We have monthly safety meetings where I work. (Hey, an office building can be a dangerou place). We rotate between who gives them and the topics are usually things like winter driving tips, back safety, the dangers of texting while driving, don’t run down the stairs while carrying heavy loads, etc. The last time I went since it was spring I did tornado safety (we are in Tornado Alley) and I at least got to show some nifty pictures, but I’m drawing a blank now. I’m up this August but they want our topics soon. Does anyone have a good idea the won’t put the room to sleep?
As usual feel free to share stories and/or complaints.
Pick bizarre or unexpectedly common causes of death from this list and heighten people’s awareness of relative risk. Heck start it off with a game for who can put them in the correct order of probability.
I offer this suggestion only as a public service announcement and not as an endorsement of the stupid idea of the safety meetings to begin with.
I assume you probably have done this to death already, but have you discussed office ergonomics? Proper body position at the desk, locating your monitor and keyboard for best effect, light stretching during microbreaks. That sort of thing.
A chat about WHMIS/HAZCOM might also be one that rarely gets done in an office environment. There are a surprising number of controlled products out there that we use every day and that you should have MSDS on file for. Things like Liquid Paper, batteries, bleach and other cleaners. A refresher on that subject might get some decent debate going.
I had a safety officer go off on a tangent about safety while on overseas trips, and him being chased down the street in Moscow by angry prostitutes. I was pinching my hand so hard under the table to avoid laughing that I nearly drew blood.
What to do when a crazed fellow employee shows up with 4 guns and 200 rounds of ammo, and make it a point to avoid eye contact with one person in the room…
Hmm . . . that may be pushing the limit on some of our rules, but food is always appreciated at the meetings.
I considered doing pedestrian safety if I could find a humorous montage of clips from movies. (Is it Meet Joe Black where he’s hit by two cars in a row?)
You could remind people not to apply spray paint right under a smoke detector. Addressing this threat could save your company a hefty false-alarm fee, a 30-minute loss of productivity due to the building evacuation and some well deserved WTF looks from members of the fire department.
My wife’s office is trying to find someone to present a safety lecture on “Blood-borne Pathogens in the Workplace” because they have a guy who bleeds on everything all the time and they’re hoping they won’t have to directly address the issue. (He picks open his own skin.)
How about a scavenger hunt to find safety violations that you arrange around the office? Or a game of "What would you do if . . . " and real like examples from news articles about what happens when people make the wrong choices. Some of them of course would be humorous.
