Keeping a written plan current when the rules move
How to tell a stale plan from a current one, and what to do when a standard changes underneath you.
A written plan is a snapshot of the rules on the day it was written. Standards move: Washington restructured its smoke tiers, Colorado amended its agricultural acclimatization period, and California adopted an indoor heat standard that did not exist a few years ago. A plan that still cites the old numbers is worse than an obviously old plan, because it looks current and is not.
Takeaways
- Tell whether a given plan reflects the current rules.
- Rewrite from current rules without losing your own edits.
- Know which version was in effect on the day of an incident.
- Set a review rhythm that catches changes you did not hear about.
Two ways a plan goes stale
How to tell if a plan is current
Rewriting without losing your edits
Which version was in effect on the day
A review rhythm that works
Frequently asked questions
- Does editing the body make a plan current again? No. Editing changes your text but not the rules you wrote against, so an edited plan stays flagged if a rule moved. Rewrite from the current rules and then re-apply your language.
- Are archived versions ever flagged as stale? No. An archived version is a record of what your plan said at a point in time. Flagging it would suggest it should be updated, which is the opposite of what a historical record is for.
- What if a rule moved in a way that does not affect my plan text? The flag tells you the rule moved; you decide whether the text needs changing. Rewriting is cheap and produces a clean version stamp, which is usually easier than reasoning about whether the change was material.
- How would I know a state changed a threshold? Most employers do not, which is the problem. Watching every state register is impractical, which is why the version stamp and the flag exist: the comparison happens automatically and tells you which rule moved.