Titles are largely an irrelevant guide to what the actual job function is but often have great emotional significance to the holder and sometimes determine the level in a corporate hierarchy (along with associated benefits ect).

thanks all - useful links to previous discussion. answers my questions. bye for now

DaisyMaisy Your thread will probably generate arguments which have previously occurred from time to time on this forum. In general I think the job titles for people employed in OS&H tend to reflect what different organisations use either through preference or doing what they've usually done, and don't necessarily reflect status or salary. Although the role of H&S manager can often include being a line manager for other OS&H professionals in an organisation, it could be argued that the word 'manager' can be misinterpreted by other managers in the organisation as meaning that person and not them is responsible for managing various aspects of health and safety! Therefore, good H&S managers will make sure that other managers are left in no doubt about their respective responsibilities. Some organisations may well employ one or several people with the title 'H&S officer' which might mask the wide range of their remit and/or the high status of the person to whom they report. Some forum users might dislike my suggestion that the term 'officer' is somewhat old fashioned/archaic and in many organisations over the past 15 years or so has been replaced by 'adviser' to provide a more accurate reflection of the role. Also, some of us prefer the spelling 'adviser' to 'advisor'. It could be argued that the latter spelling is one which has crept across the Atlantic Ocean and been greatly reinforced by almost universal dependence since the late 1990s on computers and therefore reliance on American software packages complete with spellcheckers and grammar checkers! :-(

I'm an Advisor rather than either a Manager or Officer which suits me just great and doesn't pigeon hole me at all. I give technical advice on health and safety issues - it does what it says on the tin!

Well I’m a Health and Safety adviser and my boss is the Health and Safety manager because she manages the other Health and Safety advisers. One of my colleagues is called the ‘national Health and Safety Manager’ because he looks after Health and Safety nationally ie away from the main site, around the country while I tend to look after the main site. When asked who is responsible for H&S here we say ‘everybody but the CEO in particular’. Amazingly enough he has put up his hand and yes he is.

Thanks all - it clearly varies from company to company so, what do you think this role would be: overseeing all H&S throughout national company. responsible for ensuring all sites (42 in total) are compliant. Involving logistics, warehouse and retail Involving travelling to each site as and when required Overseeing contractors for all refurbishments to newly acquired properties working with and prividing direction to H&S co ordinator (again may the wrong title for what he actually does) audited all sites for paper and systems etc Upkeep of all policies providing, writing and in some cases presenting and providing all required training providing support and advice to all managers and staff across the country within the company Basically - all aspects of H&S!

Answering the original question I think it entirely depends on the sort of business you are in. Status can be decided by many things: • How much you are paid? • What sort of company car you get? • If you have the ear of the movers and shakers • Do you have a nice office on your own or do you have to share it with the smelly hoi polloi (I include myself as smelly hoi polloi!)? • Do people smile at you when you walk down the corridor and come up to and say thanks for that thing you did last week or do they look away and swear under their breath? There are worst things to be called than a Health and Safety officer or adviser. That **** in H&S for one!

Thank goodness your pay is good! ;-)

Afternoon jarsmith, I guess that would be what you'd expect, but as you say all companys are different, and some don't seemt o give real thought to titles, just whatever suits. I was Manager here when I worked on my own, and was in fact a kind of glorified Adviser. Now I manage people I'm a Head of. I think Director is the only one that consistently applied, but even then as a Head of some people think I'm a Director; I'm not, I'm a manager, John

Based on what I have seen (which isn’t much really), managers tend to occur in industry especially manufacturing while H&S officers tend to occur in the public sector. We have had advisers, managers, officers and even directors but a colleague of mine in a moment of madness suggested what we needed was a Health and Safety czar!

Of course I manage all you quote - but also co-ordinate the management of Health and Safety by Managers (who in the main think I should do it for them - like do risk assessments at the drop of a hat even though they have been on all the relavant courses - I'm here to help them through consultation etc) Rich