Memo | Lab-wide stand-down, Jan. 9-12
I hope this memo finds you and your families safe following the storms this week.
As I announced on Tuesday, I am standing down the lab this week to give us all time to reset our focus on safety for the coming year. Thank you for your patience over the last few days as we finalized our plans.
By Chi-Chang Kao, Lab Director
Virtual town hall, Jan. 9 at 10:30 a.m.
We will start the week with an all-employee town hall on Monday to discuss recent incidents and the immediate actions we are putting in place to restart work and better ensure a safe environment for all staff, especially for those doing yellow- and red-level work. Specific guidance and detailed implementation of these actions will follow in subsequent directorate and operations division meetings.
Directorate and operations division meetings and discussion, Jan. 9-11
Associate laboratory directors and operations division leadership will be convening supervisors and staff to focus on the following actions, some of which have been in development for the past few months in response to your feedback from prior incidents:
Clarifying the process for authorizing and releasing Control of Hazardous Energy activities, with added rigor and approval requirements.
Implementing pre-job briefings and new materials to support the safe execution of yellow- and red-level work.
Identifying and completing necessary training, including online and on-the-job training.
In addition to completing these actions, small group discussions and walkthroughs of work areas will be conducted as needed.
When the required actions are completed, including approvals received to restart yellow- and red-level activities, work may resume with the approval of your organization’s senior leadership.
Virtual town hall, Jan. 12 at 2 p.m.
Following the stand-down activities, we will reconvene the laboratory to summarize progress against these actions, answer questions, and address any concerns or issues that might have come up.
We will also discuss how these actions fit into our longer-term strategy to strengthen our operational excellence and build the trust and accountability we need to succeed as individuals and as a lab.
Please be ready to engage with questions, comments, feedback and ideas. Calendar invitations will be sent soon for both town hall meetings.
Follow-up actions
The senior management team and I are committed to holding ourselves accountable to you and your safety. Following the week’s activities, we will be meeting to discuss feedback and ideas gathered through this process. I will then share an update with you all to summarize stand-down actions, additional learnings from discussions, and our plans to improve our culture and provide a safe work environment for all.
We are all still shaken by the incident and how serious it was. This is never the kind of news we want to hear about a friend or colleague. This stand-down is an opportunity for us to all come together and have meaningful and respectful conversations about our culture and what we can each do to support and look out for each other. Safety must be a part of our everyday conversations, integral to how we do our work; this will only be possible with everyone’s combined efforts.
I look forward to hearing from you all.
