Hi all.
How many in-house safety professionals have their own office?

My question comes from the relocation of our safety officer from his own office to an open plan office. IMO this could put employees off reporting safety issues as they may feel the management would immediaitely know who raised an issue. Reporting in my employment is sparse at best as many feel the bosses only do the minimum to comply with the regulations.

I would be intersted in whether being in a open plan office or a private office would make any difference. As for the problem of getting people to report issues in the first place that is a matter that needs worked on.

Thanks

Mike

It is a good point. I have worked in both an open plan and my own office. Usually it is down to nothing more than practicalities.

Open plan for me.

Not the best situation at all. No privacy, lock pc and filing cabinet even when I go to the little boys room.

To make matters worse there is no discipline in the office at all. I was once on the phone to a supplier and I heard something about a ******* lesbian. I couldn't apologise enough.

IMO H&S professionals should have their own office. The HR manager here does. Ah, but she is the MD's wife.

Andy

I don't see a problem with this, if someone has a safety issue they can call me and then I go and look at it / talk about it with them in their own work area or somewhere convenient - I don't expect them to come to me!

We have gone over to open plan offices, everyone from the CEO down. The points you mentioned were raised in particular by the OH person but these have been addressed by the provision of breakout rooms. If people want to talk to me discretely about H&S issues then they can always phone or email and we can have a quiet word in a breakout room or the canteen.

I don't like the idea of an open plan office. Too many people could see me goofing off and playing Tetris all afternoon.

Own office is OK - but I always prefer small shared offices, perhaps with maintenance guys. I always think you need to be near the heart of the action to hear what is really going on.

Haven't had my own office since I worked for British Coal almost 20 years ago. Now I'm a mobile worker with a 50% share in an office desk in a large open plan office - 1800 people on 5 floors, only the CE has her own office.
Arrangement seems to work well and other employees find us quite approachable. Also good for just asking quick questions of nearby colleagues.

I've had both over the years, and am now in an open plan office (although I have negotiated that my desk is discreetly placed with no-one able to overlook my monitor).

Personally, I prefer an open plan office environment, as I can see what is going on. In the past, when I was tucked away in my own office, I did feel a little isolated.

However, I have somewhere in the region of 60 sites scattered all over the country from East Anglia to Dorset (shade in the resulting triangle on the map and you'll get an idea of my area...) Therefore, I am also on the road a lot.

People in head office generally come over and speak to me if they have concerns, as we have a relatively open culture here. External sites either phone me or email me; and when on site, staff generally come right out and say what is on their mind.

I well remember the old engineering regime of progression from desk, to single pedestal, double pedestal, comfy chair and on to the ultimate position of my very own office. Then they told me that was in lieu of a pay rise......

Hi All,

In my opinion, the issue lies not in the office arrangement but in the organisation you work for.
Whilst I have my own office and am free to operate an open door policy for reporting without recriminations, we have an active education program detailing the importance of incident reporting and furthermore instigate disciplinary actions for those found to not report

As others have already noted, if there is a culture within your organisation to frown upon the open reporting of issues, then you can always ensure that your mobile number is posted clearly so people can dial in to report or meet you out of public view

Establishing a lockable drop box so people can report anonymously is another potential option.

If you struggle with the management of your organisation, you can always remind them of associated costs related to incidents, both direct & indirect. When the brass find out how much money they may potential lose, its suprising how quick they learn

Once upon a time I had my own office, & then when we moved buildings it changed to a laptop/docking station & "hot desking" + working from home- quite a culture shock!

But please let me make a comment & pose a question - there are many other professional colleagues who deal with confidential matters, e.g. Payroll; HR; Finance, Legal, etc. surely they don't all need private offices, but merely adapt their practices to maintain confidentiality?

As an example, our OS&H team reside within an open plan office, but when we have to make a confidential 'call, e.g. a counselling referral, we find a quiet spot or interview/meeting room to do it from.

Welcome to the real world.

