"When I went to the construction site of a small hospital in Montreal, I worked with many architects and a group of patients. For a while the architects didn’t want me involved. ‘Your work will take too long! It will cost too much! You make things look ugly!’ We disagreed because they wanted aesthetics and I wanted practicality. They said the hospital project was theirs, but it’s not just theirs. It’s belongs to everyone that uses the hospital!" Jocelyn, BPh, BSc, DESS
One of the biggest obstacles an ergonomist or usability professional can face is a reluctant staff. It's one thing to interact with a manager, but it's entirely different dealing with staff who might not understand why you're observing, what your goal is, and how it impacts them.
A common misconception is that an ergonomic assessment is no different than a performance review. Workers fear that their jobs might be at risk, that their produced work will be criticized, and in the case of designers, architects, engineers, & programmers, that their projects will be taken over and changed against their will. While these beliefs aren't entirely unfounded, human factors professionals often must reassure the staff they work with that their intentions are to improve safety or better serve the end-user of a product.