Health and safety risk assessments

[Derek Smith]

When I was employed risk assessments were a bane of my life. I had half a dozen disabled staff and had to produce a separate report for each, much to their irritation. The phrase health and safety was always prefixed by bloody.

Mind you, sometimes I have to say others haven't thought it out too well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOYN9qNXmAw

It is remarkable. I kept thinking that it was somehow down to cgi, but it looks real to me. I wonder what the disparity was between the number who got on to those who alighted. How many are injured in such setups?

Inside Man for those wondering where it comes from.

[ging84]

Funny how quickly people forget about older special effects and think everything has to be cgi or real.

It's clearly a huge amount of green screen, with a few bit of real footage mixed in.

Up until 15 or so years ago, this is what Hollywood was doing all the time.

[tapereel]

I figure the first part of the assessment was "Lets not use a real train to put these actors on"!

[pim]

We used to report near misses.Stacks and stacks of bits of paper trying to outdo each other.

What a waste of time and effort.But when their was a problem with production we took every shortcut under the sun.The same Company caused untold damage in the Mexican gulf caused by a cheap Chinese valve system which blow up.The top man wanted to go home from the States because he missed sailing with his son.I think he is employed in Russia now.>;)

[Derek Smith]

I was required to complete a risk assessment for a job. I did what anyone with any sense would do and pulled one from a previous similar one. Job done you might think. But no. I got a pull from my super, a sharp one, who had also dug out the previous one and demanded that I do my own.

So I went to the previous reporting officer, a mate, and got his notes. I then rewrote them in rough and submitted them to my super but about two days after the deadline. The late submission might have convinced him but I doubt it.

Everyone just had to go through the process.

However, in general I think such processes can be useful, I mean, like the advert, you don't want the wrong type of ladder. However, not every damned time.

[Likes Fast Cars]

There's a time and a place for risk assessments, and only key risks should be the focus. It amazes me how some organisations get carried with risk management when they very little idea of what it really is or means. A waste of valuable resources' time and experience when used in the wrong way.

[0a]

Likes Fast Cars said:

There's a time and a place for risk assessments, and only key risks should be the focus. It amazes me how some organisations get carried with risk management when they very little idea of what it really is or means. A waste of valuable resources' time and experience when used in the wrong way.

And damaging to actually reducing risk when such an approach is taken!

[Likes Fast Cars]

0a said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

There's a time and a place for risk assessments, and only key risks should be the focus. It amazes me how some organisations get carried with risk management when they very little idea of what it really is or means. A waste of valuable resources' time and experience when used in the wrong way.

And damaging to actually reducing risk when such an approach is taken!

Yes, I've seen far too many cases where the real risks were not even identified, with devastating consequences. And as you say getting it completely wrong due to total ignorance of what it really means!

[llewop]

Likes Fast Cars said:

Yes, I've seen far too many cases where the real risks were not even identified, with devastating consequences. And as you say getting it completely wrong due to total ignorance of what it really means!

There can often be a tendency to target fixate on a dominant risk and ignore or overlook others that might actually be the ones that ruin your day. I've worked at places with a dominant risk, one the place has been world famous for even, but what would actually hurt you, kill you, today, tomorrow or next week were more mundane things like falling from great heights, big chunks of material like steel or concrete or driving!

A pet hate of mine is the tendency to mandate a collection of PPE to worn or used, even in areas where actually there was negligible risk, which I think undermines individual engagement in the risk assessment process.

[Bristol spark]

There are some odd policies with PPE

The site ive been on the last week, the main builder has two lads.

One seems to permanently wear ear defenders, the other lad always wears safety glasses.


Its almost like he only had one set of each, or wants to make sure one has hearing and one can see........

I kept meaning to ask the question!

[Likes Fast Cars]

Bristol spark said:

There are some odd policies with PPE

The site ive been on the last week, the main builder has two lads.

One seems to permanently wear ear defenders, the other lad always wears safety glasses.


Its almost like he only had one set of each, or wants to make sure one has hearing and one can see........

I kept meaning to ask the question!

Would love to hear what he has to say when you ask ....

[Derek Smith]

Bristol spark said:

There are some odd policies with PPE

The site ive been on the last week, the main builder has two lads.

One seems to permanently wear ear defenders, the other lad always wears safety glasses.


Its almost like he only had one set of each, or wants to make sure one has hearing and one can see........

I kept meaning to ask the question!

That reminded me of, oh so many years ago, when I stayed overnight with a girl at a friends house after a little party. I'd brought some pajamas, not expecting the turn of events, and we shared them, me with the bottoms and she with the almost but not quite long enough top. A lovely morning.

[IanA2]

My wife spent a lot of time with me when I was in hospital. She wanted to make me a drink and asked a nurse if she could use their kettle. "Only after we have done a risk assessment" was the reply. Forty minutes later, assessment done and form signed, tea was made. Bonkers.

[Derek Smith]

IanA2 said:

My wife spent a lot of time with me when I was in hospital. She wanted to make me a drink and asked a nurse if she could use their kettle. "Only after we have done a risk assessment" was the reply. Forty minutes later, assessment done and form signed, tea was made. Bonkers.

That's not the fault of the NHS of course, but of selfish lawyers and the acquisitive nature of most people. Or should that be the acquisitive lawyers and the selfish, etc.

I your wife had scalded herself there could have been a claim against the hospital. I'm not suggesting that you or your wife are the type to blame someone else for your own errors, but there are a lot who would, even after the care given.

So blame the legal system that allows spurious claims.

[IanA2]

Derek Smith said:

IanA2 said:

My wife spent a lot of time with me when I was in hospital. She wanted to make me a drink and asked a nurse if she could use their kettle. "Only after we have done a risk assessment" was the reply. Forty minutes later, assessment done and form signed, tea was made. Bonkers.

That's not the fault of the NHS of course, but of selfish lawyers and the acquisitive nature of most people. Or should that be the acquisitive lawyers and the selfish, etc.

I your wife had scalded herself there could have been a claim against the hospital. I'm not suggesting that you or your wife are the type to blame someone else for your own errors, but there are a lot who would, even after the care given.

So blame the legal system that allows spurious claims.

Maybe so, crazy world.

[Derek Smith]

There was a case in civil court where an employee successfully sued her employer for not providing a course on how to pick up a kettle.

The woman had a wrist injury brought on by lifting said kettle and, as she was a 'tea lady' in those days, complained that she had not been trained to perform her role.

The judge, bless him, described the kettle as misbehaving.

[bristolracer]

Being told that I had to wear gloves while terminating cat5 cables was amusing

[gazza285]

bristolracer said:

Being told that I had to wear gloves while terminating cat5 cables was amusing

Fairly standard stuff, you should be wearing electrician's gloves, these have the tips of the index finger, middle finger and thumb missing, while protecting the rest of the hand.

[lost in espace]

Come to Portugal, out here at the moment and cleary this stuff is a figment of someone's imagination. A tree went sideways near the main strip, so some council workers turned up and pulled it out and left it on the sidewalk. Left a huge hole on the pavement. Then they returned to collect the tree. Hole is still there.

Holes everywhere on the pavements, and the cobbles that make up the pavements are so slippery.

[V8 Fettler]

Parts of the car/train chase in French Connection were supposedly filmed on open roads. "What risk assessment is that then?"