Rank: Super forum user 
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Yesterday "they" put up the decorations in our office.
I Ok-ed the chap pinning them up to use a chair to gain height.
I'm happy to defend my dynamic risk assessment to all comers
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Rank: Forum user 
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Sounds good to me, but did he wear safety glasses, what if he had dropped the pin?
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Hope it was a wheely chair for added fun!!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Your mistake was of course not asking a young lady with short skirt and long legs to do this task.
She would have been lighter and less likely to break the chair and fall - risk reduction measure therefore and not sexist. If she had fallen the skirt would flap up and allow her to float safely to the ground
In answer to your hell question -"yes". We all will go to hell. I'll be there - look for a handsome man with stubble holding a pint. I'll wait at the main gates for you.
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Rank: Forum user
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Martin1
I will meet up with all my old mates, as H@S Bodds we will all go to Hell or thats what i have been told
Kev
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Rank: Super forum user 
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There was a thread a few days back that made me chuckle (changing light bulbs I recall) where the maintenance guy asks the H&S chap if it's OK to stand on a desk for access.
The very professional (and pearly-gates assured) answer was:
"Of course not, you'll have to wait until I've gone home!"
Swivel chair, asbestos ceiling tiles, you were still there, etc.; this all equals eternity in the burny fire for you I'm afraid.
Christmas decorations in the workplace?
Humbug!!!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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It'll be worth it just to see the devil's face when we all turn up at once bearing clip boards and asking to see his fire risk assessment.
Or is that where the phrase; "sympathy for the devil" comes from.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Ref your comment "I Ok-ed the chap pinning them up to use a chair to gain height"
I personally never OK anything [unless they are my staff and its the proper thing to do] I always tell staff to get their line manager to OK such things - unless, that is, you are their line manager, as if there is a problem it will come back to the person who said OK and there are ways to play this type of thing without being the party popper but each person has to play the game their way
As a person I never drop my standards [This really gets up peoples noses e.g. if a person is having a leaving do I will leave the event if alcohol is present - and it does leave me on the outside of things but I feel that this sort of thing comes with my role!] so people do not ask me nor do 'improper' things whilst I am around
Just some thoughts!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Bob,
First our mature culture does not worry about line managers - his line manager would support me anyway.
Second I don't consider anything improper happened
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Rank: Super forum user
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bob youel wrote: As a person I never drop my standards [This really gets up peoples noses e.g. if a person is having a leaving do I will leave the event if alcohol is present - and it does leave me on the outside of things but I feel that this sort of thing comes with my role!] so people do not ask me nor do 'improper' things whilst I am around
Just some thoughts!
I find that sad Bob.
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Rank: Super forum user
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That doesn't support the notion of a mature health and safety culture though.
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Rank: Forum user
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"They" put them up in our office on Tuesday. We have an office full of highly qualified & experienced Electrical Engineers, Designers and Project Managers and yet the Chrismas Tree Lights still don't work.
Perhaps there isn't a formal training program on how to change a fuse bulb!!!!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Clairel wrote:bob youel wrote: As a person I never drop my standards [This really gets up peoples noses e.g. if a person is having a leaving do I will leave the event if alcohol is present - and it does leave me on the outside of things but I feel that this sort of thing comes with my role!] so people do not ask me nor do 'improper' things whilst I am around
Just some thoughts!
I find that sad Bob.
Why is that sad? What is wrong with Bob sticking to his standards? A rare thing these days. Not sure I agree with his standards but that is another matter and none of my business. Anyway - must go - leaving party next door and someone has opened the drinks cabinet.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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It's Christmas, so we're already all in Hell.
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Rank: Super forum user
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MaxPayne wrote:It's Christmas, so we're already all in Hell.
Max - will you be working late as usual on christmas eve counting the days takings with Mr.Scrooge?
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Rank: Forum user
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walker wrote:Yesterday "they" put up the decorations in our office.
I Ok-ed the chap pinning them up to use a chair to gain height.
I'm happy to defend my dynamic risk assessment to all comers
Your mistake was speaking to them and OK-ing it in the first place, if your culture is as mature as you think it is you should have actually instructed them to work it out for themselves.....
So yes you will burn in hell.
Our safety culture isnt so mature, I frequently tell people they can do what they want, in that if they want to do something that will affect only them, thats fine, and that if they injure themselves they need to understand its their own fault.
This 'devil-may-care' attitude about the niff-naff and trivia serves me well, but I personally draw the line at people standing on desks and chairs. God forbid I should ever actually do a risk assessment for such things, but even if they are on a 'stout, level, stable surface' for a 'minimal period of time' the problem is that other people might copy them when it isnt so good to do it, either that or they keep coming and asking me what they should stand on, when I have a real job to do.
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Rank: Forum user
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You approved something - you're finished!
But in seriousness I can't like the idea of anyone standing on a chair for any reason.
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Rank: New forum user
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Tut Tut, not recommended!
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Rank: Super forum user
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What's wrong with standing on a solid chair...or a table....for a few seconds. Stood on one less than an hour ago to put some more christmassy stuff up on the wall!
I could never do H&S in offices. It would bring out the rebel in me.
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Rank: Super forum user
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They used one here too.
Step up-pin some stuff on the wall-step down-move the chair. And repeat.
The chair could hold Santa and his sack of bribes (sorry toys).
