Read Psychosocial Comics
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Chapter 1The Win
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Chapter 3Two ShortComing soon
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The Wise Call presents. The Psychosocial Project. Chapter 1: The Win. A business comic about psychosocial safety at work. The Wise Call. Psychosocial safety, done right.
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Welcome to Harbour Civil. Harbour Civil is a family-founded civil contractor that has just won the biggest job in its history: the Ridgeway Upgrade. The policy is written, the survey is done and the training is 94 percent complete. But psychosocial hazards don't live in policies. They live in moments. This is the story of those moments, and of the people who have to handle them. Enjoy this complimentary chapter and, while you're at it, spot the psychosocial hazards. Our answers are at the back. Meet the team. Kane Morsely, traffic controller. Mick Sullivan, site supervisor. Sam Cooper, leading hand and health and safety rep. Leila Abbas, project coordinator, Ridgeway. Dani Mercer, runs operations, and now Ridgeway too. Priya Nair, HSEQ manager. Alex Garrow, managing director. Ray Broadbent, founder, still on the board. Claire Garrow, Alex's wife. Grant, commercial manager. Tayla, Kane's partner. Banjo, Dani's dog.
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Ridgeway Road. Monday, 4:52 am. Kane: TC one. Signs out. Closure's live at five. Radio: Copy, mate. Kettle's on. Sign: Roadwork ahead. Billboard: Ridgeway Upgrade. Thank you for your patience. Harbour Civil.
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Ridgeway site compound, 5:05 am. Mick Sullivan, site supervisor, twenty-six years at Harbour. Mick: Right. Who've we got. Board: Sam. Kane. Brodie. Ngoc. Rawiri. Jess. Luke, crossed out. Dev, crossed out. Short 2 since July. Sam Cooper, leading hand, pipe crew, elected health and safety rep. Sam: ...Watch... the drivers. Board: Lane closure 5am to 2pm. Pipe crew CH 2400. Drink water. Watch the driv. Leila Abbas, project coordinator, Ridgeway. Leila: Thirty-one unread, before six.
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Dani Mercer, operations manager, and, since August, Ridgeway's project manager. Dani: Grant, Grant, plant hire, Grant. Screen: Days without a lost-time injury, 412. Aggression reports this quarter, 1. Priya: Four hundred and twelve, not bad! Priya Nair, health, safety, environment and quality manager. Alex: Thirty-eight years ago, Ray. Hmm... Claire: Dad's already in the car. Alex Garrow, managing director.
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6:40 am. Driver: Move it, you useless #@%!! Some of us have actual jobs! Kane: Have a good one, mate! Sign: Stop. Sign: Slow. Sam: Another fan, Sammy. Five stars. Would get abused again. Kane: You right? Sam: All good. Part of the job. Phone: New report. Caption: Reported the first three. Nobody ever called back.
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Harbour Civil yard, 7:30 am. Banner: Ridgeway Upgrade. Main works contract awarded. Alex: Thirty-eight years ago, Ray started this company with one excavator and one tip truck. Alex: And a ute that never started! Alex: When a job goes sideways, who do they call? Crowd: Harbour gets it done! Alex: And since 2017, we've learnt that getting it done means everyone goes home.
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Alex: Ridgeway is four times anything we've built. Alex: Government work means auditors, Priya? Priya: The auditors don't only ask about physical injuries anymore. Priya: They ask how we prevent and manage psychological injury. Screen: The Psychosocial Project. Policy, done. Survey, done. Training, 94% complete. Policy. Survey. Training. Worker: Boxes ticked! That's the Harbour way. Alex: Goodo on ya, Priya! Clap. Clap. Clap. Dani: Gotta go. Pour's at ten. Dani: And I'm still two short. Dani: Four times anything we've built. And the project manager is me, on top of my actual job. Meanwhile on Ridgeway... Sign: Slow.
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Ridgeway site office, 9:40 am. Sign: Ridgeway Upgrade site office. Email from Grant. Subject: Claim. Early works claim to the client by Wed 5pm. Nothing else matters this week. G. Mick: Leila, Mick. Need that night-works permit amendment lodged today, or we lose this week's night closures. Leila: Copy, Mick. Leila: Two minutes apart. Both urgent, both right. Caption: The claim is money. The permit is people on the road at night. Screen: Road Works Permit Portal. Project name, Ridgeway Upgrade. Proposed closure dates, 12/09/2026 to 18/09/2026. Road / location, Ridgeway Road. Chainage from 12.400 km to 13.750 km. Work type, road construction. Traffic management plan, upload file. Leila: Permit first. The claim can wait a day.
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Wednesday, 7:04 pm. Leila: The permit portal rejected it twice. At least I got it in on the third go. Now the claim. Email to Grant. Subject: Early works claim 07. Claim will be with the client first thing Thursday. Sorry. Leila: Hmm... should I say sorry? Same time, Kane is driving home. Driver: Terrible day! Earlier that arvo... Kane: Huh... full one, this time. Tayla: Hey, you. How was your day? Kane: Good. Quiet, really.
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Thursday, 3:15 pm. Email from Grant: Claim late again. Second time this month. Coordination is the bottleneck. G. Dani: Sure Dani, I'll sort it. Grant: We've got plant finance payments, Dani. I can't run a business on "first thing Thursday". Dani: Hmm... she used to be the one who never missed anything. Dani: Okay. Time we had a chat. Calendar, Monday 7 to Friday 11: site induction, client meeting, design review, subcontractor coordination, progress meeting, pre-start, site walk, internal ops meeting, client call, safety committee, project coordination, commercial review, claim prep for Ridgeway, supplier meeting, site issues review, close out.
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Dani: Short and friendly. Don't spook her. Invite: Leila: Catch-up. Leila Abbas. Friday 11 Sep, 8:00 am. Dani's office. Send. Leila: Catch-up. Friday. No agenda... that's never good. Thursday, 9:40 pm. Dani: What do I say, Banjo? Notebook: Leila, we need to talk about... I've noticed... Is everything okay at home? Dani: Every version sounds like a warning. Dani: At least the night works got going. Someone sorted that. Caption: The conversation tomorrow.
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Spot the psychosocial hazards. Chapter 1 is a celebration. It's also full of psychosocial hazards. Here are five. Did you spot them? 1. Violence and aggression. Drivers abuse Kane at the lane closure. Later, it's a full coffee cup. Pages 4 and 8. 2. Poor support. Kane reported the first three incidents. Nobody ever called back. Page 4. 3. Lack of role clarity. Leila gets two urgent instructions that pull in opposite directions, two minutes apart. Page 7. 4. Job demands. Mick's crew has been two short since July. Leila is still at her desk after 7 p.m. Pages 2 and 8. 5. Poor organisational change management. Ridgeway is four times anything Harbour has built. Dani runs it on top of her own job. Pages 3 and 6. Under Australian WHS laws, psychosocial risks must be managed like any physical risk. Policies, surveys and training are a start. What matters is what managers actually do in the moment, and whether you can show it. Talk about it. Which of these would you have picked up first? And what would you have said to Kane, or to Leila, the next morning?