A Friday smirk.....

I have recently written a procedure on how to tackle spills of chemicals/dusty materials and circulated it for comment. I got it back with a comment from one of the managers to say that I had not indicated how spills of teas/coffees in the canteen should be dealt with. I can assure you this was a serious comment because I spoke to her about it to find out if she meant it. Her reply is that if it happens at work, employees should be given instructions on what to do. Yes, health and safety has gone mad.

Spilling tears!

We were once asked for a risk assessment for walking up/steps and walking around the site - we are a SME manufacturers with about 10 steps on site - not an oil rig. This came from an ambulance chaser solicoters who were trying to put inject some fear to a case.

Happy, pose the same question to a large supermarket chain and see if they take spills seriously.

Apparently, there is a level above the rights of an Englishman, these have a battle cry of "how much" and have a national day on August 1.

Should always have a process in place to manage spills that could result in slips.

Its not unusal for a slip or trip to result in broken bones.

My original posting was bit facetious as it was Friday and the greater law requires that this is so but the incident did unearth a culture amongst some staff that H&S is what someone else does; not them. When we investigate the slip incident I mentioned in my previous posting, one person (a manager who should have known better) said “Oh yes I remember that coffee spill…I thought someone might slip on it.” I then asked the £20 000 question “What did you do about it?” The answer that came back was “Nothing, it’s not my job to deal with spills”
This is why the CEO went ape.
So as well as supplying mugs we have an arrangement that means a cleaner will attend a spill within 10 minutes on site and that ALL staff must at least report spillages straight away.
We have not had an incident like that since then.

About ten years ago I moved to a company that had recently refurbished their offices and installed fire doors. The door from office to kitchen opened in that direction of travel therefore it opened against anyone coming from the kitchen.

The lady who made the tea on one occasion was carrying a full tray of coffee and tea and as she was about to open the door toward her while holding the tray on one hand somebody went in the opposite direction and smashed the door into her, she dropped the tray with all the mugs and made one heck of a mess.

She was alright although slightly dazed by the whole experience.

I asked the MD for vision panels in some of the fire doors to prevent a re-occurrence but he said no.

What we ended up with was a shelf on the kitchen side of the fire door so the tea lady could place the tea tray on the shelf, far enough away from the door to avoid collision, then she could open the fire door and place a wooden wedge under to hold it open while she carried the tray through.

I lost count of the number of times I removed the wedge from under the door after that.

#6 I am sure tha point about being a right was tongue in cheek. Why do they need to take tea back to thier workplace that is why you have to give them a rest room away from work.

still if the only thing you have to worry about is spilt tea then you must be happy. To say tea is no joke and then put the civil service and tea trolleys it is not the spilt tea it is the fact the the 'weve always done it like this' culture still exists. The same as roofers, builders,etc. if tea is such a big problem you need to look at changing it to a safer system. Like I said a rest area away from your desk as per the requirements of the Welfare regs>

I don't worry about spilt tea anymore but slips trips and falls in the outside areas are still a problem. We do have tea rooms etc but people prefer to stay at their desks hence the transporting liquids issue. I suppose we could ban eating and drinking at desks but has anybody else done that? I don’t think so.
I need to get back to the easy stuff now: cyanide and how to store it!

Where does it stop? Do you then write a procedure on how to make the tea/coffee? How to hold the cup correctly, how to put in the correct amout of milk so you dont burn your mouth.