I’ve seen a lot in my professional life. For over two decades as a paramedic, I haven't just attended accidents; I've been in people’s lounge rooms and on worksites at their most desperate, broken moments.
Those experiences don't just stay with you; they teach you what no university degree or corporate wellness seminar ever could. They teach you about the raw, unfiltered reality of the human condition under pressure.
A while back, I shared some of these lessons with Safe to Work magazine. One story I often tell, which they highlighted, is about a call-out to a fatal motorbike accident. A young bloke had been killed. On-site, amidst the devastation, his father told me he’d been arguing with his son just days before about dyeing his hair green.
“It didn’t f@#*ing matter, did it?” the father said to me.
That moment is a brutal, necessary wake-up call. It forces you to ask: What is your "green hair story"? What are you stressing about right now, in your life or your business, that in the face of a true crisis, just wouldn't matter?
In the Mining & Resources sector, where I spend a lot of my time presenting, the stakes are incredibly high. You operate in remote locations, work long hours, and deal with the unique pressures of the FIFO lifestyle. You have "Zero Harm" policies on every wall.
But policies don't stop accidents. People do.
And people are running on remote control. They're getting up, going to work, running on high cortisol, staring at screens, and doing it all over again. Unchecked, this repetition is where the cracks set in. It's where complacency, fatigue, and mental distress take hold. That's when the accident happens. That's when the explosion in mental health occurs.
My work, "The Wake-Up Call," isn't about giving you a "glass-half-full" speech that washes off in a week. It's about bringing the hindsight of the ambulance into your workplace to give you the foresight to prevent a crisis.
Here is the truth that most corporate wellness programs miss:
- Crisis isn't just the accident. Crisis is also the silent, slow-burn of a workforce that is mentally checked out.
- Real change comes from realness. Textbook theories don't cut through to a crew of miners in the Bowen Basin. Real stories of strife, delivered with "no BS," do.
- The goal isn't just to feel good; it's to take control. My aim is to give your people the tools to "catch themselves thinking" (CYT), to identify when they are sliding into the gutter, and to apply strategies today to stop the rot.
Damien Wynn, General Manager at Glencore’s Oaky Creek Coal, told the magazine that my presentations helped "create a network of empathy and resilience, strengthening not only our mines but also our local communities."
That’s the ROI I’m interested in. It's not just about productivity (though a happy, mentally healthy workforce delivers a huge return there). It's about saving lives.
I’ve had a man from a mine site write to me, telling me he had planned to kill himself the week I presented. He came into work that day, heard my message, and it saved him.
That is why I do what I do. "Life lessons come in many forms but have never been told like this," he said.
Your safety protocols are essential. But they are not enough. If you want to build a truly resilient, safe, and high-performing culture, you need to address the human being behind the PPE. You need a wake-up call that lasts a lifetime.
Ready for your Wake Up Call? Let's talk about how I can help your team.
Here is my webpage https://aussiespeakersusa.com/speakers/paul-spinks
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