Business & Finance Occupational Health & Safety in 2020

[rdhopkins2]

Let’s start up a discussion on OH&S in the current workplace.

How do you view your organisation from an OH&S perspective?

Do you have an OH&S committee or health and safety representatives?

What sort of things does your organisation do well in? What do they need to improve in?

How is OH&S viewed by the employer and their employees?

 

[craigos]

In my last position there was an unwritten rule that if someone had been in the toilet longer than 10 minutes an appointed "bathroom monitor" would have to enter the bathroom and ask "is Andrew ok?".

Stemmed from a guy previous to my time having a heart attack in the toilet and nobody knowing until a day later.

 

[Syd]

In my last position there was an unwritten rule that if someone had been in the toilet longer than 10 minutes an appointed "bathroom monitor" would have to enter the bathroom and ask "is Andrew ok?".

Stemmed from a guy previous to my time having a heart attack in the toilet and nobody knowing until a day later.

s**t happens

 

[Chief]

We'll all have personal alarms soon. Apple watch or Google Health Implant or Alexa Medical Suppository to monitor our vitals and "keep us safe".

 

[Scotland]

In my last position there was an unwritten rule that if someone had been in the toilet longer than 10 minutes an appointed "bathroom monitor" would have to enter the bathroom and ask "is Andrew ok?".

Stemmed from a guy previous to my time having a heart attack in the toilet and nobody knowing until a day later.

Sounds like a scene from Clerks.

 

[M Malice]

 

[Dazb86]

Work on major construction projects. OH&S is through the roof to the point where it seems ridiculous at times.

I came from a domestic trade background which is the total opposite and kind of a 'use your common sense' approach.

Both methods of working have their pro's and con's.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

We'll all have personal alarms soon. Apple watch or Google Health Implant or Alexa Medical Suppository to monitor our vitals and "keep us safe".

In my job the electricity/EMP and heat will ensure it won't last long.

 

[Dhoni Dakurri]

I worked as an OHS manager for a decade prior to my current job, in what was the most soul less, dry, waste of time occupation that exists. I had the respect of no one on the actual workshop floor because all I did was make their lives harder. And what I learned is that company's couldn't give a rats about the welfare of employees. LTI's and workers comp claims hit insurance premiums and compromise having tenders for new projects being accepted. Many industries are a complete freaking mess now due to OHS legislation. Productivity in the mining sector, for example, is significantly less now than it was in the 1970's largely because of ridiculous OHS protocols workers have to wade through just to get on a ******* work site. Inductions, JHA's, SWP's, take 5's, safety meetings, tool box 'safety moments'. I remember sitting in a meeting with a major oil and gas company when they told me we lost a contract because a worker of ours didn't cross the street outside at the crosswalk. And the time a contractor was banned from site for using a cup without a lid.

I have friends who work for Chevron who tell me they literally work for 20 minutes a day, with the rest of the time wading through OSH crap. A simple tightening of a bolt is a day long process.

I've also seen countless employees rorting the workers comp system, faking the most unbelievable soft injuries you can imagine. Stress claims for bee stings, LTI's for coffee falling out of cups, RSI for sitting at desks doing nothing, LTI stress claims for workers being told they don't do enough work. The worst culprits I've seen are in transport, the defence force and councils.

The whole industry is a complete an utter cluster****.

Environmental management at mines is also a complete disgrace. The likes of Chevron will having huge demands for quarantine and envrionmental management to preserve their right to mine, yet I've seen first hand dead turtles and other marine animals being hauled into boats on Barrow Island, caught up in machinery with supervisors failing to report it and covering it up. Happens on a daily basis.

 

[Scotland]

Trade union reps and ex trade union reps love it.

Can't strike because the mess is out of one of the ice cream flavours any more, so you look for safety hazards like a loose door handle.

 

[ioppolo]

OHS started with the right intentions but has become a bane of my working life. Safety guidelines that are over the top now make my job way harder than it needs to be.

 

[Nothing]

I worked as an OHS manager for a decade prior to my current job, in what was the most soul less, dry, waste of time occupation that exists. I had the respect of no one on the actual workshop floor because all I did was make their lives harder. And what I learned is that company's couldn't give a rats about the welfare of employees. LTI's and workers comp claims hit insurance premiums and compromise having tenders for new projects being accepted. Many industries are a complete freaking mess now due to OHS legislation. Productivity in the mining sector, for example, is significantly less now than it was in the 1970's largely because of ridiculous OHS protocols workers have to wade through just to get on a ******* work site. Inductions, JHA's, SWP's, take 5's, safety meetings, tool box 'safety moments'. I remember sitting in a meeting with a major oil and gas company when they told me we lost a contract because a worker of ours didn't cross the street outside at the crosswalk. And the time a contractor was banned from site for using a cup without a lid.

I have friends who work for Chevron who tell me they literally work for 20 minutes a day, with the rest of the time wading through OSH crap. A simple tightening of a bolt is a day long process.

I've also seen countless employees rorting the workers comp system, faking the most unbelievable soft injuries you can imagine. Stress claims for bee stings, LTI's for coffee falling out of cups, RSI for sitting at desks doing nothing, LTI stress claims for workers being told they don't do enough work. The worst culprits I've seen are in transport, the defence force and councils.

The whole industry is a complete an utter cluster****.

Environmental management at mines is also a complete disgrace. The likes of Chevron will having huge demands for quarantine and envrionmental management to preserve their right to mine, yet I've seen first hand dead turtles and other marine animals being hauled into boats on Barrow Island, caught up in machinery with supervisors failing to report it and covering it up. Happens on a daily basis.

How are mine site/oil and gas death rates now, compared to the 70s?

 

[ash_1050]

We'll all have personal alarms soon. Apple watch or Google Health Implant or Alexa Medical Suppository to monitor our vitals and "keep us safe".

