Strange health and safety rules
At work today i was given some paperwork on something we deal with at work (i won't bore you with that). I wanted to put it in my folder but needed a punch to knock holes in the paper. My manager said the woman at payroll had one so i went to her office. I asked her for a punch and she opened the drawer and pointed to it. I had to lean over her to get it. I asked her why she couldn't hand it to me and said that if she handed it to me and i dropped it on my foot i could sue her for compensation! I said that was a stupid rule she just shrugged and said'It's health and safety i'm afraid!'. This was the same woman who couldn't give me painkillers as she could be charged with assault! I think Cable and Wireless (can i name them here!) have gone mad!
Has anyone else came across stupid nanny state health and safety laws?
Has anyone else came across stupid nanny state health and safety laws?
Post edited by zx1 on
The trouble with tribbles is.......
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I'd guess that one isn't actually a law, just a regulation invented to cover someone's ass.
Oh wait, while working for NCR, I got reprimanded for working to hard. I was only supposed to build 2.75 cash dispenser heads per shift and I was doing 4, even though I was mucking about and drinking coffee all night, so I don't know what everyone else was doing. Unions.
I HATE political correctness. And I detest people who take offense when none is clearly intended.
Well, I didn't have to sign a form to use the milk and I'm lactose intolerant.
She's just being an ar$e, and hiding behind health and safety.
1) Yes you could sue her (you can sue anyone one for anything, it's the decision that counts) but it is highly you would not win.
2) She can give you painkillers, as long as you know what they are, and you accept what they are, it's no different to making someone a cup of tea.
3) The whole concept of UK HSE rule is based on the phrase "reasonably practicable"
For more information
http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/theory/alarpglance.htm
HSE (bless them!) has a web site that tries it's hardest to debunk some of these myths.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/aug09.htm
Unfortunately they are fighting a losing battle as it only takes one well meaning boss to say that their workers must wear hard hats to use the office scissors for the Daily Mail et al to go completely crazy and blame the HSE for ridiculous rules that they usually know nothing about!
Oh as far as the painkillers thing goes - You can't administer drugs to anyone unless you are medically trained. Once they've signed for the asprin you should give them the blister pack and make them take out the tablets themselves.
At that point I would have said that I hold the door open for any one I feel fit, and they can't tell me not to. If they specifically say you cannot hold it open for a woman, they are sexually descriminating and should get there act together.
Gets me high!
I'd feign a back injury from having to lean over in an awkward position to pick up the hole punch.
It was a ploy ... she just wanted to check out his rear.
It does tend to make a mess when you snort the stuff!
Look. I forgot to put a smiley face at the end of my 'milk' 'lactose intolerant' post! And I'm not 'lactose intolerant', by the way!
Can a person be soymilk intolerant?
Yeah, well considering we seem to have joined this forum at the same time, you have posted a hell of a lot more crap than me! ;) :) ;) :) ;) :) ;) :) ;) :) ;) :)
Hmm, good be right. Mind you she's not bad looking (has a great set of gazongas!) but she's married and a bit old for me (she's 50).
These are *NOT* health and safety laws, this is that woman being deliberately awkward and/or lazy, or either that her supervisor instructing her to be obstructive in this manner. Spurious health and safety rules are a gift to the deliberately awkward and lazy, and it drives the *real* health and safety people nuts because it gives them an undeserved terrible reputation for rules they are NOT making and don't feel are reasonable. The awkward and/or lazy love citing health and safety rules they made up themselves as why they can't do something - because as soon as someone says "health and safety" everyone thinks "health and safety gone mad" and then don't question it or blame the person who made up these spurious rules, because we've all heard from a friend-of-a-friend or from the Daily Mail about some silly health and safety rule (which, incidentally, was probably also made up by someone being deliberately obstructive and/or lazy). Next time, tell this woman "that's bullshit", because it is bullshit.
Real health and safety rules are usually straightforward and common sense.
It's not health and safety - it's damage limitation.
I had to read and sign a 5 page document all about how to open a letter and the post! Honestly, 5 pages long. It warned me about everything from getting a paper cut to getting blown up by a bomb (ok, that last bit is kind of understandable, but who'd want to blow up Wilkinsons?), taking in dust contamination along the way! I'm 33 this year, I think I know how to open a letter without slicing my hand open (I'll admit to doing that once or twice though :lol: )
You crass copycat, you! :-P
I'm intolerant of people who insist on purchasing Skinny Lattes if that has any bearing on the matter,
On holding doors open for women:
Firstly I hold doors open for people in general if they are directly behind me (common politeness)
However when I was working In Canary Wharf I once held a door open for the person behind me who turned out to be Germane Greer who was pretty offensive to me. I pointed out her arrogance and that I would have held the door open regardless of gender.
Anyway I walked off and she was still just behind me, and as I went through the 2nd set of doors (@ the DLR escalators) I swung the door shut behind me hitting her with the door and hearing (an Australian voice) shouts about being my ignorance.