Many employees don’t fully understand work-related health and safety concerns. Whether they perform their duties at a business, their home or another remote location, or while traveling for their job, they have the right to enjoy the best possible health and safe environments.
If an employer fails in this area, the company might only have to deal with slight damage to its brand and finances, no matter how severe the offense. An employee might experience demotivation or depression, on-the-job relationship issues that ruin their reputation, serious or irreversible mental or physical health problems, a decrease in income, job loss or even death.
Basic Health and Safety Issues
Employees often fail to recognize that health and safety go beyond their use of caution while performing specific types of work, such as failing to follow safety procedures around dangerous equipment or wear required protective gear. Both employers and employees must proactively maintain health and safety.
Business owners and managers are required to provide safe work-related conditions, all necessary protective equipment, and in-depth related training. They must follow local, state and federal laws in these areas as well. That said, employees can only protect themselves by identifying hazards and problems and then doing everything possible to find solutions.
Hidden Dangers in a Workplace
Employee actions must do more than keep work zones organized and free of hazards, perform duties without taking unnecessary risks, and check regularly for common hazards like slippery floors. Many health and safety issues start with hidden sources of harm.
For example, office managers often place desks and workers near copiers and printers in poorly ventilated areas when printing processes release harmful chemicals. They sometimes set thermostats to unsafe levels or require employees to work in hot or cold environments that can cause an unsafe physical temperature rise or drop, respectively.
Employers are required to give workers regular rest breaks according to their local employment laws. Workers often forget to request unpaid breaks if they’re not feeling well and need to eat a snack or rest. Additionally, many employees forget that their bodies need hydration. Some ignore the importance of fitness-related physical activities during work and breaks, such as maintaining posture, stretching, and taking walks.
Of course, these aren’t the only hidden dangers. Many workers don’t immediately recognize coworkers, managers and others who actively attempt to cause emotional, physical or employment harm. They might even feel that they have no choice but to work with anyone who causes them to feel high levels of stress or lowered productivity via passive aggression or other toxic behaviors because of how society allows or promotes certain actions.
The Pros and Cons of Human Resources
Employees are often told during new-hire orientation that they can rely on human resources, or HR, to help them when they observe a workplace problem or experience a conflict. HR actively and publicly encourages health, safety and overall worker well-being. It sets and promotes rules, schedules training, and responds to complaints. HR staff are required to follow all local, state and federal laws.
An HR representative might experience a conflict of interest because they’re also required to do everything possible to protect their employer, who pays them, from lawsuits and damage to the company’s brand or reputation. Employees must use caution when dealing with HR.
One or more human resource officials might downplay the seriousness of an employee’s complaint or turn a blind eye to harassment and retaliation designed to make a worker quit when the company can’t legally fire them. In cases of coworker or manager toxicity, HR might also believe a charming or manipulative person, especially one who has performed a smear campaign, instead of the victim who lodged the complaint.
Occupational Safety Rights and Reporting
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration provides extensive information about this topic on its “OSHA Worker Rights and Protections” page. All U.S. states also have federal and state guidelines on their websites. An employee can find state guidance via a simple “OSHA” keyword search that includes their state’s name.
Through these agencies, employees can review health and safety guidance and find detailed information about how to file a complaint related to a health or safety violation. If they can’t find a resolution via these avenues, they also have the right to seek legal advice and support from an employment attorney and file a court claim against their employer and any other parties involved in creating or permitting unhealthy and unsafe work conditions.