Apart from being able to work in my PJs with my hair in a mum-bun and a makeup free face, the other wonderful thing about working from home is that I am in charge of health and safety! I can balance my tea precariously on the arm of the sofa if I wish with nobody to tell me off, and if I trip over my laptop power cord I have only myself to blame, with no risk assessment in sight! However when I work my one day at the hotel as a duty manger I have to put a more responsible hat on, and make sure everything is hunky dory health and safety wise. In my previous role as a hotel manager I was liable personally for all sorts of things health/safety and security wise, from accidents to food positioning incidents! I am pleased to say that I was pretty good at that side of things and thankfully nothing too dangerous happened under my watch! Because of this background it means that I do notice things when we’re out and about that could cause harm to some unsuspecting person, be that an employee or a member of the public!
According to a recent survey that Hayward Baker commissioned 69% of British workers (so around 21 million) think there are hazards in their workplace, and two out of ten surveyed had had to take a trip to the hospital for a work related illness or injury. Thinking about it I actually had to do the same many moons ago, I was working in the kitchen and cut my finger alongside the nail on the sharp teeth of the clingfilm dispenser box. It was fine for a couple of days and then it got really infected and my poor finger swelled up so much I thought it was going to explode! I won’t go into gory details but the A&E doctor used a scalpel to sort it out… ick! However he said it probably got infected because I washed my hands so much and the good bacteria that should have killed it was being washed away with all the anti bac soap! Thankfully it wasn’t too serious, but it took a while for my finger nail to grow back! Obviously that was just bad luck, but if it had have been more serious I wouldn’t have hesitated to make a complaint to my manager. 21% of the workers surveyed said their managers weren’t interested in sorting out issues in the workplace, which from a managers point of view is not only disappointing but also pretty stupid as they could be liable for a personal fine! There’s an interactive injury compensation calculator available if you’ve had an accident at work that you think could have been dealt with better.
This is a collaborative post, all words and opinions are my own.