Welcome

Welcome to this short programme on Office Hazards.

This programme is designed to help you identify the various hazards found in offices and give you some suggestions on how to deal with them in both practical and legal terms. It will also provide you with sources of useful information on all the topics covered.

If you were to work through the whole of this programme in one go, it would take you no more than 90 minutes. However, you might prefer to break this down into smaller 'sessions' of 20 minutes, which would allow you to work through one 'room' quite comfortably.

How to use this Programme

In this programme, we have taken a typical office and identified a number of different health and safety issues that are found in the workplace. We have placed these issues within five rooms - Reception, Manager's Office, Kitchen, General Office and Copying and Filing Room.

It's important to remember, however, that the issues are not exclusive to the room where they appear - for example, fire is a hazard everywhere, not just in the General Office. We hope that by putting them into this context, you will be able to identify where these issues apply in your own workplace.

Additional resource links have been provided in the 'Resources' section of each topic.

You may also wish to download a copy of the Risk Assessment Form as well as the Risk Assessment Form - Worked Example.

Rooms

→ Reception
→ Workstation
→ Driving
→ Personal Security
→ Smoking
→ Staff Welfare

→ Manager's Office
→ Alcohol and Drugs
→ Special Risks
→ Stress
→ Lighting

→ Kitchen
→ Asbestos
→ Electrical Safety
→ Gas Safety
→ Hazardous Substances

→ General Office
→ Eating and Physical Activity
→ Fire Safety
→ First Aid
→ Paperwork
→ Slips, Trips and Falls
→ Disability

→ Copying and Filing Room
→ Temperature
→ Manual Handling
→ Storage and Filing
→ Air Quality/Ventilation