Hi guys just a quick question re Health and Safety, we've been told at work that we can't get a big jar of coffee because of germs in case someone puts a dirty spoon back in. We have to get individual sachets which cost loads… is this actually due to regulations (and if so can someone point me to a link? Google brings up a load of rubbish) or is it just the office manager trying to make herself important?

BS

Disposable spoons?

There's nothing in statute that will specifically say NO! to large coffee jars. It'll be your company's safety manager or H&S policy that specifies this.

It may be a perfectly reasonable thing to do if your job carries special risks associated with the transmission of infectious agents?

we have seperate sugar sachets.

its ridiculous.
also, i keep turning the lights off in doorway to the toilets,
its one of those stupid privecy rooms, a room about the size of a cupboard, with mottled glass in both doors, so lots of light coming from the hall, and from the toilets itself, and some burk has been selotaping the light on in there, cause i turn it off i pressume
its not needed!
its a total waste.

i reckon its the Council staff.

Devon CC: nazis when it comes to domestic recycling, but no recycling facilities in any of thier offices.
not even for paper!

Its contained within the health and safety at work (use of kitchen facilities) regulations 1997 section 2:

All middle managers will be required to fill up with their own piss and importance at least once a week. Measures can include, but not be limited to, making up stupid rules that have no basis in law or reality

hope that helps

trust me I'm an expert

with a name like that I'd expect you to be…

I always get the feeling that all these bs rules are made up by people who are trying to justify their job.

Ask to see the risk assessment that identified coffee jars as the primary cause of transfering of germs in your workplace. What about all the other potential ways of picking up germs in the work place?! To show you're being helpful and pro-active, as mitigation against the germ risk, suggest lots of muddy mountain biking to improve your immune system!

Do the AC units have to be turned off and all door knobs wiped after use? 🙄

i'm sure its OK as the manager in question would have done exstensive research into the percentage decrease in sick days by having individual coffee sachets.

Either that or hes a director of the local cash and carry.

I hate to be the first to say this

but you didn't want to drink that nasty instant coffee anyway did you?

Oh crap…..i'm halfway through doing my NEBOSH general certificate and i've not even read anything about coffee jars, just papercuts from teabags!! only 20 days til my exam and thats a whole new section i need to revise!!!! 😯

Do the AC units have to be turned off and all door knobs wiped after use?

We actually have people spraying down all of our door handles with disinfectant spray at the moment, since the swine flu hysteria started. We also have signs warning us not to leave toasters unattended, ever since someone did and it set off a smoke alarm. The admin department actually confiscated the toasters for a week after that…

We have big tubs of coffee and tea though. People using wet spoons is annoying rather than dangerous, I would have thought?

the vast majority of these silly H&S rules or 'elfen safety' as it has been referred to are as a result of extremely over enthusiastic interpretation of guidelines and statute often paired with job justification

but Illy comes in tins, not jars..?
or are you drinking inferior 'coffee'? I'd be far more concerned about that.

This year, my employer came up with an initiative to donate a load of christmas trees to local hospitals/hospices and such like, and volunteers were sought to deliver the trees.

Loads of people came forward, but they were told they would have to go on a 'Manual Handling' course before they would be allowed to do it.

Most volunteers then didn't bother.

I mean for FFS. Of course health and saftey is important but we really have taken things too far.

Don't mention the boiling water you add to the coffee the health & safety gnome might have a fit about that 😀

Our tea towels have been removed from the kitchen becuase they are such a dangerous disease vector. We still have a manky pox ridden dishcloth mind, apparently they're OK.

Ask her to install an antibacterial handgel in the coffee making location? You'll have to go on a course to learn how to use it tho'.

We clean all the door handles in our office with alcohol gel…

Nothing to do with swine flu… some people have been seen exiting the toilet without first washing their hands…

This really demonstrates why people think EHS is crap – it's not EHS but the pathetic way that people try to use it to show how important they are….

Just the response I was expecting

grievoustim and AndyP – I'm a tea man

I pay the bills so get pissed off, we've all just had a pay cut yet this self important woman keeps finding things to spend money on!

I'd be demanding personal oxygen tanks and breathing aparatus. Don't want to be breathing any of that nasty communal air when your colleagues might be coughing into it…

H&S really is to be taken seriously, more people are killed in (or because of) the work place than on the battlefield. There are currently around 2 million people in the UK who are sick or injured because of their work, and aside from the 200 and odd who will die in the workplace and the 1500 who die on the roads each year as part of their work, 50,000 will die as a consequence of those work related illnesses.

