The most recent guidance on office safety, including psych safety and working from home

In December 2024, WorkSafe Victoria released “Office Health and Safety – A Guide for Employers“. Sadly, it seems to have (half) dumped the Officewise brand. If WorkSafe had kept it, the guide would have been part of an illustrious history stretching to the last century when the first edition was published in 1995. The new …

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OHS advice for new businesses

It is legitimate to not know something, but choosing not to know something is inappropriate, especially about something you are meant to be knowledgeable about, like occupational health and safety (OHS).  Governments rarely provide sufficient information about people’s OHS obligations when creating and building a business.  Preloading a person with OHS information should reduce the likelihood of an “I …

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Workplace factors are missing from “The Science of Stress”

I am sure someone much wiser than me has produced this aphorism: “One can learn from what is said, but often learn more from what is not.” If not, I will claim it. I thought of this while reading the National Geographic special edition (August 2024) magazine on “The Science of Stress.” I looked for …

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European support for Australia’s ban on engineered stone

The latest edition of the European Trade Union Institute’s HesaMag features articles on Artificial Intelligence, but the go-to article for me was the magazine’s perspective on Australia’s ban on engineered stone. We often learn more about ourselves by reading how others see us, so I was keen to read the perspective of sociologist Catherine Cavalin and …

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Seeing OHS law as a social law could change how OHS is seen and its future

Occupational health and safety has traditionally been considered under the category of industrial, or industrial relations, but largely this is due to the major advocates of OHS being the trade union movement. So OHS seems to fit with workers’ rights under the issues of wages and conditions, but really OHS is a social law. According …

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This 2025 forecast offers mixed messaging

Risk and governance software company Navex published a forecast for 2025 which has some occupational health and safety (OHS) relevance.  It wrote “Rising temperatures in the workplace: Addressing civility concerns” which said “Workplaces increasingly mirror the polarization we see in the world, with tensions surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, and political …

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Disciplinary overlaps may help with worker engagement

There is a considerable overlap between organisational psychology, Human Resources and occupational health and safety (OHS), even though each has developed its own culture and language. People are just starting to acknowledge the overlap and trying to increase it. One example of that overlap was on display in an interview with prominent podcaster Mel Robbins, …

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