Keeping safe at work.
Hazards obviously vary depending on where you work. Working on a building site will present very different hazardous situations to working in an office building or a chocolate factory. You maybe need a simple safety precaution like investing in some gloves from a website like Unigloves or work boots all the way to having to have outside companies come to access the risks of the entire building. Just like working from home, the biggest hazard to productivity is laziness and/or lack of motivation, not being crushed by a boulder.There are health and safety regulations within all places of work that all the staff are to adhere to but there will always be other hazards that come with being in environment with other people trying to work together. With everything going on in the world at the moment there are new hazards to consider when working with other people. Sometimes it’s not possible to stay 6ft apart in a work environment.
Working together to ensure you and your staff are safe is of the utmost importance. Pathogen testing booths have been created to provide safe and socially distanced areas for people to go about their work without the worry of being too close to other people.
It’s of course still important to employ a strict cleaning regimen for your office, regardless of what additional measures have been brought in following Covid-19. Consulting an experienced company offering commercial cleaning in Cleveland, OH (or elsewhere more relevant for you) can be an effective way to rollout a cleaning program that is always done to the highest standard. The great thing about bringing in an external company to sanitise work spaces for you is that they’ll use top of line equipment to clean more thoroughly, in a timely manner. Beyond this, it will also save time for your colleagues to focus on the work that needs doing, rather than spending their time in the office scrubbing down after others.
Your job role in your workplace is also very important when it comes to everyone being safe. If you are in a leadership role , whether it is agreed or not, you will be looked to for instruction/direction in a emergency. You have to make sure you know the health and safety procedures for your workplace and you role in them. If you are in a supervisory role you need to be clear headed, calm and clear to keep everyone and yourself safe.
Knowing your rights as a worker
Just as important as keeping safe is knowing your rights in the workplace if anything should happen. There are many area that come into play when you talk about workers rights for example wages, sick leave, breaks, unions etc but what I want to focus on here is accidents occurring in your place of work.
The first thing you need to do if you have a n accident at work, no matter how small, is report it to your employer and have them make a record of it in an accident book. If there is nobody to take record you should make a record yourself ,including all the details of the accident (time, place, what happened etc) so you can give that record to your employer and make sure you always keep a copy yourself.
See a doctor, even if your injuries don’t seem all that extreme as your doctor will also keep a record of the medical details of your accident, which you may need in the future if making a claim or giving a more in depth report to your employer.
Speak to your union. Another great place to get advice on accidents in the workplace is online. If you feel the accident was the fault of your place of work and you feel lie it could have been avoided, speak to someone at your workers union as they will be able to offer you advice on what you should do next regarding time off work to recover, reporting an unsafe workplace, making your employer fix anything that will help prevent future similar accidents or even if you want to start looking into making a financial claim.
Make sure you do everything you can to stay safe at work and don’t be afraid ti make sure your employer is creating a safe place to you at work too, If you don’t look out for you, who will?