In any line of work, you’re going to learn some shortcuts. Pick up a comic book, for instance, and you’ll find that many artists simply trace backgrounds and complicated objects from Google Image search results. Go see a movie and you’ll find that they reuse the same stock footage of explosions, car chases and airplanes taking off from movie to movie. It’s simply easier and cheaper than producing new work from scratch.
Here’s the key difference between the shortcuts that you can afford to take, and the shortcuts that you can’t: With the former, there’s no real risk of anyone getting hurt.
Climbing a ladder with an armful of tools is quicker than hauling them up after you in a bucket, but it’s not safe, and it’s not going to look good on an insurance claim. The truth is that most shortcuts that you could take on a construction site are shortcuts that you absolutely shouldn’t take. Especially these ones:
“I Don’t Need A Crew For This”
You’re touring the job site after hours, maybe doing a little last minute clean up or picking up something you forgot earlier today. You notice that your team left the roof just a few tiles short. Your first instinct might be to take two minutes out of your day and get that finished now instead of having to go up there in the hot afternoon sun the next day. This is a simple task that doesn’t exactly require a three man team, but the crew isn’t just there to get work done, they’re also there to make sure that there’s a trained team to respond should you fall off the roof. You really shouldn’t be working any job site without at least bringing along a friend who can help you out if you get hurt, no matter how simple the task seems to be.
Inadequate Tools and Materials
You’ve probably seen people using the back end of a hatchet as a hammer, or using nails where a screw is needed. Using inadequate tools and materials isn’t only a recipe for disaster, it’s not that good of a shortcut, either. Would you honestly rather take out two dozen old screws with a claw hammer than with a power drill?
Skipping Any Safety Protocols, Period
Maybe you’ve been welding without a mask for years without incident, and maybe you feel that an injury suffered on the job would have turned out the same whether or not you’d been wearing a mask. The problem is that nobody else is going to see it that way when you file your insurance claim. Safety protocol is there not only to protect you, but to make sure everyone is on the same page so that we can rule out negligence.
Source
http://ehstoday.com/blog/safety-shortcuts-longest-distance-between-two-points
