While doing Facilities Condition Assessments (FCA) for Aramark Engineering Solutions, (ES) I have led a team of facility engineers and architects on many, many FCAs over the years. These FCAs invariably include surveying equipment/assets located on roofs. After starting and leading the ES safety program for 7 years, ES now has been injury free for approaching 10 YEARS in the next few months. Needless to say safety of the team is important to me. I realized a while back that roof safety is not something Aramark has promoted very often. One day while working on a flat roof with my team, I came to the realization that one point is always left out of the roof safety info that is shared. That one point is: don’t walk backwards on a roof. This is too dangerous and should be emphasized as such. The day I came to the realization that walking backwards on roof (to get a better view, better perspective or because something was in the way) is very, very dangerous, I saved someone’s life. The person I saved was me. I now make it point now to never walk backwards on a roof and make sure my team knows this unstated rule as well.
