Your workplace should be a place that is safe and free of hazards. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There are many things that make a workplace be dangerous. As an employee, you may be concerned about these dangerous situations, but may be worried about or unsure of how to report them. Keep your workplace safe and learn how to handle hazardous situations at work.
How-to Handle Hazardous Situations at Work: Workplace Safety
Identification
First, in order to handle hazardous situations at work, you must identify them. Some common workplace hazards include physical elements. For example, these could be loud noises or anything that can cause tripping, slipping or falling. These are the most common of all. Also, there are other possible dangers such as ergonomic, chemical and biological hazards. Repeating the same movements over and over, or manual handling and poor body positioning as possible ergonomic hazards. Chemical hazards can be caused by any substance that could harm workers. Medical facilities or labs, and could have biological hazards like bacteria and viruses.
These hazards can lead employees to have a wide range of symptoms. These include breathing problems, skin irritation, or damage to muscles, bones and joints. Also, they can be hearing damage or a reduced wellbeing. No one should be at risk for these issues simply by going to work.
Action
Once you have identified the hazardous situations at work, you should do something about them. Employers should evaluate the place of work for any of these dangers. If there are any, they should assess the risk. Then, they should do their best to make changes to make the workplace safer.
In the same way, employees should also be paying attention to these hazards as well. They can start by reporting these issues to their managers or to leaders in the company. In some cases, this will prompt the employer to make changes increase worker safety. They may have just not known about the issue. However, this is now always the case. Sometimes, employers will not make any changes after a safety concern is brought up. In these situations, there is still a course of action for workers. Workers can actually file an anonymous complaint to OSHA about workplace safety. They can do this via online form, email, mail, phone, or even visiting an OSHA office in person.
