Business & Finance Is workplace safety beyond the joke now?

[HairyO]

Gough who was the English cricketer who slid into the fence. About 10/12 years ago.

There have also been slowly increasing rope boundaries in International Cricket for years

They pretend that is about safety but really its about bigger scores. Because bigger scores makes cricket fun !

 

[GreyCrow]

They pretend that is about safety but really its about bigger scores. Because bigger scores makes cricket fun !

Most definitely.

 

[GreyCrow]

Just on safety and responsibilities.

One of the better quotes I have seen relate to cars '' the safer the car the worse the driver'' ie the idea that as cars develop autonomy the drivers will stop taking responsibility and more deaths will occur

Its the same in workplaces , people still need some sense of personal responsibility to their own safety. None of this '' oh look theres a 30' fall I should be ok because otherwise it would be chained''

Now this in no way absolves the business from doing all they can to make the workplace safe but dickheads gonna dickhead. I have worked on worksites where there were plenty of dickheads and I looked after myself, I reported but nothing was done. I have supervised on worksites where the dickheads have bred and created more.

I now work for myself and the only dickhead I see is the one in the mirror, but I only have to look after him.

 

[flashmanvc]

Workplace safety, in my job anyway, seems to be all about the lowest common denominator - as in, "let's think up the biggest incompetent dickhead walking disaster area who could ever possibly work for us, then gear all our safety policies and procedures towards keeping him safe".

Which is well and good if you're that dickhead, but the rest of the workforce have a heap of unreasonable hurdles played between them and a even the simplest of tasks.

In my line of work - environmental monitoring - I spend most of my workday in the bush. As soon as I step out of the vehicle I'm meant to implement specific traffic management procedures (there's no traffic) and put on gloves, a hard hat and gators, and a pfd if I'm working on or near water, which I usually am.

Fortunately, working out in the bush means there's no one watching so at this time of year the boardies and thongs come on as soon as I get a few kilometres down the road from the office.


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[Firestarter]

Yeah it essentially comes down to "no one told me not/to do this so it's their fault not mine. Gimme money."

 

[Scotland]

Yeah it essentially comes down to "no one told me not/to do this so it's their fault not mine. Gimme money."

Yep. A litigious society leads to rules and regulations that treats people like toddlers.

Unfortunately it's a bit of a lose-lose situation. If you leave OHS up to the individual, then you run the risk of being penalised for breaching duty of care. if you make OHS too prescriptive, then people don't take it seriously.

OHS paperwork on mine sites in WA has become like terms and conditions on the internet for a lot of people. 'Did you read and understand these 985 pages?'. Yep, of course everyone did...

 

[Beerfish]

We used to have 'night shift jobs' on the site I worked at. These were jobs that would take 5 minutes to do safely at night but half a day or longer to do 'safely' during the day.

 

[Scotland]

I've done similar where there was a daily window of 5-6pm where the client would bugger off and people could go around and do the quick jobs that would take hours to do by the book.

I think they call that fostering a safety culture. Or something.

 

[flashmanvc]

The OHS manager called our office a few weeks back. He was all in a tizz; apparently we hadn't logged any "near hits" for eight months, and the clients' OHS department was starting to ask questions.

We explained we hadn't had any worth reporting. "That's not good enough", he said. "It's a f***ing outstanding result", was the considered response from our end.

Back and forth, back and forth. It all came down to what constitutes a "near hit". The OHS manager pleaded with us "why can't you be like [different regional office]? Last month they reported that two of their staff nearly slipped on a rock walking down a river bank?"

We explained that every day we drive our work vehicles at 100 kph, and pass within 1m of cars going the other way at the same speed. Should we report these as near hits?

You get the point. But we agreed that next month we would report a "near hit" in some shape or form.

But was thinking about this conversation afterwards. Bare with me here... As a species we evolved on the African savannahs, and have certain fears hard wired wired into us; things like dangerous animals and the risk of falling from a great height. These phobias were greatly beneficial to our survival as a species and are obviously still of work well for us today.