Andy
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Rank: Super forum user
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In relation to Bob Youel's comment about alcohol at farewell events, my reaction if and when invited to such occasions is to ask if the drinks at them will include non-alcoholic ones. Though I enjoy drinking alcohol I'm very choosy about when, where and how much. This includes not drinking booze at farewell events if I'm working and/or driving home afterwards. Hopefully other forum users give advice about the provision of non-alcoholic as well as alcoholic drinks during social events at workplaces.
On the same theme about encouraging personal safety and responsibility, whenever I've organised evening visits for groups from work to the local independent brewery I've always suggested beforehand that people plan to go home afterwards by public transport or arrange lifts, etc. Even though the local brewery now charges for such visits, comprising a tour of the brewing processes followed by an hour or so's product sampling in the hospitality/training room, the visits remain very popular. By the way my CV includes the fact that I certainly CAN organise a proverbial booze up in a brewery!
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Rank: Super forum user
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You can really put the heebie-jeebies into someone standing on a desk or chair when you quietly point out they're immediately adjacent to an open tilt/turn window several stories up....................
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Ron, it was meeee who posted the comment about an engineer standing on the desk to remove the starters from the fluorescent lights. I hoped it would raise a chuckle.
I'm with Claire, in that I don't take my role too seriously when in the office. Ye Gods I get enough stick as it is! People will always take the opportunity to stand on a chair, desk, or whatever to change the proverbial light bulb...that's the way it is. Notwithstanding that, I do get the hump when I see an operator climbing out of a cherry picker to access a roof when he could have used the stairs.
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Rank: Super forum user
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There's a strong likelihood that many of us forum users, if we have sufficient agility and reasonable balance, will have stood on desks and /or chairs (i.e. plain reasonably stable 4 legged versions and hopefully not ones with castors and/or swivel seats) if stepladders haven't been readily available or appropriate for whatever we have wanted/needed to do.
Some decorations have been hung from the false ceiling of the large open plan office in which my colleagues and I are based, but I don't recall seeing anyone putting them up (can't speak for my colleagues), so guess that whoever did so might have waited until we were out if they didn't use a stepladder from somewhere.
When it comes to taking the decorations down, we can remind employees to use a window pole or two to temporarily push up each ceiling panel and dislodge the bent paper clip holding each bit of decoration. A simple but good example of heeding the Work at Height Regulations by not working at height if the work can be done safely by other means. It's also a lot quicker than climbing up to take the decorations down.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Clairel wrote:What's wrong with standing on a solid chair...or a table....for a few seconds. Stood on one less than an hour ago to put some more christmassy stuff up on the wall!
I could never do H&S in offices. It would bring out the rebel in me.
Thank God some people can work in H&S and use common sense!!!
I see part of my role as promoting/selling safety. I want people to be able to trust me to deal with any event with common sense and have had information given to me that otherwise wouldn't have been if I had been seen as a 'jobsworth' character. I want staff to understand that H&S is a useful tool in making sure they get home tonight in one piece and not just a risk adverse/litigation adverse tick-box world. As a result, I take a pragmatic view about Xmas and all that goes with it.
This year I have had a chat about a smoke detector being used as an anchor for multiple hanging decorations, and a trailing extension lead (for tree lights) running under an automatic fire door (preventing it closing). I am not too bothered how staff access areas to hang the stuff as long as they don't use swivel chairs!! I have also remained quiet about decorations adorning fire extinguishers.
As for not drinking alcohol at Xmas dos, I force myself to do so (!!) to show I am human and not a H&S robot - Well that's my excuse :)
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Rank: Super forum user
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We had the same here last week, but the chair had 4 legs, so I was happy enough!!!
And then I went home and used my own chairs to put up my decorations.
Perhaps we need to get suitable working platforms, with fall restraint and carry out some training....
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Rank: Super forum user
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We have magical Christmas faeries here who come in over night and put up the decorations..that's what they told me, surely it must be true!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Mr.Flibble wrote:We have magical Christmas faeries here who come in over night and put up the decorations..that's what they told me, surely it must be true!
hahahhaha brill !!!!
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Rank: Forum user
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The last time I stood on a desk, changing a lightbulb, I ventured onto the side return and it collapsed under me. But then again I am well known as a heavyweight in health & safety.
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Rank: Guest
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quote=Mr.Flibble]We have magical Christmas faeries here who come in over night and put up the decorations..that's what they told me, surely it must be true!
Mr Fibble those magical faeries don't just operate around Christmas, it's all year round in my work!
At least now I can tell my SMT that it isn't their fault at all, I have been blaming them for years, but now a reasonable explanation has been given my SMT are off the hook!
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Rank: New forum user
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I hope you've revised your fire risk assessments to include these flammable plastic decorations.
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Rank: Forum user
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I have just stopped a maintenance bob, who was taking down a petition in the next office to ours from using a damaged, wobbly domestic ladder. But thats OK cos I have told him to use the tables!!!!!
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Rank: Forum user
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Rank: Forum user
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I haven't got any decorations............boohoo
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Rank: New forum user
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I was in a hospital recently where the Christmas tree was put infront of the fire extinguishers completely blocking them from view. The lights were plugged into an overloaded extension lead hanging by a nail over a door and the leads of the lights trailing on the ground.
Do you reckon business is slow?????
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