Are you risk averse ?

H&S and risk assesments are ruining lives all over the place.

My daughters school called off sports day as the grass might be a bit wet and the kids may trip..........honestly.

Here they expect you to risk assess and write method statements for everything, but the moment that something which could genuinely be dangerous is going on H&S are nowhere to be seen......funny that.

We had our H&S manager recently ask us to set up an automated reminder for one member of staff, reminding them to go for a break every 30 mins......I told her in no uncertain terms that I wouldn't be doing that. So they are just interviewing for the new Break and Lunchtime Management post.

[yorkie_chris]

When I did my work experience a few years ago I had a couple of tellings off from the H+S bod who used to wander about like a little hitler having a go. Me being stubborn and unpaid, got a b0llocking for not wearing an fireproof apron when welding, I told him to bugger off. Boss came out, said what's problem... looked at the welds and went "carry on" hehe.

Later on in the week, H+S dude actually tried to do some work, sharpening a drillbit on pedastal grinder, he dug it in and it spat it back out and took a chunk of his ear off.
He wasn't too happy and screamed quite a bit, but I found it funny as f##k.

I couldn't work if I stuck to all the H&S laws/guidelines.

I think it is going a bit OTT now, or is Britain really getting stupider?

The "hot coffee" (ho ho, reminds me of another famous legal case ) case isn't quite as stupid as the tabloid/populist simplification of the story would have you believe. The specifics would take ages to detail, but the long and short of it is that McDonalds (and many other places) make it vastly hotter than it needs to be to save a few $s on energy consumption and the consequence is several people are very badly burnt each year (on average, 7 men a year lose at least one testicle as a direct result of this, IIRC), completely unnecessarily. We're not talking about minor scalding, but rather proper 2nd/3rd degree burns. Often the victims are in drive throughs and hence lower down than the person serving them and the burn isn't in any way due to ****-wittedness on their part.

What the lawyers in that case really wanted was them to be banned from heating it up so much, but instead the concession they made was a fat paypout (and it was a hell of a lot more than the $20,000 medical bills the woman concerned originally asked for) and that they'd display warnings that it was hot.

Ok not only stupid, but since when have you ever seen a sign saying " caution hot toffe " i mean really. Since when has toffe been served sizzling hot ?? My collage is stupid.

Originally Posted by BBadger

My collage is stupid.

Don't put yourself down like that, I expect you've worked very hard at it!





ok, coat, going

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

Don't put yourself down like that, I expect you've worked very hard at it!





ok, coat, going

no its true, lacks painted pasta.

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

or is Britain really getting stupider?

I dont think its this. I think alot of it is the "if theres blame theres a claim" culture. Also I think as a nation in general we've stopped taking reponsibility for our own actions. So when stuff goes wrong you blame somebody else rather than thining "that was my fault / that was an accident"

I've watched our company over the past 3 years steadily get more health and safety like, I got told off for standing on the very steady desk to hang a flag above my desk, instead I had to get the portable stairs from the other floor and use that, apart from it doesn't reach far enough in as the desk is in the way so you end up leaning over the stairs. Crazy.

This reminds me of a wallpaper/e-mail that went round the work place...

It's all pointless anyway.

I worked for a very large company that you would know of, that was HSE mad. A serious accident happened one day and the company tried to blame it completely on the employee! The accident only happened because of the pressure he was put under! HSE fined the company in the end, regardless of the 'steps' put in place. I also lost any trust in them, and left.