But who thinks twice about crossing a road? A huntsman drops from the ceiling onto your lap and the adrenalin kicks in. But watch a tonne of hot steel coming at you down the road at a hundred clicks? Meh, I'll make the other side easily.

tl;dr: OHS campaigners need to brush up on evolutionary biology.

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[flashmanvc]

Righto, I'm all hepped up now...

WT actual F do OHS people do during the work day? (rhetorical question, see below).

Ninety-nine point five nines of the time the drones (i.e. the people who bust their arse to make the money) get through the day without incident. If something happens, OHS are called in; they report on the incident and proffer ideas on how to prevent it happening again. Nice.

But how do they demonstrate their value to the company when everything is running sweet? The answer: paperwork. More and more forms to complete. Want to scratch your arse? Please flashmanvc, can you complete this online induction then fill out that SWMS?

Their end of year review goes something like this...

General Manager: so OHS Dude, how would you rate your year at work?

OHS Dude: pretty good, I'd say. I managed to introduce thirteen new forms for the workers to fill out before they do any work.

GM: how many incidents were there during the year?

OHS Dude: none, but two people near slipped on a rock.

GM: you're invaluable, have a pay rise.





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[the_interloper]

Gough who was the English cricketer who slid into the fence. About 10/12 years ago.

There have also been slowly increasing rope boundaries in International Cricket for years

Simon Jones? I think there was a boundary rope then though, the problem was he ****ed up the slide and got his spikes caught in the ground, ACL. Was in the first session of the first test and he'd already got a wicket, was costly.

 

[GreyCrow]

Simon Jones? I think there was a boundary rope then though, the problem was he ****** up the slide and got his spikes caught in the ground, ACL. Was in the first session of the first test and he'd already got a wicket, was costly.

Thank you, but if I recalll correctly it wasnt that far out , not as much as it is now

 

[Firestarter]

The OHS manager called our office a few weeks back. He was all in a tizz; apparently we hadn't logged any "near hits" for eight months, and the clients' OHS department was starting to ask questions.

We explained we hadn't had any worth reporting. "That's not good enough", he said. "It's a f***ing outstanding result", was the considered response from our end.

Back and forth, back and forth. It all came down to what constitutes a "near hit". The OHS manager pleaded with us "why can't you be like [different regional office]? Last month they reported that two of their staff nearly slipped on a rock walking down a river bank?"

We explained that every day we drive our work vehicles at 100 kph, and pass within 1m of cars going the other way at the same speed. Should we report these as near hits?

You get the point. But we agreed that next month we would report a "near hit" in some shape or form.

But was thinking about this conversation afterwards. Bare with me here... As a species we evolved on the African savannahs, and have certain fears hard wired wired into us; things like dangerous animals and the risk of falling from a great height. These phobias were greatly beneficial to our survival as a species and are obviously still of work well for us today.

But who thinks twice about crossing a road? A huntsman drops from the ceiling onto your lap and the adrenalin kicks in. But watch a tonne of hot steel coming at you down the road at a hundred clicks? Meh, I'll make the other side easily.

tl;dr: OHS campaigners need to brush up on evolutionary biology.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

Screw you now I'm looking at the ceiling constantly.

 

[the_interloper]

I remember a few years ago when working on a road project and shitting my pants when they mentioned drug testing in the induction. Used to love me a bit of weed back in the day but I never got tested, not sure why but pretty lucky.

 

[Mofra]

I remember a few years ago when working on a road project and shitting my pants when they mentioned drug testing in the induction. Used to love me a bit of weed back in the day but I never got tested, not sure why but pretty lucky.

