It’s official…

Twenty five years ago, when I joined my family business, I was tasked with implementing an effective safety program. Even though I had grown up around the industry (I remember doing payroll when I was in junior high school!!), it was still quite a task for someone new to construction in general and new to safety in particular. I wasn’t left floundering, however, as I had quite a role model!!

My Mom was the first Occupational Health and Safety Nurse in her region, going back to school in the 80s after an already incredible nursing career that had her as head nurse in outpatients prior to the shift to safety. She was a wealth of knowledge and information that I was able to turn to.

I started taking classes through the Nova Scotia Construction Safety Association (now Construction Safety Nova Scotia) which taught me how to take the bones of the safety program already in place to a fully functional, engaged program where we all work together to ensure safety. I was lucky in so many ways…working in my family business, the people I was now tasked with engaging in safety were people I already knew and loved…so of course I cared enough about them to want them to go home safely to their families at the end of the day!! Not to mention both my Dad and my brother were among those people!! This foundation in helping people and caring about people and safety programming put me on a path unlike a lot of people working in safety today.

I simply saw safety differently. I still do. I see safety as something that is 85% relationships. If we don’t know the people we are working with; if we don’t care about the people we are working with; if we don’t want the best for the people we are working with…what are we doing there? Empathy, kindness, forgiveness, helpfulness provide the basis for my safety programming. We are all human. We all have bad days thrown in here and there. But if I’m working on the top of a roof, wearing full harness, and having a terrible day where my mind is preoccupied with other things…I truly hope the others on my shift are aware of those preoccupations; because we get by with a little help from our friends. And in the safety world, that is the truest statement.

That viewpoint, I think, comes from my early years of safety – caring for and helping my family and friends in my family’s business. What also comes from that experience is my work ethic. When it is your family name on the letterhead, you learn that if a job needs to be done, it has to be done…even if no one else is around to help you do it. You can’t cut corners. You can’t slack off. You can’t spend your days shopping or going to appointments. You are are responsible for safety, period. So you do whatever it takes to make that happen.

As the years went by, I finished my formal education; I also took any and all safety courses I could find; I participated in safety conferences and safety meetings whenever I could. I kept up to date on best practices and I studied legislation every chance I could. If my career was going to be in safety, I was going to make sure I was competent in the role. I even joined the Board of Directors of Construction Safety Nova Scotia.

When my family business closed at the end of 2012, I had the opportunity to work with a private safety business that had clients all over Pictou and Antigonish counties. While that experience didn’t turn out to be my path, I was able to help businesses in a wide variety of industries with their safety programming! From car dealerships to plumbing companies to home furnishing stores to industrial complexes! I did them all!! And I met a lot of really wonderful people! I then signed on to do one year as safety coordinator for another local construction company and was able to do some wonderful things throughout my stay…that lasted 8.5 years!! In addition to the safety basics, I found my niche in teaching safety programming! From annual safety meetings to Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee to Fall Protection, First Aid, Confined Spaces, Traffic Control, WHMIS, etc etc…I found something at which I truly excelled. I had the chance to take on additional roles like job fairs and licensing applications and community outreach, including my projects with local Indigenous communities, which I loved most of all. I finished my 8 plus years there by mostly being on the road…going from job site to job site, engaging the workers and working hard to build a positive safety culture company wide.

We all know how things go in life and we all come to a point in our lives where we question where we are, what we’re doing and if that is where we want to be. I started questioning that in April 2021…making me a textbook case of the great covid resignation!! It wasn’t until the fall that I left but I started thinking about life outside my job. And I started thinking about my time and how I wanted to spend it. And about how my foundations are in relationial safety and hardwork…and wondered if perhaps it was time to strike out on my own.

I applied at that time to the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals to see if I met the qualifications to be asked to sit for their BCRSP exam. I knew I was competent and those in positions of leadership at all the companies I’d worked for knew I was competent. And every single worker I helped along the way knew I was competent. But if I was going to move forward, I needed those initials, CRSP, after my name. So I applied.

