LinkedIn and other social media often includes “inspirational” posters and memes. They are eye-catching and often funny but they can also be thin and simple. This simplicity can reinforce thoughts that may work against being safe. The image on the right is an example.
Category: safety culture
Look back at the OHS books of 2015
All professionals need to keep up with contemporary thinking and not only in their own discipline. Below is a list of the books that I have read and reviewed in 2015. This is followed by a list of the books still in my reading pile that I will get round to soon.
Books I have written about this year:
Workplace Bullying by Joseph Catanzariti and Keryl Egan
Job Quality in Australia edited by Angela Knox and Chris Warhurst
Master Work Health and Safety Guide 2nd Edition, CCH Wolter Klouwers
Ten Pathways to Death and Disaster – Learning from Fatal Incidents in Mines and Other High Hazard Workplaces by Michael Quinlan
Nightmare Pipeline Failures: Fantasy Planning, Black Swans and Integrity Management by Jan Hayes and Andrew Hopkins
Safe Design and Construction of Machinery – Regulation, Practice and Performance by Elizabeth Bluff Continue reading “Look back at the OHS books of 2015”
Workplace bullying book tries new psychology approach
New workplace bullying report raises awareness in UK
Recently workplace bullying gained increased attention in the United Kingdom due to media report about a discussion paper released by Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).
The report called “Seeking better solutions: tackling bullying and ill-treatment in Britain’s workplaces” is a very good summary of thinking on workplace bullying that acknowledges the Australian experience but seems to indicate that Britain remains in the early stages of tacking the workplace bullying situation after a series of false starts on the issue.
SafetyAtWorkBlog posed some questions about this paper to Dr
Another mental health player joins the discussion
Recently, Ernst Young released a discussion paper about the risks of mental health in the workplace.
Mental health is a very popular topic at the moment and there are thousands of service providers in this sector. During the recent National Mental Health Week,
Applying a “bullshit filter” during Mental Health Week
This week in Australia is Mental Health Week. Some call it an Mental Health Awareness Week. Either way the Australian media will be full of experts and “experts”. Workplace health strategies will not be excluded but when reading and listening to this media content, one important point should be remembered – “mental health” is significantly different from “mental illness”.
Such differentiation should not be dismissed as semantics because health, illness, problems and disorders involve different levels of analysis and diagnosis and, therefore, different strategies, interventions and control measures.
Recently the
OHS is in sports but by another name
After writing a recent article about the relevance of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws to sporting clubs, I attended a sports medicine seminar to access a different perspective on workplace safety.
Having never played sports outside the obligatory high school activities, which in my high school also included snooker?!, the world of locker rooms and team sports is foreign. But earlier this week I learnt that where OHS professionals talk about productivity, sportspeople speak of performance, and where factories address line speed, sports physicians talk of load management. I also learnt that professional sportspeople are exempt from workers’ compensation.