With some types of workplace, safety is at the core of it. If you work in a hospital, on a construction site or in a laboratory it’s pretty likely that workplace safety is something you are already extremely experienced with. However, if you work in an office it’s likely that you aren’t as well-informed as to what exactly you should be doing to stay safe, since the risks tend to be far more hidden than in the other environs. In a counter-intuitive sense, there are also things that people in higher risk workplaces could learn about hidden risks and how to mitigate them. So, without further ado, here are eight tips for workplace safety.
- Understand Risks
Every office or worksite ought to have a health and safety manager who should be able to give you a thorough understanding of what the risks in that particular area are. Getting familiar with these is a great start since, if you don’t understand what is at stake you can’t act to address it.
- Posture
This is a huge one and universal to all careers. “It doesn’t matter where you work or what you do, posture can actually be a n issue which can cause serious life changing damage if not addressed”, says Anthony Allam, marketer at WriteMyx and NextCourseWork. It is particularly important though, if you sit at a desk for long periods of time. So, invest some energy in getting it right.
- Monitor Stress
Stress-levels dictate, to some degree, a lot of the way that your body and mind function. Mental safety is just as important, if not more so, than physical safety so it’s worth paying attention to workplace stress levels for that reason alone. However, stress also can affect your body, in your posture, in the way you breathe and move and, across time, can have damaging effects if left unchecked.
- Don’t Forgo Procedure
It can often seem painfully dry, but workplace procedure is there for a reason. “Procedures aren’t invented for the sake of torturing you with boring rules. It’s there to ensure that, even with slip-ups, employees will remain safe”, writes Ella Maguire, project manager at BritStudent and Australia2Write. It’s especially important in labs and on construction sites, but it applies in regular offices as well.
- Report Accidents And Problems
When something goes wrong, or something breaks or someone gets hurt, the first instinct can be to quickly solve the immediate issue and then try and put the rest of it behind you. Tis is the wrong approach. Incidents have to be reported for your safety and the safety of future employees. If something isn’t working, or there is a dangerous fault in a workplace it must be fixed to ensure safety, which won’t happen if incidents don’t get reported.
- Emergency Exits
You ought to be able to get out of any workplace with ease and speed. There can be a whole range of reasons why you might want to escape, from a gas leak to a fire drill. Obstructions to an exit are illegal but they are also often difficult to spot, sine it’s not until people are actually hurrying to safety that you realize that there is a problem, by which point it’s too late. That is the benefits of drills and vigilance over this aspect of safety.
- Be Careful When Lifting
If you’re on a construction site, then you have already likely done a lot of work on how to lift correctly. If you are in the office, probably not so much. But there are items all around the office which are heavy and can, therefore, damage your back if you lift it incorrectly. So, learn how to lift it well, or leave it to someone else.
- Take Breaks
Illness and injury come from over-exertion. Make sure you are always getting enough respite whilst in the workplace.
Conclusion
To conclude, all worksites represent risk and health and safety dangers, and it is your responsibility as someone on the site to establish those risks and do everything you can to ensure that safety is maintained, for yourself and others around you. It can be tough, but with these tips you’re already off to a good start.
Katrina Hatchett, a lifestyle blogger at Academic Brits and writer for Origin Writings, is involved in many business projects. She enjoys identifying project problems and finding solutions for these, and her goal is to improve efficiency of communication within companies. She also writes for the PhDKingdom blog.