'Elf and Safety

It seems traditional to moan about Health and Safety rules and their affect on just how we do things.

I firmly believe that most of that comes from incorrectly interpreting those rules and the mistake?in believe that society and by extension, work, must be totally risk adverse.

One of the areas that is a challenge to H&S is when you are in an area of new product development.

There is a lot of discussion around these parts regarding the role of a CTO, all be it mostly on a software/SaaS role.

But even in this type of role you have an employee or contracted workforce for which you must exercise some duty of care.

Even a remotely sited contractor. It's the duty of all of us to keep an eye on the wellbeing of our fellow workers.

They might be working late most nights. Great, you might think. Good productivity! But what about long term?

They might be a good candidate for 'just getting things done'. We all want people like this. But the wary eye will keep a check on just how short, those short cuts are.

I do know an employer who had a diligent employee who worked hard and delivered. Unfortunately whilst doing so in his lunch break, unsupervised, he managed to electrocute himself.

I can tell you now that, that event haunts the directors even to this day.?

I recall wandering around a large electronics lab and the manager proudly displaying the 3 monthly external audit that took place.

Within 2 minutes I'd spotted 4 major safety concerns. From a big trip hazard to a potential fire about to start,

It wasn't hard. Just that experience allows you to see this stuff from a mile away.

One occasion walking into my office to find a group of people crowding around one of the engineers who didn't feel well.

Within a minute, he couldn't sit in that chair and was laying on the floor.

The Ambulance was called and on arrival I followed it to the hospital whilst HR informed his parents. A full recovery was made

A more recent example was an invention of a new system that had mech, electronic and cloud software elements. Very exciting.

But one wary eye over the mechanics had us concerned for all the disciplines involved.

This device could tear your arm off!!!!

Measures were put in place to mitigate. Rules of operation and safety switches, but mostly that people were not allowed to work alone....

The thing is with product development is that the safety rules that protect a consumer, aren't present on a product for which the rules have not yet been invented.

This product may require the writing of new British Standards. It may actually be amalgamated into existing.

But whilst you are developing and experimenting, the machine may have to be in an unsafe state as far as any consumer is concerned.

So lab space has to be controlled and restricted. Software, Hardware and Electronics Eng's have to be made very aware of the dangers and the rules.

Some dangers aren't really apparent to a smart person wandering unguarded into the room.

Extend this to the office space. Employees working long hours or through the night are commendable when the chips are down. Those are the guys you want.

But long term? Hell no. If that is required long term then you need to look long and hard at your planning process.?

And mental illness. Not through any work related matters. Purely just through life.

An employee wasn't performing well. To be honest, he hadn't since he started. Little glimmers of the Senior member of staff that he should have been.

It was obvious that something was wrong. A quiet conversation one day and I could see the distress. I felt for the guy. The strong medication just wasn't having the desired effect.

I asked what he would like me to do. His distressed look said it all. He wanted to go.

I offered the solution of him being able to walk away right now. No questions asked. No return to his desk. He did just that. I later just squared it off with HR and payroll.

It's only when you've been in a position of responsibility over many years that you are equipped with the tools and experience to deal with these things. To spot and identify them from a mile away.

To truly discharge your responsibilities as a senior leader in a business and to keep everyone safe.