Fiber safety isn’t always common knowledge for everyone in the industry, but sharing it is everyone’s responsibility

On a recent customer visit, I had a conversation that stuck with me. I was speaking with a new technician who was genuinely excited to start his splicing career — eager, capable, and ready to learn. But like a lot of new employees and contractors, he’d picked up fiber basics without filling in some critical gaps.

Then I told him never to disconnect a jumper and look directly into the end — because laser exposure can cause serious, permanent eye damage. He stopped and said: “I never knew that. Thanks for the info.” I laughed, assuming he was joking. He wasn’t.

Experienced technicians must teach safety

We spent the next 45 minutes together, working through fiber pulling techniques, proper splicing procedures, and the day-to-day safety practices that experienced technicians often treat as second nature. None of it was complicated. But for someone new to the work, it was foundational.

That conversation brought something into focus that I think is worth saying plainly to those of us who have been at this a while: we’re obligated to share what we know.

There’s a version of this industry where experienced technicians hold their knowledge close, quietly assuming that if newer people know more, they’ll be worth less. That mindset is not only wrong — it’s genuinely dangerous. Withholding knowledge doesn’t protect anyone’s job. It creates gaps that lead to avoidable outages, damaged equipment, and, worst of all, injured people. Knowledge shared freely is what moves the technician forward, and the industry with them.

Field safety starts with company culture

What happens on a job site doesn’t exist in isolation. The habits a technician brings to a customer visit — the instinct to check before connecting, the discipline to follow procedure even when no one is watching, the willingness to speak up when something looks wrong — those habits are shaped long before the truck pulls out of the lot. They’re built through training, reinforced by leadership, and sustained by a culture that treats safety as a core value rather than a compliance checkbox.

At Clearfield, that culture extends from the production floor to the front office — and the recognition has followed. For the second consecutive year, Clearfield earned a Minnesota Governor’s Workplace Safety Award, which recognizes organizations with an exceptional commitment to protecting their teams from illness and injury. It’s not a participation award. It reflects the kind of sustained, deliberate effort that only happens when safety is genuinely woven into how a company operates day to day.

That commitment was recognized from the outside as well. Cintas recently visited Clearfield to honor our Safety Team — selecting us as one of just 15 companies out of 40,000 reviewed regionally. The criteria weren’t just procedural. According to Cintas, Clearfield stood out for our genuine care for employees and our dedication to building a culture of safety through training and accountability. That’s the part that matters most: not the plaque, but what it points to.

Staying safe is everyone's job

The through line between what I experienced on that customer visit and what these awards represent is the same: safety is a practice, not a policy. It has to be demonstrated, taught, and reinforced — over and over, in the field and at home — until it becomes the reflex that protects everyone around you.

Have questions about fiber safety best practices or Clearfield’s applications support? Tell Clearfield how we can help.

Kevin Tusing serves as Director of Applications Engineering at Clearfield. Kevin joined Clearfield in 2013 as an application engineer. Prior to that, his professional experience included Cable Technician at the U.S. Air Force and Cable Splicer/Manager at Cincinnati Bell. He has expertise in fiber optic, wireless, and FTTx solutions.