Thursday, May 24, 2018

Important Notes On Occupation Health And Safety

By Stephen Edwards


Hazards at the workplace range from direct physical injury to psychosocial torture. Some occupations also pose a risk of chemical and biological injury. Setting up and implementing occupation health and safety measures goes a long way in providing a conducive environment for employees to work.

Occupational safety goes beyond addressing physical injury and its potential consequences. Addressing the social relationship among staff members is equally important. Mistreatment at the workplace is familiar to many employees in both big and small companies in the world today. It is not easy to work in an environment where not a day goes by without a senior supervisor looking down upon their junior colleague. While this may seem trivial to some people, it contributes greatly to overall health and safety at the workplace.

Mistreatment may be in form of engaging the intern, for example, to run your own personal errands and meet their work demands at the same time. Failure to adhere to all the commands may result in the employee being terminated or demoted. On the flip side, employees may intentionally disregard authority from their supervisors. Such differences at the place of work are often the result of pure malice or getting revenge against an employee for something they may have done outside the office.

Given the high possibility of personal differences tampering with work ethic, some occupation rules require that colleagues do not involve themselves sexual relationships outside the workplace. Some people are not able to handle the challenges that arise from such relationships well and may end up making mistakes at work. Rules regarding sexual harassment and its consequences need to be clear to all members of the work force.

Providing counselling sessions for employees that need it goes a long way in providing healing of the mind. This is highly therapeutic especially for individuals who have been through devastating situations at work. This could be sexual harassment, severe physical trauma or putting the life of a client at risk. Counselling shows that the management cares about their employees.

Occupations that involve manual work have the risk of causing physical trauma to the employees. For example, healthcare workers are at risk of pricking or cutting themselves while performing procedures on their patients. They are also faced with the risk of contracting contagious diseases in the process. Other risky occupations include construction work, welding, working in a kitchen section at a restaurant and so on.

Equipping the employees with the right skills and tools is a great step in enhancing workplace safety. Workers need to be given the right protective wear such as reflector clothing, helmets, goggles and other protective gear based on the kind of work involved. Since mishaps are more likely when employees work alone, they should always work under supervision of more experienced personnel.

It is important to train workers on how to act when a calamity strikes. They should be taught about fire extinction, for instance, so as to be fully prepared in the event of one. It is even better when they get demonstrations and participate in hypothetical situations so that they know exactly what to do when faced with reality. With all these measures in place, occupational health and safety will be maintained.




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