‘NEBOSH helped cure my excessive risk aversion’
Case Study: Mihai Postaru
Being averse to risk isn’t always a good thing. In fact, when risk aversion is excessive it can lead to disproportionate decision-making. It’s the kind of thing that leads to those ‘health and safety gone mad’ stories the press can be fond of and that are almost never rooted in the profession itself.
Excessive risk aversion is sometimes the result of a traumatic event, such as a workplace accident or near miss. This was the case for Mihai Postaru, who came close to losing his life around 10 years ago while working for a sub-contractor on the construction of Hamad International Airport in Qatar.
Mihai, 34, is originally from Romania. He first travelled to Spain aged 20, in search of “more than I could find at home”. His love of all things multi-cultural drew him to Qatar a year later and with a lively mix of people from all parts of the world, he settled there. Hardly risk averse behaviour, but then something changed.
“The airport project was huge and we were working on a warehouse racking system at the time with automated stacker cranes,” he explained. “An older guy there I was good friends with and who I kind of looked up to suggested we take a short cut through the racking, instead of going around. I just followed him blindly and then we had one of those fast-moving stacker cranes coming straight for us. I pushed him through and then he grabbed and pulled me to safety, just in time.
“You kind of realise you have only one life in these moments and it’s funny how you then start to see hazards in everything.”
Mihai started to look seriously into health and safety and found a good mentor on site who ultimately guided him towards NEBOSH. He took the NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, which he said really helped him to “balance things” following his near miss.
“You can’t go through life scared of everything or just looking at everything that can go wrong, or you’re never going to get anything done,” he said. “The NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, and what it taught me, helped to filter things out, by doing proper risk management and understanding how a robust safety system puts a focus on those key areas. It’s taken a while, but I’m definitely getting there.”
Mihai’s learning has continued, including a NEBOSH Oil and Gas Certificate and the recently developed NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Process Safety Management. A NEBOSH Master’s is next year’s goal.
Best of all, he’s carved a strong career out of his learning, currently working with food producers Mazzraty as a Health and Safety Manager. “It’s a bit different from construction, and I’m loving it, not just because of the diverse risks, but because it’s part of a bigger initiative to support Qatar’s self-sufficiency. So, there’s a big national interest in what we’re doing here.
“This is an exciting place to be when it comes to health and safety. Things were a lot different when I first arrived and there have been some insane changes, not just in the legislative framework but culturally around safety. I’m proud of my involvement here and I also want to thank NEBOSH, not just for helping me balance things around risk, but for their ongoing commitment to GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). This is my home now and safety is something we all need.”