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So,
I have genuinely got to put together a risk assesment together for the use of a radio at work. I think someone objects and is trying to put barriers in the way of us having any enjoyment in life.
It'll only take me a few minutes to knock one up but I was wondering if the collective could offer any "risks" that I should include.
Currently the best I can come up with is damage to hearing and the radio volume being limited as it only goes up to 10 not 11.
There is always a danger that you could accidentally listen to Chris Moyles.
You'd better include that risk.
The radio could fall off the shelf and potentially injure somebody.
Someone could poke their eye out with the aerial.
Fist fights caused over what station to listen to?
Damage to face of anyone who isnt me changing the channel - or if its royal mail - danger of a strike if its not changed from station a to station b at the alloted time.
Need a RA for surfing on here?
Risk of been sued for broadcasting in a commercial environment?
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/at_work.html
Sorry to be serious 🙂
Is it PAT tested, does it stop people from hearing equipment noises, eg early signs of bearing wear, quiet instrument beeps etc. Is the environment already noisy, it will add to the noise level. Does the company have a PRS licence?
It'll need PAT testing but that will be flagged up by your risk assessment.
Edit too slow. Masking of other sounds is a good point. Generally H&S is a good thing. It's only poor implementation that makes it a joke occasionally.
You could be driven insane by poor reception.
Possible distraction - leading to some accident because distracted ?
Near a water source - electrocution ?
I briefly worked in a Royal Mail sorting office where there was a set rota of channels at set times so everyone got to suffer equally.
One day it got switched to the wrong station at the wrong time and the union were on the point of an unofficial walkout before someone realised that you could just retune it to the correct station and avert a pre Christmas catastrophe.
Dangerous things radios!
Just seen trail rats post, must be a common RM problem!
You could have PRS call you every day for the next 13 years demanding £400 to play shitty radio full of bad music and worse adverts, until you go mad, not to mention the pain in the ass of having to turn the radio down every time someone calls in case it's them.
You could of course pay them, but that would be no fun...
The risk of someone who doesn't like music at work committing mass murder.
I once lobbed a hammer across the workshop and it just went straight through the radio. Was constantly being turned up to the point that it distorted and you couldnt hear a impact gun over it. The amount of pieces it broke into was amazing some of them very sharp is include that in your assessment.
The licence part may this idea...
Don't discount the workplace stress caused to people subjected to unwanted listening. You can look away from an unpleasant sight but you can't hear away from an uncouth noise.
Yes I'm serious. I know; for I was that soldier...
I once lobbed a hammer across the workshop
😯
Include parkesies as one of the risks!
Can certainly be the cause of mess room arguments 😆
I like the radio on, some like it off, some want this station or that station, some just walk in and switch it off 🙄
You could tune into Sounds of the 60s while operating heavy machinery and be rendered catatonic
Crush injuries from the stampede to go and buy the latest orthaopedic wonders being advertised on said radio?
Overly long flex causing throttling hazard to person putting radio in offfice?
you can't hear away from an uncouth noise
TRUE that I once worked somewhere where they insisted on 80's station. Mysteriously every radio we had kept breaking.
NO hammers were involved but it was torture.
1) If the radio has the capability to tune into Steve Wright, then it could easily cause people to repeatedly smash themselves in the face with a baseball bat/sock full of snooker balls.
2) The arial/arial? (How the F... do you spell arial?) could have someone's eye out/get stuck up someones O-Ring.
3) Listening to commercial radio* could cause persons of a sensitive disposition to voluntarily let all the blood out of their body into a waste-paper bin.
*Query: why do people do this to themselves? Usually tradesman/shops/garages etc... loud, brash adverts or darkly menacing threats about not paying "road tax" "TV Tax" etc etc
You got a licence for that there wireless?
http://www.prsformusic.com/users/businessesandliveevents/Pages/DoIneedalicence.aspx
PA Testing...not PAT Testing
FFS
It may be a tautology but PAT Testing is what it is called by pretty much everybody who works in the field. Its more of a slang term, "ere Dave, PAT test that radio", and everyone understands it which from an H&S point of view is good. FFSPA Testing...not PAT Testing
Furious disco dancing could lead to RSIs?
