Engineered stone and The Block

One supplier of synthetic stone products to Australia, Cosentino, is in the mainstream media after an appearance on a popular television home renovations show on the Nine Network, The Block. Several occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals and organisations have raised concerns about how the product was discussed and presented on a recent episode. The best coverage of this matter has been by an ABC television program, MediaWatch.

MediaWatch revealed the importance of listening to how dangerous products are described and how the guidance of OHS Regulators can be interpteed or manipulated.

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RUOK? needs a refresh

RUOK? Day is held in September each year in Australia. The workplace suicide awareness campaign has been very successful, but over time, I have observed a decline in effectiveness, certainly at the local communication level. It may be a victim of its own success as almost all awareness campaigns struggle to maintain their original freshness. Perhaps it is time for a change. Perhaps that change is being forced upon us.

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Burnout is the new Stress

Burnout will continue to be a trend for discussion papers and marketing brochures for some time to come.  A recent one, from Udemy Business is a good example of discussion without action.  If we were to replace the word “burnout” with “stress”, the paper could easily have been produced over twenty years ago.

Many of the data sources will be familiar – Gartner, Gallup, McKinsey, Deloitte.  The Gallup Research included these top five causes of burnout:

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The latest attempt to address young worker safety

There have been dozens of attempts to promote occupational health and safety (OHS) through advertising. It is perhaps more difficult than ever due to the splintering of media types and the shifted control of media advertising to online global corporations. This new structure does not stop people from trying, and this is a good thing.

The upcoming 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work includes the International Media Festival for Prevention 2023, an event that previously has unearthed significant OHS promotions like Shoelaces. But OHS regulators are persistent in their promotional work. A recent attempt was by Ontario’s Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB), aimed at younger workers and to maximise social media influence.

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When “hard work” often means unsafe work

Currently, many large Australian business groups are lobbying the federal government over its plans to introduce legislation to ensure that workers achieve the same pay rate for doing the same job as others. A feature of the full-page advertisement in the newspapers is that people should be able to receive more money or a higher rate of pay if they “work hard”. This phrase is never explained but may have implications for occupational health and safety (OHS).

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Another business survey that (sort of) mentions OHS

Much of the discussion about working from home (WFH) focuses on the number of workers in the office, at home or working a combination of both. The production issues of connection, collaboration, management supervision, and productivity are also the focus, particularly of media articles based on some small survey that is principally a marketing exercise. (The need to provide your contact details before downloading is a dead giveaway) However, occupational health and safety (OHS) occasionally garners a mention.

One recent example of this was an article in the United Kingdom’s The Telegraph, which also turned up last week in the Australian Financial Review.

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Sometimes marketing gets in the way of OHS information

The internet and social media are peppered with articles that are ostensibly about occupational health and safety (OHS) and psychosocial health and wellbeing but are really marketing exercises. These things pop up frequently on LinkedIn. A recent example is from Lyra Health called “Workforce Mental Health Trends for 2023: Top 3 Predictions“. You can see from the title why I would be interested in obtaining the full survey report.

I chose not to download the company’s survey for the following reasons.

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