious, challenging assumptions and identifying risks before they become incidents.

So the next time someone says:

“We've always done it this way.”

Stop.

Look again.

And ask:

“But is it still the right way?”