PA Testing...not PAT Testing
I, personally, hate tautolgy
Grow some balls tell them there is zero requirement for a Risk Assessment and if in doubt point them at the HSE [url= http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/judith-risk-assessment/a-sting-in-the-tale220814.htm ]BLOG[/url]
Listening to Tony Blackburn could be dangerous for cheese-allergy sufferers
PRS for Music is entitled to charge businesses for having Absolute Radio on at work. When music is played or performed in public, they act as the agent who collects the performing royalties for the people who wrote the music. So you can continue to enjoy music in the workplace, we?ve put together a list of tips to help you:
How do the PRS continue to get away with what is, in effect, a tax on listening to music which has already had the royalties paid to the performer by the station broadcasting it.
You're not playing music or performing it, you're listening to a radio broadcast that includes music.
And I always thought that work places to which the general public were excluded weren't covered by PRS anyway.
[quote=edlong said]
I, personally, hate tautolgy
Applauds the smartarse
[i]any "risks" that I should include.[/i]
Nerd alert.
The risk is the chance of harm being done.
Hazard is anything that can cause harm (e.g. work materials, equipment, work methods and practices)
😀
"Dear person,
there is a risk that if you don't allow me to have a radio in the office I might dip a hedgehog in vinegar and shove it up your arse, you fatuous waste of oxygen.
Love and Kisses,
Jonba"
That should do it, along with some nice, bold posters placed around the office with the slogan "Think, Anus" and a picture of a hedgehog and a bottle of Sarson's on them.
Im laughing so much I cried at cranberries post
Sat here with an injured (sore) neck that now hurts even more thanks to cranberry!
How do the PRS continue to get away with what is, in effect, a tax on listening to music which has already had the royalties paid to the performer by the station broadcasting it.
Having just scan-read their site, I can safely say they can go **** themselves for precisely this reason. That site reads like a dodgy protection racket
Threat of causing a public riot due to reporting of news stories inciting conflicting opinions within the work place
Is the radio likely to cause harm?
No.
End of risk assessment. Stop this now or next you'll be doing them for paper clips etc.
My mum once bent over and poked her eye out on a radio aerial.
Having just moved from a god awful 1970's factory into a pristine modern new facility where radios are banned I have to say...it's heaven.
Was truly awful before, like a 1970's car factory. Bloody rubbish booming out all day. Walking visitors round was embarrasing.
Imagine my horror when they got hold of a radio & held a trial in the manufacturing area right outside my office... 👿
Sorry, if your shifting widgets all day maybe, but the annoying deep base boom would drive me to distraction in our design office.
And most of the visitors I've shown round have commented on how much better it is compared to our old facility, noting the lack of radios as one of the main reasons.
PAT testing isn't a legal requirement in any workplace on any device; and if you're working alone and no clients can hear the radio when they visit then you won't need a PRS licence either...
Just read Cranberry's post: sir, I salute you! 😆
My last job had no radios, wasn't too bad.
It does piss me off when it gets turned up too loud, it can be a constant battle of the volume knob. Never mind the station battles...
It always gets turned off for visitors though.
I once with the help of a friendly IT guy managed to wire in a radio into an ACD, dial a short code number and you could listen to the radio. Boss used to wonder why so many people wore their headsets for their entire shift.
I, personally, hate tautolgy
I hate tautology in a professional capacity but it have no personal objections to it. Inaccuracy and misspelling really get my goose, thouhg.
any "risks" that I should include.Nerd alert.
The risk is the chance of harm being done.
Pedantic knob alert.
Sorry but it isn't. The risk is the product of the hazard and the likelihood of the event taking place.
Risk = Likelihood x Hazard