Danger! Shed! Danger!

[Guest]

Five years ago it was windy in the car park at work. So windy the giant metal wheely bin that lives there rolled across it and into my car. 

Maybe their insurance would cover it? 'No there's a sign' they said. So I claimed on my insurance. 

Skip forward five years and my old insurance company gets around to trying to recover their costs from the negligent wheely bin operator. This resulted in a Zoom call to me from the facilities manager and he noted at the time that I work from my shed these days (I think there's a pandemic or something?) 

Some days later I get a call from my manager that the facilities manager has been on to HR saying that my shed is not a safe environment because it has dangerous chemicals and things in it. Which is odd because the only things visible in the Zoom call would be some chicken feed and two boxes of grass seed. 

My manager understandably doesn't give a toss about any of this. 

But no. HR & FM are still causing a fuss about it and insisting I do a fifty mile daily round trip to sit on my own in an empty office. (I do not do this BTW) 

 

What really gets my goat is that you can be mown down by a giant wheely bin in their car park and they couldn't care less. Yet they are disturbingly interested in my shed. 

 

I am annoyed. 

 

Also when you do Zoom calls for work my advice is you use a background. 

[simontaylor484]

An employer still has a duty of care even when you are working from home.

 

A "shed" can be many things to many people. It can be a rickety wooden building full of weedkillers and fertilizer to make a Jihadi weak at the knees to others the greatest place for invention in Britain the proverbial man in the shed.

It could also be one of these new fangled wooden cabins purpose made to be used as an office.

 

Try getting them to come and risk assess it surely its safer than working alone. Play them at their own game ask them if they have a lone worker policy whilst on their premises eg regular phone calls to check you are ok

[Guest]

An alternative would be to clear the spare room but that has significantly more crap in it than  the shed...

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

It could also be one of these new fangled wooden cabins purpose made to be used as an office.

 

My railway room is marketed as a "Garden Office" by the makers, hence the double skin walls and double glazed windows and a BS 5 lever lock on the door.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, 30801 said:

Also when you do Zoom calls for work my advice is you use a background.

But mate, imagine all the fun you can have requesting zoom calls with HR and the other mob, each time with a different background - Syria, a rampaging bushfire, under the sea, on the moon.....

Edited May 22, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Colin_McLeod]

44 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

on the moon....

 

.... with Neil Armstrong taking small steps. 

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

.... with Neil Armstrong taking small steps. 

On a Hollywood set!

 

[simontaylor484]

Or of a background of being in the house

[TT-Pete]

On 23/05/2021 at 01:08, Colin_McLeod said:

 

.... with Neil Armstrong taking small steps. 

 

No.

 

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

[TheSignalEngineer]

On 23/05/2021 at 00:23, monkeysarefun said:

But mate, imagine all the fun you can have requesting zoom calls with HR and the other mob, each time with a different background - Syria, a rampaging bushfire, under the sea, on the moon.....

My online calls are usually done in front of snow covered hills that overlook the Woodhead line. My son's background is a couple of deckchairs on a tropical beach. On a rare dry warm day recently my daughter was chairing an international conference call from a gazebo in her garden.

 

@30801I think my response would be to call HR &FM asking for a copy of their COVID19 working and lone worker policies and ask them to do a 50 mile round trip to risk assess your shed so you can make a proper comparison of the dangers involved. Don't forget to ask who holds the 'Go to Jail' card if insisting that you do the trip at their insistance and come to harm as a result. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

 

@30801I think my response would be to call HR &FM asking for a copy of their COVID19 working and lone worker policies and ask them to do a 50 mile round trip to risk assess your shed so you can make a proper comparison of the dangers involved. Don't forget to ask who holds the 'Go to Jail' card if insisting that you do the trip at their insistance and come to harm as a result. 

 

Have just now been informed someone will contact me about a H&S assessment.

I may have to tidy up...

[duncan]

HR will most probably do it remotely.

[APOLLO]

Could be worse !!

 

 

Brit15

[kevinlms]

On 23/05/2021 at 09:23, monkeysarefun said:

But mate, imagine all the fun you can have requesting zoom calls with HR and the other mob, each time with a different background - Syria, a rampaging bushfire, under the sea, on the moon.....

There's always this!