Health and Wellbeing at Work: Is Your Office Safe?

Without any seed of doubt, safety and wellbeing have and always will be the primary concern of any employee around the globe. Regardless of our position, upbringing or skillset, self-preservation will always take point. In recent times, employers have started to see eye to eye with this as many safety regulations and lawsuits have put them in the spotlight. Whatever our feelings about safety codes might be, we have a civil duty as employees and employers to provide a safe work environment for both us and coworkers – in whatever form that may be.

It’s not just physical harm

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Something most people do not take into consideration is the psychological aspect of working in a certain type of environment. We’ve all heard tall tales about crab fishermen and the dangers they face day in and day out in the harsh seas but never have we heard of the psychological torture they put themselves through to carry out their job. Long days at sea, barely any sleep, no contact with people outside of work, constantly wet – it gets to a person, and it wears people down just as bad as any scrape, cut or bruise – except these wounds take a little longer to heal.

Naturally, this is an extreme example courtesy of many a night spent watching the Discovery channel, however, people still have a lot to deal with on a daily basis in other spheres of work too. Verbal abuse is a common problem in many offices, along with unrealistic time schedules, inconsistent feedback etc. All of these slowly deteriorate our mental wellbeing and need to be identified and dealt with ASAP. Although proving a bit harder to prove if there should be a need for it, these incidents can have lasting consequences and substantially hinder our ability to carry out our job effectively.

When it is, it’s not pretty

When push comes to shove, well – physical injuries to tend to take the spotlight. Simply put, whatever the reasons might be and whoever might be at fault – accidents will happen, they just will. We cannot control what will happen, but we can reduce the odds by taking a look at our surroundings. Keeping an eye to keep everything tidy and up to code, taking special care to follow all and any procedures to a T. A vast majority of office accidents happen due to negligence more than anything else, keep an eye out before you end up losing it.

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To minimize the odds of any injury occurring, make sure to report any problems to your employer and urge them to deal with it as soon as they can. Apart from that, any particular medical problem we might have – our coworkers need to be aware of. This can save them a lot of guesswork should anything happen to us, and might even end up saving our lives. Encourage coworkers to do the same and keep your office safe from potential hazards.

Follow procedures

When something does indeed happen, it is imperative that we follow the proper procedures. Whenever an accident happens, sooner or later, a legal team is going to be called in. WithstandLawyers is one such legal team and they specifically deal with compensation law. They emphasize the importance of knowing one’s rights and what steps we need to take to ensure safety and avoid any potential legal issues down the line when the accident is looked into. Naturally, safety first, get clear of whatever happened and let your employer provide the necessary medical attention, keep calm and focus on making sure you’re dealing with what’s in front of you.

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Once everything’s been sorted, take a step back, take a deep breath and think. Now you need to figure out what happened and how then talk to your employer and figure out what you’re going to do next. Your employer is legally obliged to give you a compensation form to fill out as he is responsible for anyone in his building. You are entitled to compensation no matter whose fault the accident was and striking a deal with your employer early on will help avoid any awkward situations or dragging the case on through court, but hopefully, it will never come to that.

Stay safe

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Safety first, everything else second. We need to look out for ourselves and, if we’re lucky, we’ll have the whole company looking out for us as well. Holding down a job and staying competitive in today’s market is a strenuous task in itself without having to worry if we’ll lose a hand operating the office printer on Thursday. If there are any signs that your office is putting you in danger, do not hesitate, point it out, have it taken care of – after all, if we won’t look out for ourselves, how can we expect others to?