Name: Hashim Maqsood ID:F209001034
Complacency
"Complacency is caused by the very things that should prevent accidents, factors
like experience, training and knowledge contribute to complacency. Complacency
makes crews skip hurriedly through checklists, fail to monitor instruments closely or
utilize all navigational aids. It can cause a crew to use shortcuts and poor judgement
and to resort to other malpractices that mean the difference between hazardous
performance and professional performance."
The main danger that might injure and destroy relationships is complacency.
Consider a long-married couple as an example. When one of them grows
complacent, the other party may experience boredom, dissatisfaction, and lack of
interest, which might ultimately lead to broken relationships. On the other side, a
youngster might become bored and wind up exploring other things to his harm if they
are engaged in repetitious activity without the correct parental supervision. Being
complacent means having a sense of security, satisfaction, and contentment without
realising the risk it could pose. It has no place in any kind of relationship and poses a
serious threat at work. "A man's work is in risk of degrading when he feels he has
accomplished it," the renowned American playwright Eugene O' Neill famously
[Link] might seem to be a simple word but the effects it could bring
might mean disaster. It arises when one becomes very familiar with the work he is
doing that it becomes repetitive, monotonous and the work becomes "robotic".
In aviation, complacency has been a major concern and is, repeatedly, a major
contributing factor in many unwarranted accidents caused by human factors.
Complacency is one of the Dirty Dozen that is part of every Human Factors training.
Complacency, among the rest of the Dirty Dozen, posts potential threat that should
be given significant emphasis.
Consider an aircraft maintenance team that performs inspections on planes. He
should check the hydraulic oil in the plane every night. However, he skips the
procedure ignorant that there was already a leak that led to an engine in-flight
shutdown since he has become accustomed to the hydraulic oil lasting for a week
before replenishing. This unwanted situation might not have happened if the staff
had followed the normal inspection. There is a proverb that goes, "An ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of treatment." In the realm of aviation, taking shortcuts is
strictly forbidden and should never be done. Maintaining proper routine inspections,
SBs, manuals, and standard operating procedures ensures safe flying, ensures
corporate efficiency, and reduces costs in relation to customer satisfaction.
Symptoms of Complacency:
Accepting Lower Standards of Work Performance
Degradation of feeling to remain knowledgeable and proficient at work
Name: Hashim Maqsood ID:F209001034
Accepting and Satisfied with current conditions at work
Increased Feeling of Well Being even if tasks are building up
Neglecting important safety itinery at work
Countering complacency:
Awareness
Keeping oneself aware of the surrounding situation by rehearsing in the mind
the consequences of complacency by reading accident reports of your
profession
Keeping abreast of the situation and surroundings and all related incidents
and reports can give you an idea on how to prevent future mistakes
Attitudes
Adopting a positive attitude by becoming more professionally involved at
work, reading up to date materials to level up one's own knowledge
Maintaining the Right/Positive Attitudes at work
Expectations
Going through contingency checklists and repeating them so as to avoid
hearing/ seeing what you expect to hear/see
As the old cliche, hope for the best but expect the worst. This is not being
pessimistic but having foresight gives us leeway to prevention of error
This can be done by saying these checklists aloud
Training
Even if deemed proficient, go through different training and seek to improve
yourself by asking other people who may know more and offer a different
insight
Recurrent training to hone one's skills and refresh knowledge
Training different scenarios so that one is well equipped in dealing with them
Management plays important role here where employees should be given
recurrent, development trainings in order to motivate them and become
Name: Hashim Maqsood ID:F209001034
proficient and diligent at work. This also boosts the morale of employees. As
the famous Mao Tse Tung once said, "Complacency is the enemy of study."
So it is critical to have continuous trainings and developments in order to
combat complacency
New challenges
Create challenges for yourself by working with another person in competing
who will make the least mistakes and trying to catch the other person's
mistakes will improve standards and reduce complacency
Challenging oneself and his performance creates the feeling of wanting to
improve oneself and motivates to do better each and everytime, leaving no
room for complacency
Critique yourself
Continuously critique own performance by striving for the perfect way to do
things
Constantly trying to better one self in getting things done
Trying to be the critic of one's work creates a room for self-improvement and
development
Physical fitness
Good physical fitness levels builds up the necessary endurance to protect
against stress/ fatigue induced complacency so that good decisions can be
made and small details are not neglected
Being physically fit lessens the effects of stress and pressures and produces
a person to be attentive at work
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we should never be complacent or relaxed in our regular dealings with
life since doing so puts our relationships in grave peril. In the workplace, especially in
our line of work, aviation professionals should not ever get complacent. On a bigger
scale, we will be endangering the aviation industry as well as the lives of many
individuals who depend on us. We also jeopardize the firm and clients for whom we
work. There is no better policy than adhering to the accepted practices, or SOPs.
The phrase "Millions of lives depend on us" is used in aviation.