But! Not one will have been as the result of a contaminated coffee spoon incident. And thats wholly due to the vigilance of your boss and people like them. Thank the lord.

Unless your kettle has been doctored to prevent the water getting above 70 odd degrees then the coffee granules and spoon will be pasturised by the heat. Historically it was the whole point of making hot drinks – making the water safe to drink.

The alternative, if you're boss prefers, is fermentation. Beer. No kettle, no spoons, no worries. Clyde ship workers used to get through 20 pints a day. And if theres one thing the working class glaswegian male population is renowned for its their longevity and good health.

Most of the current H & S regulations are a jucking foke!!

I love that advert where the bloke sneezes and within 10 seconds, all his family is infected by The Dreaded Lurgy!

Makes you all wonder how we survived the fifties and sixties.

Most of the current H&S regulations are spot on, as the they refer to suitable and sufficent assessment of risk and control measures employed being proportional to the risk.

As the HSE state
"We believe that risk management should be about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering – not bureaucratic back covering. If you believe some of the stories you hear, health and safety is all about stopping any activity that might possibly lead to harm. This is not our vision of sensible health and safety – we want to save lives, not stop them. Our approach is to seek a balance between the unachievable aim of absolute safety and the kind of poor management of risk that damages lives and the economy."

yes I am an occupational health and safety bod and it gets right up my arse when tossers trot out a elf and safety excuse, when what they really mean is:

a: we're scared of ambulance chasing **** lawyers
b: We can't be arsed to organise it
c: If we do it Our insurance premiums may increase
d: we really have no idea about health and safety, we can't be bothered to look at the HSE website which is full of useful free information about health and safety regualtions and what are proptionate steps to be taken to mitigate risk to an acceptable level without being an **** pain in the ballbag.

grrrrr 😈

Elf & Safety Myths from the HSE http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

Mrs Toast any fule kno that heat sensors should be in kitchens not smoke alarms. Someone is not competent to spec an alarm system!!

just a quick question re Health and Safety, we've been told at work that we can't get a big jar of coffee because of germs in case someone puts a dirty spoon back in. We have to get individual sachets which cost loads

Thats amazing – you have no idea how much your boss has cheered me up 😆

AT – Member
Elf & Safety Myths from the HSE http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm

Wow – every single one of those has been a daily record headline!

I'd love to know how sticking a spoon into a coffe jar can transfer germs. People won't be sticking the damn spoon in their mouth, and boiling water kills germs anyway, or doesn't your ignorant H&S Nazi realise this.

Its completely true I'm afraid, new EU regulations,
linky

Further details here

This has got to be a troll?? Surely no person would actually make this rule up, go into work and tell them a person on the internet thinks they are stupid. Really tigers, rhinos and certain species of shrew face extinction yet this oxygen thief lives. 😆

i'd like to see what germs can live on instant coffee, it's an excellent desiccant, they'd be dried out in minutes*

* maybe slightly longer

deus- bacillus atrophaeus would do quite well, it exists in deserts so hot n dry are good and it's quite thermo tolerant so the coffee could self stir for a bit too 😀

I would go back to her and ask to see the risk assessment for this stupid idea.

I bet she is one of those paranoid about germs types and has done this with no evidence, risk assessment or data.

Challenge her – and let us know what the outcome is please.

Or just get a big jar of coffee and ignore her

How about getting two of those sugar dispensers with the tube. You up-end the jar, and get a measured amount of sugar into your mug. One for the sugar, one for the coffee 🙂 Then just get a pair of tweezers for picking teabags out of the box without using grubby fingers 🙂

Oh, and print out this thread and stick it on the wall 🙂

one of these;

Mrs Toast any fule kno that heat sensors should be in kitchens not smoke alarms. Someone is not competent to spec an alarm system!!

To be fair, the smoke alarms are just outside of the kitchen rather than in them! 😛 It probably wouldn't have been an issue if the kitchen door had been closed. Which I think it's supposed to be, as it's a fire door – it has signs saying, "Do not keep open"…

We've also got signs above the taps, saying, "CAUTION! HOT WATER!". The water boiler goes one better, with, "CAUTION! BOILING WATER! PLEASE HOLD YOUR CUP CLOSE TO THE NOZZLE!"

We have so many signs that people occasionally add joke ones to see if anyone notices. We ended up with the lyrics to "Never going to give you up" on the aforementioned water boiler…