Have been in both situations, i.e. shared office and now have own office; and to be honest I think either option is perfectly acceptable, after all surely its not where we sit that matters, but what we do that counts.

Good and bad points to either option: on the plus side having your own office can: provide somewhere that people can come and talk to you in private, allow you to talk to solicitors with some privacy…etc etc.

On the down side you could end up a little isolated from the workforce, but then you just have to make sure that you get out and about; IMO we need to be seen as a familiar face and easily/readily approachable person.

So you just have to accept the pluses in either circumstance and ensure the possible minuses sides have limited impact.

'Wi-fi and big screens are also being introduced in a bid to tailor office space to employees' social needs, according to Mr Oakley.' In my dreams - I am lucky to get a chair!!!!
Thanks for that Nick made me feel a whole lot better.

I would ask myself what is the real reason this is bugging me - do i feel undervalued because the HR person has an office and I don't?

As it happens I can't concentrate in open plan offices, never have been able to and never will - hence my 'if you put me in an open plan office i'll simple go and work for someone else' rule - as i'm valued and they wouldn't want to lose me I have my own office. Or it could just be they're fed up with hearing my whining ;)

I really don't get the reduction in reporting query though... people don't complain to me - if they have a complaint they go to their line manager, and if that fails to the grievance procedure - but, if they want to contact me directly, there's the 24hr whistle blowing telephone number, or my e-mail, or my mobile, or the near miss/hazard observation cards that are located around the workplace. I draw a line at carrier pigeons though... something about bird poo that I read on this forum once upon a time long long ago :0 sleep well

I have my own office, I can discuss issues with managers, and supervisors, in privacy, Plus I do drug and alcohol testing and the paperwork is confidential,

I share an office with another HR member if I'm at HQ but also hot desk at another office as it's closer to where I live.

If I'm out and about, I grab whatever free desk I can get that's unoccupied for the day and log into the system. Only drawback is having to try and find a footrest when I'm out an about as almost invariably, I end up at the desk where the person is 6ft 6 and doesn't need one while I'm only 5ft 4 and do!

I also have a laptop and, in "theory" can log into the system from anywhere but have yet to get past the 1000 securitity login systems IT seem to have installed preventing staff from attempting to do that! [at last count there were about 8 passwords and had managed to get to the last one but wouldn't accept what I'd typed...gave up the will to live at that point!].

Most staff email me with queries anyway so not really an issue about others listening. If confidential, I'll find a free room and call them back.

As per the responses above there are various pros and cons of open plan offices. Employers tend to favour such offices because they are cheaper, more flexible and can accommodate more people than smaller offices. One of the disadvantages of open plan offices is noise, mainly from other people talking, which distracts or impedes concentration. Since joining my present employer over 20 years ago, I've always worked in open plan offices. Though my H&S colleagues and I deal with a fair bit of confidential information, we've always managed to maintain confidentiality using the methods already suggested. There is always competition in our office (shared with HR people - a great honour for them!) for the few small rooms intended for meetings and discussions, so even the cleaners' sluice room down the corridor can sometimes be handy for quick chats and phone calls.

Logging out whenever we leave our screens is a standard practice. This became a habit back in the early 1990s not long after most employees here were given computers, mainly for word-processing reports. (At the time we didn't envisage the internet and e-mails, even though e-mailing is now a major method of communicating!)

After lunch one day I discovered that whenever I typed "safety" it always showed on the screen as "saftey". It was something of a puzzle for my then colleagues and I, until we noticed that a mischievous work study guy nearby seemed amused at our bafflement. It transpired that he had accessed my computer during lunch when nobody was looking and set the word processing auto-correct facility to make the alteration described. Anyhow, after making the necessary change and checking that no other mis-corrections had been introduced, my colleagues and I were determined to make sure that nobody had the chance to tamper with our computers in the same way again. Also, by sharing this experience, I trust that no forum user is inspired to commit similar mischief!