Office Politics & Health and Safety

**CrazyCypriut** · 21-07-2011 10:18 AM

Ive been working in offices for approimately the last 7 years(on & off) but never before have i seen utter politics as today.

I have moved desks, and my small under desk filing cabinet needed to be moved with me (20kg tops) now I am not allowed to pick this object up and move it to my desk. 10 yards for health and safety reasons. Incase i injure myself.

So i have waited almost 40 minutes for the buildings porter to come along, who turns up with a sack barrrow, gloves and a BACK SUPPORT!
He then uses terrible form/posture to load the sack barrow with my trolley. and wheels it 10 yards.

How stupid is this process? I mean when I worked in Cyprus we moved the board room around. the manager and I rolled up our sleeves and did it. No hassle no fuss. Dont meant to moan like an old man (im only 22!)

Anyone else experience this kind of stuff?

**Asauka** · 21-07-2011 10:34 AM

It's stupid, I'm lucky in that the I.T. team I have are very much hands-on and were shocked when I asked if I was required to go through manual handling training. I haven't seen anything quite that extreme luckily, I think I might flip if I did lol

**Wotan** · 21-07-2011 10:58 AM

You will not believe this but I absolutely swear its true.

There are warning lables on the taps at work saying the water is unfit for human consumption unless run for two minutes beforehand. The first job of the day is actually to turn on the taps to let the water run and then go about doing all the other stuff. The management decided this was unsafe - so they installed a water cooler thing. Of course the kettle won't fit underneath it so people still run the tap as they always have done.

As part of a cost cutting exercise they decided last year to get rid of all the water coolers (and pay the penalty-charge for breaking the leasing agreement or whatever) and give us Britta water-filters instead. Not ideal but hey, anything is better than nothing. Three months later the empty water cooler is still awaiting collection, the tap still gets turned on first thing in the morning and there is still no water filters. Just out of curiosity I asked at the quarterly management/moron team meeting exercise what was the score with the water filters. I even said if they wanted to pay me out of petty cash I'd buy a couple the next day and bring them into work.

Their answer was that this was not possible because the "risk-assesment" of using them had not yet been completed (?!?!).

Honest - you don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.

**CrazyCypriut** · 21-07-2011 01:40 PM

Tell me about it. On tuesday i was sick at work (in the toilet) and left 1 hour before my shift finished incase I was sick again (i was) found out Id eaten something bad at lunch. No biggie. Came to work on wednesday after having flushed my system to have a 1 to 1 with my manager and someone from HR doing a "return to work" form due to my "illness" asking if i was ok/healthy/able to work/ needed assistance/supplies bla bla....

We seem to spend more time planning to plan to fix something. Than just doing it and being more productive. Just another reason why I want to be self employed once I have graduated!

**McPeedster** · 21-07-2011 01:51 PM

Quote

Originally Posted by CrazyCypriut

Tell me about it. On tuesday i was sick at work (in the toilet) and left 1 hour before my shift finished incase I was sick again (i was) found out Id eaten something bad at lunch. No biggie. Came to work on wednesday after having flushed my system to have a 1 to 1 with my manager and someone from HR doing a "return to work" form due to my "illness" asking if i was ok/healthy/able to work/ needed assistance/supplies bla bla....

unfortunately being a HR bod - i always make my managers complete these for a variety of reasons. primarily to make sure that managers do understand the needs that if someone is ill then to see if theres any reasonable adjustments that may need to be made. a few helpful words or actions at an early stage can always prevent something long term potentially down the line. however i totally agree that for 1 hour of sickness, even related to something to food, to come back to a full 1 to 1 a bit excessive. I would get laughed at if I asked my managers to do that

**HBK** · 21-07-2011 01:56 PM

I'm lucky, the last office I worked at didn't give a damn about these laws. We were just allowed to get on with it.

**dope540** · 21-07-2011 01:58 PM

you think you have it bad, try working in the nhs!

i had to do a manual handling training as part of my mandatory training even though the heaviest thing i lift is a pen and a mouse. had to do moving of patients and moving of inanimate objects. passed it no problem but did get told off for pulling the sheet too hard when transfering a pretend patient (the guy flew towards me and the other guy).

i got told off by my boss for attempting to lift a 20kg box of patient notes from a clinic room to the reception. only 5 metres away. i've done it before. this time the boss bollocked me for attempting to move it, even though she knows i train and lift stuff a lot heaveir than it due to 'health and safety'. they randomly found a youtube clip of me deadlifting, so pretty much the whole dept knows i can shift some stuff.

since that day, i have refused to move any loads that i feel may get me in hot water. even if the girls are whinging. i state the trust health and safety policy and that it is not my fault if they get injured and also not my fault that they are weak!

**Weaves** · 21-07-2011 07:45 PM

This is in the toilets where I work:

**CrazyCypriut** · 21-07-2011 08:31 PM

as if?! thats mental? Can anyone beat that?

**Was_once_fat_dave** · 21-07-2011 10:42 PM

Quote

Originally Posted by McPeedster

unfortunately being a HR bod - i always make my managers complete these for a variety of reasons. primarily to make sure that managers do understand the needs that if someone is ill then to see if theres any reasonable adjustments that may need to be made. a few helpful words or actions at an early stage can always prevent something long term potentially down the line. however i totally agree that for 1 hour of sickness, even related to something to food, to come back to a full 1 to 1 a bit excessive. I would get laughed at if I asked my managers to do that

it's also used as something that helps put people off pulling a fake sickie. People think twice about pulling a sickie if they know they have to sit in an almost interview like scenario with the boss the day they get back.