Has it raised the profile or is it the stick no one wants to grasp that every organisation needs a scapegoat for?

There is a difference between everybody talking about H&S and people thinking about H&S. A lot of the time people are not doing the risk assessment thing and deciding what this means to themselves in their actually workplace but are just waiting for someone to tell what to do. Usually this involves blindly following government advice (such publishing risk assessment on external websites-see relevant threads about that) or jumping on any passing bandwagon. When the dust settles someone will need to look how much money and resource was wasted on things like FFP3 masks for every employee and the company dog at a fiver each. At that point the poor H&S person will get the blame.  

Edited by user 28 May 2020 13:48:15(UTC)  | Reason: too many conditions

The profile of COVID19 in the media is massive, far more air time than BREXIT (remember that) and the newpapers are full from cover to cover. This is a far cry from the Daily Mail and Elf and Safety nonsense they usually publish.

Also the workplace attitude 'we've always done it this way we know better' that can be experienced, especially around health as the risks are not immediate.

Then comes along COVID19. We don't know anything about it, people are suffering and dying, we can't go out, we don't know better, the papers and news are scaring us. Who do we call?

I believe that is the reason our profile has lifted. However let's wait for the crash, not helped by certain government advisors. When normality resumes we'll be seen as the blockers again by some, I'm sure.

Thankfully for me I believe my opinions and guidance are valued by my organisation and Managers if not always by the Supervisors and shop floor. But unfair to tar all with the same brush as we hear the knockers and not the praises.

Do you really believe your profile has been lifted?  All I have seen in the past few months is that people and organisations that were good before have gotten better and the people and companies who were bad before have gotten worse....let me qualify that slightly...those organisations that did respect safety and value thier safety people have, quite rightly, relied upon them to provide the goods....organisations that didn't have just either shut down or rallied against social distancing measures and bought the wring PPE.... :)

It may be that your organisation was one of the good ones before...  :)

...you should be a health professional seeing the risk assessmemts that some clients have done...it beggers belief...some of the organisations in Africa have instisted in steaming...yes steaming..thier staff before entry to the facility...guess what we have had a spike in lung and ear infections!!...you have got to say maybe this is god's Darwin Award moment... :)