Elf and Safety

x-post yes! What were they? I've never seen the Office.

I sympathise with Boris's printer pain though.

I must say, the only time it ever imposed on my life was when an email came around with an attachment that everyone had to fill out about their workstations and if they had adequate supports and things. I just ignored mine. No one came round to check that I was compliant. I would like to meet these regulation enforcers who actually prevent people from lifting printers and using their laptops without a wristrest and stuffs.

x-post - I think that's what it really boils down to. You can't regulate caution.

Also, has anyone ever read a book called The Apologist? It was an ultimate pisstake of the litiginous culture. Quite hillarious.

he should see how i sit when i'm owning people up at home on CS.

It gets interesting about 1/2 way thru.

haha. is this real?

the health and safety people at my (government) job would go nuts if they found out that my boss had been letting me carry around big concrete blocks lately. everything I do that isn't one of my specific duties I have to carry out a risk assessment for.

good tale of idiotic H&S I heard recently: H&S insisting that a Tate exhibit, a six foot deep reflective pool, was to be reduced to six inches deep, thus making it many times more dangerous: if a child falls into a six foot deep pool, they say WAAAAAAAH I'VE FALLEN INTO A SIX FOOT POOL, if they fall into a six inch deep pool, they're unconscious.

why is it that the right have so expertly co-opted all right to complain about senseless bureaucracy. no need to answer that, really, but it's annoying.

I have no idea if it's "real", as in "used for training purposes", but it's plausible to me that it was. I mean, it keeps a dude from dozing off in the middle.

I'm fairly sure it isn't, cos I think I saw it late at night on Channel 4 a few years ago as a stand-alone short film.

good tale of idiotic H&S I heard recently: H&S insisting that a Tate exhibit, a six foot deep reflective pool, was to be reduced to six inches deep, thus making it many times more dangerous: if a child falls into a six foot deep pool, they say WAAAAAAAH I'VE FALLEN INTO A SIX FOOT POOL, if they fall into a six inch deep pool, they're unconscious.

why is it that the right have so expertly co-opted all right to complain about senseless bureaucracy. no need to answer that, really, but it's annoying.

Because people are so willing to repeat stories which have no basis in fact?

Of course, when it suits them, they can use health and safety to bash art they don't like...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486800/Three-visitors-rescued-falling-Tate-Moderns-300-000-trench-artwork.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1124883/Music-teachers-ordered-wear-earmuffs-health-safety-watchdog.html

this one, oddly enough, doesn't seem to have been caught by anyone but The Daily Mail. And David Icke. (Ha.) What was this, an office competition to think up the most outlandish Elf n Safety story possible?

(btw, are you suggesting that the story that I'm spreading has no basis in fact? Only legit sources for me! Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the foam-tipped javelin [what is the world coming to, etc].)

although I suppose part of what allows these stories to propagate is that the have some basis in reality. That there exists HSE advice for music teachers gives them room for some nice embellishment and a few fine blatant lies.

^good bit of stating the obvious, that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1126791/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Earmuffs-music-ears-elfnsafety-shunt-teachers-silence.html?ITO=1490

I wonder if Richard has ever had a brass instrument blown in his ear. I have, and ouch.

(erm, dunno why I'm obsessed with this story. I'll go away now.)

And here lies the problem...

Dear Mr Littlejohn,
Yet again you seem to have vented your anger on the organisation you call 'elf ' and safety. In a workplace we need to provide PPE (ear defenders) for tasks such as drilling, which arguably provides less noise than somebody blowing a trumpet from 3ft away constantly for 30mins. Any employer has a duty of care to any employee; so instead of critisising this school for taking this stance you should be praising them for being a responsible employer. In complying with the Noise at Work regulations, an employer removes the chance of any prosecution for being in breach of these regulations and also erradicates the chance of a sucessful compensation claim via 'no win ,no fee lawyers'. This seems to be normative behaviour these days, if people are given the opportunity. This money saved, could then be used to provide better educational facilities for our children and not line the pockets of greedy chancers and lawyers.
Click to rate Rating 3

- michael horne, fleetwood lancs, 25/1/2009 21:13

One of the problems with the HSE is the the complete lack of common sense these clowns have. They seem to think the rest of us are as gormless as they are.
Or it could be that they don't care if we think they are brainless because they have a nice little earner safely tucked behind a hi-vis vest, hardhat, safety boots, gloves,goggles and not forgetting ear defenders.
Click to rate Rating 5

- John Keig, Onchan, Isle of Man, 25/1/2009

The John Keigs and Richard Littlejohns of the world have no desire whatsoever to try and understand why the HSE would give advice concerning this (which is all they have done) and so ignore anything like a debate about the issue. It's such an easy target - which is why the Right love it so much, and even if the HSE put out an opposing view it wouldn't matter the damage has been done. Also half of this stuff (if not more) is people (head teachers are especially prone to this in my experience) interpreting the HSE advice at it's most extreme. And then when any parent suggests that - to give you one example from my child's school - the might be a half way house between children bringing scooters (the push along ones not the motorised kind) to school and banning them completely (which is what he did when one child was knocked over by another on a scooter) they blame the HSE!

I'm not saying that some HSE advice doesn't err too much on the side of caution (I haven't read about the Tate exhibit - I'd like to know the details though - it does sound a bit odd) but it's pressure from elsewhere that has got us here.

Bloke just came to my door to read the meter. He was wearing muddy boots and I've got a new carpet, so I asked him to take them off. But he wouldn't, he wasn't allowed to because of Health & Safety. I'd've had some sympathy with him if I'd floored my home with broken glass, but the guy's telling me this while we're both looking at an expanse of beige carpet on which I'm standing in my own socks.

We reached a compromise, which was him standing at the door while I went and read my own meter.

This is why we put the meters on the outside of the house in the U.S.