Heaps of OJ and urine-testing only you could have been ok regardless

 

[Gralin]

so i frequently have to do site inductions
these are always the same, ie all the rules are the same all the things you can and cant do are the same, but every company makes you spend an hour doing their own one

well i did possibly the worst one ever yesterday, you could not fast forward, slides that were not read out still had timers on them that makes me think they were designed for primary school reading level

add to that there was a slide on safe driving on the road, not on the site, a slide on bush fires, a slide on floods and a slide on venomous animals which thought it had to point out that if you came across one you should not touch it but should try to barricade it in then go find someone to deal with it

 

[the_interloper]

Heaps of OJ and urine-testing only you could have been ok regardless

I read up a lot on this subject, heard niacin and green tea does the trick. Really I think lots of water on the day, making sure it wasn't my first piss, green tea, niacin and making sure it was mid-stream piss would have worked. The only foolproof way was some clean piss though apparently (and a fake dick Mike Tyson style ha ha).

 

[Beerfish]

I read up a lot on this subject, heard niacin and green tea does the trick. Really I think lots of water on the day, making sure it wasn't my first piss, green tea, niacin and making sure it was mid-stream piss would have worked. The only foolproof way was some clean piss though apparently (and a fake dick Mike Tyson style ha ha).

One of the secretaries up on site once was having a big weekend on the disco biscuits and was paranoid about drug tests so brought up a pre-prepared urine sample. When the plane landed she went to the loo and put the receptacle (whatever it was, may have been a zip lock bag) down her pants. Anyway the bag broke the moment she sat down on the bus to site and she had to spend the day sitting in her own urine.

There was no piss test.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I thought OHS was all crap, However recently i asked someone to pass me a stanley knife, and the tosser then threw it at me, clearly i didnt catch it but it hit my leg and gave me a little nick

It's all about building a safety culture. anyone who whinges it's unproductive ect. Has no ****ing clue. Because in the end a safer workplace with as little people getting injured is much more efficient and cheaper then cutting corners, and ill dare anyone to argue this.

Wont argue that sitting through a 20 minute lecture is fun however when you are behind work, want to get your job done ect.

 

[Scotland]

I thought OHS was all crap, However recently i asked someone to pass me a stanley knife, and the tosser then threw it at me, clearly i didnt catch it but it hit my leg and gave me a little nick

It's all about building a safety culture. anyone who whinges it's unproductive ect. Has no ******* clue. Because in the end a safer workplace with as little people getting injured is much more efficient and cheaper then cutting corners, and ill dare anyone to argue this.

Wont argue that sitting through a 20 minute lecture is fun however when you are behind work, want to get your job done ect.

Catches win matches.

Also if you need a rule or regulation because people can't figure out for themselves not to throw stanley knives then you might as well give up.

 

[Gralin]

I thought OHS was all crap, However recently i asked someone to pass me a stanley knife, and the tosser then threw it at me, clearly i didnt catch it but it hit my leg and gave me a little nick

It's all about building a safety culture. anyone who whinges it's unproductive ect. Has no ******* clue. Because in the end a safer workplace with as little people getting injured is much more efficient and cheaper then cutting corners, and ill dare anyone to argue this.

Wont argue that sitting through a 20 minute lecture is fun however when you are behind work, want to get your job done ect.

A lot of it is just ticking boxes not reality.

I went to one place where they got my to read and sign their ohs rules then said you can't use the lift to carry that 30kg part up to the first floor because construction just take it up the stairs, oh yeah the lights don't work in the stairwell just use the light on your phone.

 

[NaturalDisaster]

It gets a bit ridiculous when you have to fill out an incident report for a paper cut...

 

[CakeEater]

It gets a bit ridiculous when you have to fill out an incident report for a paper cut...

If it gets infected it can become a workers comp thing so no it isnt.

 

[flashmanvc]

If it gets infected it can become a workers comp thing so no it isnt.

Office workers should wear gloves when handling paper, I guess.

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[Run n Spread]

Heaps of OJ and urine-testing only you could have been ok regardless

Not really practical but booze. When you drink your body breaks that down first so will be the dominant substance picked up. Doubt niacin and OJ would do anything.

Otherwise you simply need a way to get rid of it quickly.