I had to send in my official transcripts from my university degrees. I had to send proof of all of my safety training courses I’d taken over my lifetime. I had to send any professional development certifications outside of safety I’d taken. I had to prove I had hands on safety experience in the field and in the office. I had to have two in-depth reference letters from professional engineers. And then I had to wait to see if I’d be invited to sit for the competency exam…an exam comparable to the RN general exam nurses must successfully complete following their formal education.

I found out in December 2021 that I had made the cut and was invited to sit for the exam. I THOUGHT I was to write the exam in June so made the decision to relax and enjoy my December, after not having a proper vacation in quite some time. That week between Christmas and New Year’s, I signed on to the site and discovered that I actually had to take the exam in February! So instead of the six months to study I thought I had, I only actually had six weeks!!!

I hunkered down and my cousin Kathy stepped up! She made meals and divided them into portion sizes so that I didn’t have to cook for my parents during that time frame…just defrost and heat up! My only job was to study.

Then my father in law passed. My husband is originally from the Dominican Republic as you know if you’ve been following this blog. My mother in law had passed the year before, at the beginning of covid when countries were on lock down. This time, there were flights available…but we had already sent away my husband’s passport to be renewed and had no idea when it would be returned to us. So once again, we could not go to mourn with the rest of his family.

Needless to say, that was a difficult time to be studying and trying to focus on anything outside of my family.

I tried to postpone the exam but I would have had to start from scratch with the application process, so I wrote it anyway. It was the least prepared I’d ever felt for an exam, especially for one of this nature!

I waited and waited and waited for a reply that seemed to never come. I checked my email a million times a day in case results were sent that way. But nothing.

When my husband’s passport arrived in March, we booked a trip and went the end of that month. It was such a heavenly week of rest and relaxation and laughs and sunshine and family! I finally had the peace I needed to really think about what was next for me. Do I actually start my own business? Do I start looking for another safety job? Do I find another field altogether?

I took it as a sign that I had not heard back about my exam and almost had myself convinced to leave safety altogether…then I arrived in Toronto on my way home from the DR to the email saying my results had been mailed out. No hint of what was in them.

My Dad brought the mail in to me a few days later and was a little cross that I wouldn’t open my results in front of him! But, if I failed, I wanted to be alone to process. I looked at the envelope on my coffee table for quite some time, took a deep breath, and opened it. The first words I read were, congratulations! I had passed!!

Honestly it had been a long time since I’d felt that level of pride in myself…I basked in the glow for a few minutes and then shared the news with my husband and family and those that helped me get to this point! I was so thrilled that everyone seemed to understand the magnitude of this certification…even if it was outside their area of expertise.

The official certificates came in the mail today and I cried as much as I did on the day I got my successful completion letter! I almost gave up on safety…even though my hardworking, kindness and empathy based way of doing safety is, in my humble opinion, extraordinary! The world is now at my feet and I have some big decisions to make! Today, however, I celebrate in my garden…and will leave the heavy thinking, decision making and planning for the future to another day! Thank you to all of you who have supported me and lifted me up and encouraged me to keep doing what I’m good at – helping others to prioritize safety in the workplace.

This is from the press release they sent to me:

For Immediate Release: Jo Ann Ortega becomes a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP).

Missisauga, ON, April 5, 2022. Jo Ann Ortega has completed all requirements for certification as a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP). This highly respected certification is awarded to individuals who meet academic standards, safety professional practice experience requirements and have passed the rigorous CRSP examination. The criterion-referenced examination evaluates the competencies a safety professional is required to possess to practice safely and effectively.

Canadian Registered Safety Professionals offer in-depth knowledge of OHS principles and practices and apply this knowledge to develop systems to achieve optimum control over hazards in the workplace. A CRSP will represent OHS matters at all levels and will interact with other business leaders in the interest of an organization’s performance.