I work in an industry that lives off health and safety, thrives on it even. There is a form and procedure for anything and everything you could think of. We have the:
· Poolside Daily Matrix (Ops-F5)
· Cashing Up Sheet (FIN-F48)
· Record of Conversation (CON-DISC-F-1)
· Witness Statement (OPS-F23)
· Birthday Party Terms and Conditions (Ops-F25c)
· Annual Leave Request Form (Permanent Staff) (ES-AL-F-2)
· Picking Your Nose (B-00-G3R-Z)
· Hot Girl In The Pool (B-00-813Z)
· Duty Manager Daily Check Sheets (Ops-F95) which then requires me to fill out:
o Daily Visual Building Walk (OPs-FXX)
o Duty Manager (DM) Daily Banking Check Sheet (FIN-F45)
I think you get my point.
In some aspects of life, I’m all for health and safety. I’m am more likely to participate in an activity or go with a tour company that doesn’t have an 85% fatality rate. When at work I want to know that the ladder I’m at the top of is not going to collapse underneath me or that I’ve received the correct training on how to use a screwdriver properly so I don’t put it halfway through my hand, again. Safety never takes a holiday, because danger never takes a holiday.
The Health and Safety at Work Act joined us in 1974 which requires all companies and employers to provide a safe working environment for their employees. This means anything from regular servicing of equipment (PAT testing etc), providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and appropriate and relevant training for their role (manual handling, lefty loosey righty tighty etc). While it is the employer’s legal duty to provide and supply such things it is the responsibility of the employees to use this equipment and training appropriately for their tasks. Within the H&S Act there are 101 statutory regulations. Some of the ones most relevant to my work are:
· COSHH – Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (2002)
· PPE – Personal protective equipment (1992)
· RIDDOR – Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (2013)
These are to name a few. But during the research for this post I found others that are rather amusing and makes you wonder what caused them to be a problem in the first place:
Prevention of Accidents to Children in Agriculture Regulations (1998). Why are children working on farms or farm equipment? What if they live there and fall over and graze their knee?
Offshore Electricity and Noise Regulations (1997). Who is complaining about the noise offshore? The fish and sea birds maybe.
Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations (1992). If it wasn’t for the date being before the invention of smart phones you would ask what the point of a Cooling Tower app was.
While I can appreciate that H&S signs have written instructions and picture on them for those who are unable to read or from another country so everyone can roughly understand their meaning, H&S starts to get a bit ridicules when companies are forced to put “Caution may contain nuts” on a packet of pistachios and cashews or putting “caution hot drink” on take away drinks cup lids to cover their backs. I should bloody hope my beverage is hot! When I order my tea or hot chocolate I want it to resemble roughly the surface temperature of the sun. No one wants a lukewarm coffee. This is the sad reality of the nanny state we currently live in. Everything is put in place to prevent liability of whoever could be responsible for someone else’s dumb decision. Where there is a blame, there is a claim.
I’m a big fan of Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection and the concept of survival of the fittest, and sometimes the smartest. Sadly H&S has removed this from our daily lives by protecting the moronic from their own actions, letting them live on to breed more idiots. Thankfully, every year we are treated to The Darwin Awards, honouring those who have removed themselves from the gene pool from a combination of bad luck and just being a bit thick. Every loss of life is sad for someone and they have my sympathies, but in an over populated world do we really need the person who goes fishing with a car battery barefoot on a metal hulled boat, or the guy who tries to rob a gun store and gets shot by the owner, four customers and two policemen who just so happened to be in there at the time?
A recent report came out suggesting that todays young generation and going through life with no idea of consequence or reaction to their action. They are prevented from climbing that tree before they learn that falling out of it will hurt, putting their tongue on a frozen metal post will get them stuck or that drinking a full bottle of Johnson and Johnson shampoo will make them very ill, and maybe burp up bubbles. In saying this I have come across parents on both sides of the H&S spectrum at work. Ones who have covered their kids up in bubble wrap and others who will stand back and watch them stand behind outward swinging doors ready to get KOed by anyone coming out the other side. This is not to say that I want to encourage parents to purposely put their children in danger but let them eat that mud, ride their bike over a massive ramp and stick pennies up their nose. Ever heard of learning the hard way? Experience breeds intelligence. When I was a young child my parents would regularly let me run off into the distance alone, hang off the monkey bars upside down and play in a forest that was probably home to wolves and lynx by myself and I turned out alright.
