...the constant familiarity with even the most dangerous instruments soon makes men loose their first caution in handling them; they readily, therefore, come to think that the rules laid down for their guidance are unnecessarily strict - report on the explosion of a gunpowder magazine at Erith, 1864
Yes, I don't say that a quote from 1864 is the last word on work culture. Nevetheless, it does capture something of human nature: what is now known as "normalisation of deviance".
