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Sometimes, things go wrong. It may be your role as an occupational and environmental health and safety professional to inform your clients, executives, or management of a problem, such as that employees have been exposed to dangerous levels of a toxic substance. Or you may have to warn them that a problem will occur if they don’t act, such as by ensuring a hazardous material is stored properly or used with appropriate controls.

Alan Leibowitz, CIH, CSP, FAIHA, emphasizes that everyone, no matter their role in their organization, must occasionally report problems to organizational leaders. This is particularly true for OEHS professionals. “The nature of our profession is that we don't often focus on the things that are going well,” Leibowitz said. “We focus on identifying potential concerns.”

As difficult as these conversations are, they are necessary to address hazards. “Problems don't get better with age,” Leibowitz said. “The longer it takes to have that conversation and put in place corrective actions, the worse the concerns are going to get.” It’s critical for OEHS professionals to learn how to break bad news.

Barriers to Breaking Bad News

For more than 30 years, Leibowitz worked for the global conglomerate ITT. He was responsible for the safety of workers in heavy and light industrial, manufacturing, and service environments and even for people in war zones. “I frequently had to address critical issues, including where lives were at stake,” he said.

He also witnessed incidents in which people hesitated to report or address problems for a range of reasons. Once, a human resources professional tried to address a leak at a facility without informing the organizational hierarchy. The people hired to fix the leak didn’t have the correct skill set to do so. “By the time they reported it up to me and the rest of the hierarchy that could really do something about it, the problem had gotten to be much more of a concern,” Leibowitz said. “We had to inform a group of workers that they might have been exposed. Turned out they weren't. But we had to at least let them know that this possibility existed.”

Another time, Leibowitz learned that the company had been storing pyrophoric chemicals, which can ignite spontaneously in air, underneath a building where people worked. After asking organizational leaders to fix the problem, he filed a written report. The leaders of that organization expressed a concern that documenting the issue put them at legal risk, Leibowitz related. “And my answer was, ‘Not if you fix it. You need to put it outside in a special containment area or change the material you're using.’”

“There are bosses who appreciate hearing the bad news because they know that if they are hearing about it quickly, they can deal with it,” Leibowitz said. In his experience, no one intends for anyone to get hurt because of their actions or inaction. But he acknowledged that some people may react poorly to hearing bad news. Sometimes this is due to fear of facing professional or legal consequences, as in the case of the executives mentioned previously. Other people may believe that their business will be negatively impacted if they halt production while implementing controls. They may think they are more knowledgeable than the OEHS professionals who report a hazard, or they may not think the recommended controls are necessary. They may simply get angry when they encounter information that challenges their preconceived beliefs. “There's always a risk associated with delivering bad news, and you just have to accept that,” Leibowitz added.

On the other hand, he observed that OEHS professionals sometimes fear their jobs will be at risk if they give leaders bad news, which leads them to avoid reporting problems or doing so in ways that make problems seem insignificant. They may see their roles as advisors rather than decision-makers and be unwilling to push for controls. They may worry they will reveal their lack of knowledge or experience. Leibowitz has known some early-career professionals who were unsure of their grasp of OEHS knowledge. “But there's also folks, late in their careers, who are very afraid to put out things that they know will be received badly,” he said.

OEHS professionals have a duty to report problems, nonetheless. The Board for Global EHS Credentialing Code of Ethics instructs OEHS professionals to “[c]ommunicate clearly, to clients and/or employers, the potential consequences if professional decisions or judgments are overruled or disregarded.” They must inform leaders that if hazards are not controlled, people may be hurt or killed, and the organization may face legal consequences.

Leibowitz stressed that OEHS professionals must learn to convey bad news in ways that convince people to act. Individuals and organizations not only get in trouble for failing to comply with laws or regulations, he explained. Often, they face greater consequences when courts or regulators learn that they knew about a hazard but didn’t implement controls. “The greatest legal liability that people face is when they’ve identified a problem and not addressed it,” he said.

“Choose another profession if you are not willing to deliver news that makes people take actions they might not want to take.”

Skills for Breaking Bad News Better

However, “there are ways to minimize the difficulty in delivering bad news,” Leibowitz said. One way is to let your managers or executives know—before any problems arise—that you will, at some point, have to break difficult news to them. Then you can walk them through the types of events that you may have to report. According to Leibowitz, informing others that you will be honest and forthcoming in your communications with them will help build trust. “Building that level of trust with your internal organization, the external organization, and regulators means that they're going to be much more understanding when you come up and have to deal with a real issue,” he said.

OEHS professionals should also be sure that there’s truly a problem before they report it. “If there are other ways to look at it, other mechanisms, other devices that can sample, or other forms of analysis, do those,” Leibowitz said. “Take a deep breath and just think about other ways to assure yourself that you really have an issue that you have to bring up.”

When you’ve confirmed that there is a problem, develop possible solutions before you approach others. Leibowitz has found that the worst thing an OEHS professional can do is report problems frequently without offering means to address them. “One of the things that really helped me along in my career is that I was always willing to do the hard work to address the problems that I identified,” he said. “I wouldn't go into any sort of project without being willing to work to find the solution.”

Most importantly, breaking bad news is a “soft” skill, relating to knowledge gained not only through formal education or training but through interacting with other people. According to Leibowitz, one element of this skill is “thinking about the other person and what their motivations might be.” This requires “knowing the person you're going to be talking to, getting some background, understanding them if you can, and knowing what will motivate them to agree with the solution that you're going to put in place,” he said. Some people will want to do the right thing for altruistic reasons. But others may have concerns that lead them to disbelieve that you are reporting a real problem or that your recommended controls are necessary. These concerns may include impacts to their career or reputation, financial costs, or potential legal consequences.

Figuring out the incentives of the person you’re breaking bad news to can help win them over, but so can persistence. “Folks always knew that if they said no the first time, I'd come back again,” Leibowitz said. He cautioned that this approach works best for problems that don’t have to be addressed immediately. “If folks come to understand that you're not going to give up on a subject, they're more likely the next time to agree sooner.”

If the person you’re addressing still refuses to act on the information you’ve given, consider other members of your organization who might listen to you. “Quite often, when I was in a leadership role at ITT, I would have someone tell me, ‘Well, you know, I told my manager, I told the president, I told the director what the problem was, and they decided not to address it. What else can I do?’” Leibowitz said. “And the answer is always to go somewhere else. Find someone else.”

Fortunately, Leibowitz has found that OEHS professionals don’t always need to convince others of the reality of a hazard or the need for controls—as long as they’re convinced to take appropriate action regardless. For example, workers may initially wear personal protective equipment only to satisfy the request of their OEHS professional or supervisor. Over time, however, they often come to accept the PPE as part of their job. “Time and again, I had people in a program where they had to do something they initially just didn't think was necessary,” Leibowitz said. “If they did it long enough, in the end, they were the biggest advocates for the program.”

“In the end, most people will do the right thing if you find the right buttons to push,” he said.

Alan Leibowitz, Robert Agnew, and Kyle Dotson will present the educational session, “How to Report Bad News,” on Wednesday, May 21, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Central time at AIHA Connect 2025. AIHA’s annual conference will be held from May 19 to 21, 2025, in person at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and virtually. To view the conference agenda or register, visit the AIHA Connect website.

Resources:

The Synergist: “Truth to Power,” January 2024.