People who work in small serviced offices do not figure prominently in national accident statistics. In the office sector in 2010, only nine major accidents took place per 100 000 people, compared to 128 per 100 000 in the manufacturing sector.
However, the figures for major accidents at home are around the 224 per 100 000 mark. So, according to these figures, it is almost 30 times more dangerous to be at home than in your serviced office or commercial property.
But, we don’t get the Health & Safety busybodies pitching up at our houses, offering child-like advice and wasting our time with their petty, authoritarian theories on how to keep ourselves safe.
The last time H & S came around to our serviced offices they took 2 hours to explain that (and this is the absolute truth) we should always provide adequate seating at workstations or desks, if it was considered necessary. The mind boggles, do they honestly think that we need to be told that, if we want to sit down at our desks we will need a chair? Do they think that I have been sitting on the floor for the past 30 years and now I am obliged to use one of these ‘New Fangled’ chairs? What a waste of our time and money.
But they were back, again and again. Once to tell us that if we saw any exposed wires draped across the office, to ensure that we got someone to repair them, as bare electric wires could cause a health and safety hazard.
Finally, we had a visit to our serviced office and received a long talk on, ‘tripping hazards.’
So are serviced offices really this dangerous? I don’t believe so, whilst I realise that health and safety should be taken very seriously, especially by employers. I feel that the enforcing of such petty rules is a little disconcerting.
By looking at the statistics, we can see serviced offices are not the dangerous place, some would like to portray.
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