Basic Office Safety Tips
Slips and falls are the most frequent cause of injuries in the workplace, and people working in an office are twice as likely to be injured by falling as people who are working in other types of workplaces. Keeping alert and thinking ahead can help minimize the risk.
Some Rationals
Use basic common sense in your daily behaviour around the office. That means:
- Sit upright in your chair, with your feet touching the floor when you’re working at your desk. Before sitting down, check to make sure your chair is beneath you and hasn’t rolled away.
- Look where you’re going whenever you’re walking around the office.
- If you have to carry anything from one place to another, don’t stack things up so high that you can’t see directly in front of you.
- Walk, don’t run.
- Go slowly if the floor is wet or otherwise slippery.
- Don’t read while walking.
- Always hold the handrail when using stairs.
- Only open one drawer in a filing cabinet at a time to keep it from tipping over.
- Close desk or file cabinet drawers before walking away so others don’t walk into them.
- Immediately wipe up spilled beverages, water tracked in by wet shoes or drippings from umbrellas. Ask a custodian to do the cleaning if you don’t have time to do it yourself.
- Obey your building’s (no) smoking rules, and don’t throw matches, ashes or cigarette butts into regular trash.
- Refrain from eating or drinking at a computer station. Spills and crumbs could get into the keyboard and cause malfunctions.
- Don’t touch electrical outlets, plugs or switches with wet hands.
