For the majority of people working in industry, particularly heavy industry, an office sounds like a low risk, safe place to work with little risk to health. But for those working in an office environment, the risk of harm is all too often there and neither recognised, nor addressed.
So what are the risks that office workers are exposed to? This depends on the size of the office and the type of work undertaken. As with factories and other manufacturing units, the work undertaken and the environment the employees operate in, can vary greatly.
Office workers can find themselves exposed to a number of health risks which are not always assessed and as eluded to in the first paragraph, recognised or addressed. Risk to health could be from poor posture, inadequate space in which to work and poorly designed work stations.
Further health risks can arise from the work load, pressure imposed by performance related issues such as key strokes per minute, the number of mistakes per hour or the need to answer a certain number of calls or close out calls within a certain time.
These could be regarded as factors that increase stress and pose risks to the mental health of office employees.
The physical harm to health can manifest itself in conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome and muscular skeletal injury, often caused by poor posture and bad workstation design.
Many office workers, particularly in smaller offices, have nowhere to take a break away from the workstation. On many occasions employees have been observed eating lunch at their workstation, effectively they are not getting a break.
For those working in call centres long hours and unsociable hours combined with difficult, even rude and aggressive customers can lead to stress and numerous related health issues.
So far only health has been looked at, safety has not been considered. It would be reasonable to suggest that the risks arising from working in an office are far lower than those faced by employees in industry. None the less the risks to safety arising from work activities are significant to those exposed to the risk.
Again risks are wide and varied, in a front office such as a hospital reception there could be a significant risk of encountering violence or abuse from members of the public. Slips and trips can happen in any environment; in offices with trailing cables, steps or damaged flooring, the risks are clearly increased.
Exposure to live electricity can also be an issue, in one bizarre but true incident a female employee crawled under her desk to unplug an electrical appliance. She did not switch off the supply and pulled out the three pin plug. This particular plug did not have sheathing on the pins. As the lady in question removed the plug her fingers came into contact with the pins resulting in an electric shock.
The shock caused her to jump back, and in doing so she struck her head on the underside of her desk. The routine task of unplugging an appliance resulted in her being injured to the extent that she had time off work and the incident being reported to the authorities.
There is also the risk of fire, exposure to legionella and risks arising from manual handing, this is not a comprehensive list but goes some way to show that offices are not always the risk-free places that some consider them to be.
Can these risks be reduced? Yes, they can. Go back to basics, assess the risks that employees are exposed to, carry out fire risk assessments, display screen equipment assessments and manual handling assessments and act upon the findings. Provide suitable welfare facilities and adequate training particularly around manual handling. Managers should also carry out assessments to ensure that employees are not exposed to harmful levels of stress.
Offices are reasonably safe and healthy places to work but this situation should be because health and safety has been managed, not just happened.
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Source by Kev Barton
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