Funny you should say that. I was on the road for bushfire related work mid January and my equivalent colleagues from another company had to carry around a personal alarm that had inbuilt GPS tracking and notification settings that alerted their security team when pressed. It was half the size of a house brick and seemed to cause them more stress than not having it.

 

[Chief]

Funny you should say that. I was on the road for bushfire related work mid January and my equivalent colleagues from another company had to carry around a personal alarm that had inbuilt GPS tracking and notification settings that alerted their security team when pressed. It was half the size of a house brick and seemed to cause them more stress than not having it.

If you're in a job that takes you into a dangerous situation like a bush fire it would probably be of use. Same on a farm or whatever.

Iain Banks book Player of Games includes personal drones that hang around out of sight, but if you fall while rock climbing they zoom in and save you. TBH I'd like one. What the book didn't predict is that they'd be made to keep tabs on you and work out how to sell you stuff.

Off topic a bit, but there is the philosophical argument that:
* Science is the act of reaching into a big bag and pulling stuff out.
* Somewhere in that bag is technology that is very very cheap and very very dangerous. Apocalypse dangerous.
* Once that particular discovery is made, then there is a perfect reason to have cameras on everyone's hands all the time.

 

[Procrastinator35]

If you're in a job that takes you into a dangerous situation like a bush fire it would probably be of use. Same on a farm or whatever.

Iain Banks book Player of Games includes personal drones that hang around out of sight, but if you fall while rock climbing they zoom in and save you. TBH I'd like one. What the book didn't predict is that they'd be made to keep tabs on you and work out how to sell you stuff.

Off topic a bit, but there is the philosophical argument that:
* Science is the act of reaching into a big bag and pulling stuff out.
* Somewhere in that bag is technology that is very very cheap and very very dangerous. Apocalypse dangerous.
* Once that particular discovery is made, then there is a perfect reason to have cameras on everyone's hands all the time.

Only governments that have something to hide (criminal activity) need to maintain a constant vigilance & full-court surveillance of it's citizenry, due in no small part, to a paranoid mind-set.

 

[Chief]

Only governments that have something to hide (criminal activity) need to maintain a constant vigilance & full-court surveillance of it's citizenry, due in no small part, to a paranoid mind-set.

But if technology advances enough, it stops being paranoia.

 

[Procrastinator35]

But if technology advances enough, it stops being paranoia.

Not if it has criminal activity to hide.....That's the thing about truth; It always gets in the way & someone else usually sees it…..Meaning one lie begets another lie, begets another lie....Hence the need for a full-court surveillance press.....and to incarcerate Julian Assange.

 

[Chief]

Not if it has criminal activity to hide.....That's the thing about truth; It always gets in the way & someone else usually sees it…..Meaning one lie begets another lie, begets another lie....Hence the need for a full-court surveillance press.....and to incarcerate Julian Assange.

I think we're straying from the point of the hypothetical.

 

[Scotland]

Funny you should say that. I was on the road for bushfire related work mid January and my equivalent colleagues from another company had to carry around a personal alarm that had inbuilt GPS tracking and notification settings that alerted their security team when pressed. It was half the size of a house brick and seemed to cause them more stress than not having it.

Not sure if it's a phone app or something you wear like a smart watch but a mate was telling me about something you can get for extreme sports that alerts someone else if you stop moving for a certain period of time, i.e. if you are out riding your mountain bike solo and crash and get knocked out. I thought that was pretty cool tech.

 

[Scotland]

I think we're straying from the point of the hypothetical.

That is his MO.

'What's your favourite flavour ice cream?'
'Chocolate'
'Well that's what the MSM/Rothschilds/Illuminati want you to say'

 

[Scotland]

OHS started with the right intentions but has become a bane of my working life. Safety guidelines that are over the top now make my job way harder than it needs to be.

The problem is that once you start down the rabbit hole of prescriptive rules and procedures it's hard to get out.

People who have never done a JSA or a Take 5 etc. look at it and go 'Are you ******* kidding me? You want me to write down that I might trip over a rock on the ground and break my ankle and my "safeguards" are wearing safety boots and watching where I am going?'. It's common sense. But if you don't cover it then the next person who slips on a rock and breaks their ankle can turn around and sue the employer for not telling them how to watch where they are going.

Problem is that the sensible methodology applied to actual dangerous stuff (Will I work in this live circuit? No, I think I'll turn of off and lock out the power source first. In fact since I'm not an electrician I probably should get one.) has been applied to everything and people just see it as an onerous box ticking exercise rather than something for identifying hazards that aren't obvious and may impact their doing a task.

 

[Procrastinator35]

I think we're straying from the point of the hypothetical.

The initial point was over how these advancements in tech can help aid & assist us in an OH&S context.....That's certainly a virtue behind which it is both used & pushed as a selling point, out into the general population....But the fact remains there lies behind this, a nefarious ability to utilise it in order to spy on us....as the U.S intel network does through all the social media giants nowadays. These tech company's in Silicone valley, are effectively hamstrung, in being forced to tow the line or have their businesses legislated out of existence in D.C....Such tech has a janus face, whereby it can be turned upon us & used against us.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

I used to be the OHS Manager in a luxury hotel. The chefs hated me, the engineering and maintenance department hated me, the catering and events department hated me. Actually everyone did. That job sucked.

 

[Scotland]

Here comes the safety guy/girl, awesome.

- no one, ever.

 

[Procrastinator35]

OH&S reps are universally loathed out on the field.....The only industry where I've seen all the blokes cobble to the letter of the law, was in the energy sector....But those lads have to be universally vigilant in following a step by step routine....Or get fried to death....You did get the odd cowboy who wouldn't use his harness all the time, usually when there's no bosses around.