Lone working

[Barch]

After reading the 'Whistleblower' thread it seems that at least one individual is working alone.

At my location, due to manning, we are down to 1 man shifts. This means I can't make atleast one meal a day which I am entitled to as there is noone to cover - Utter bullsh*t if you ask me!

** There is at least 1 other section who are in the same position.

Xchen, what do you do for food then? Depending on your rank/trade are you really auth'd to lone work? The more you look like you're coping the more that management will think this is acceptable.

Is this acceptable not just from the feeding point of view but also from the H & S side.

I doubt if anyone in any trade doesn't get into a situation where lethal voltages are involved, what happens if that person gets zapped two minutes into his/her shift and isn't discovered for eight hours?

I had a situation once where from the three of us in the office one decided to stay for 15 or 20 minutes to wrap up some coding. Myself and the apprentice walked in the following morning and our oppo was slumped over his desk. He had decided to stay even later and slept at his desk. At that point I realised that he could have had a heart attack or stroke or been electrocuted and nobody would have known for 15 or so hours.

Situations like the one Xchen is in should not be allowed to happen !!

 

[Rigga]

Lone working happens quite a lot in the outside world (I have been working alone in the middle of Schiphol!) and most companies have systems or at least policies to cope with those situations, such as regular calls or visits from security staff.
In the end though, its up to the individual to book their time when they know they're going to be working alone at the beginning of their shift/period. Many people don't bother.

 

[El_Boomo]

We do lone working whilst duty tech and are authed to self supervise a number of tasks.

Ours is managed by regularly checking in with the MPGS and the reporting ATC whilst on site.

Obviously it's not the same as lone working for an entire shift, but at times we've done that too.

 

[Downsizer]

There's a jsp for lone working. As long as the requirements are being met, I see no problem.

 

[morse1001]

When I was in I used to work by myself on many occasions, it had the advantage that you made the decisions butneded to be ready but be ready if you were wrong.

as for food, we either got cold rations or up Bldg 118 at Pitreavie, we had a Baby Belling cooker, so got cookable stuff.

 

[Omerta]

I had a situation once where from the three of us in the office one decided to stay for 15 or 20 minutes to wrap up some coding. Myself and the apprentice walked in the following morning and our oppo was slumped over his desk. He had decided to stay even later and slept at his desk. At that point I realised that he could have had a heart attack or stroke or been electrocuted and nobody would have known for 15 or so hours.

I always go sleepy after having a stroke as well

 

[Warwick Hunt]

Legally, there's nothing in place to prevent lone working. The employer (e.g. the OC) however, if he is aware that there are lone workers or a likelihood of people working alone, needs to provide a risk assessment. As per the HASAWA 1974.

 

[spanners]

A few years ago I worked in a Still and that involved 12hr shifts as a lone worker. We were all given phones to wear that if they were positioned horizontal for more than 20 seconds alerted a call centre, they then tried to phone you, if no response, the emergency services were called.
Not a fool proof system as they were often dropped or if you were doing certain tasks it could trigger the alarm, but at least it was someting.

 

[Gord]

When I was in the airline business we were often called to go out to the ramp to work in temperatures that were well below freezing, and I do mean well below, winter in Canada can be somewhat frigid and working out in the open with the wind blowing across an open filed can make it feel even worse. We were sometimes asked to go out and do a job that in truth was only a one man job but I refused to go or allow anyone else on our crew to go out alone. The airport is a huge place with aircraft parked all over the lace and no guarantees that there would be anyone else anywhere near where you might be working. If someone was to fall off a ladder or slip on a patch of ice, they could lay there for hours, perhaps all shift before anyone came looking for them and in the winter especially, that could lead to people dying as a result of an injury or the cold or a combination of both. Of course the same would apply in the case of a heart attack or stroke regardless of weather. I don't know what the other crews did although I would hope they followed our lead, even though we sometimes took some flak from management. It's simply a case of common sense and safety that no-one should be asked to work alone in a secluded environment or one in which it is doubtful if anyone would be there for them in the case of an emergency.

 

[Joe_90]

We had a guy working away from the Section alone and I wasn't happy about it. When I mentioned to my management there should be a safety man present they told me a risk assessment had been written and that the lone worker would be contacted by telephone every fifteen minutes. If there was no answer a runner could check on them within five minutes. I told them that was great and asked how many times they'd phoned that day (this was at lunch). Sheepish looks all round, none of them had bothered at all. Rank continued to trump common sense for the rest of my tour and as far as I know they continue to ignore their own risk assessment to this day.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

 

[mickj3]

The MOD guidance regarding Lone working is published in JSP 375, Vol 2, Leaflet 16 (Revised 2014).

 

[Barch]

>> Linky Thingy <<

 

[Barch]

3.1.7
The responsibility for ensuring safe systems of work are implemented for lone working lies with the person who manages the work; this responsibility cannot be delegated to the lone worker although they will ultimately be implementing it. Therefore the manager shall periodically visit the lone worker (frequency of visits will be dependent on the risk) to observe working practices and confirm that control measures are effective and being complied with and keep a record of such visits.

Does this happen in your workplace?

 

[Spearmint]

Tools are downed at 0100hrs @ our place at which point we have usually achieved the next days flyers plus at least 1 spare. Any work going on past 0200 (This does not include the Swing Shift who appear at this point) requires the Jengo to do a full risk assessment and record it for audit purposes.

 

[timaloy]

Not in the mob anymore but ised to work line working in an armoury. If anything happened in there noone was getting in to me as there was only one set of keys.

Now im out i work alone. Often at hieght strpped to a pole, we have a duty of care thi g on the work phone but all you ever get is ****ty emaiks saying youve not signed off yet and your manager will be informed. We can enhance tje duty of care if doi g a dodgy job or are in a dodgy area but i dont know how it works. Dont think anyone does. If i hurt myself at 10 past 8, people wont look for me till about 5 at night.

 

[Highflyer]

Does this happen in your workplace?

Nope! The only problem with lone working is the ****ing boredom and lack of human interaction, me and my water bottle have been extensively talking about this subject recently.

 

[morse1001]

When in the Mob, I had to shifts on my own. No special precautions when doing it. Rations were either sandwiches or as at Bldg118 Pitreavie, it was equipped with Baby Bellingham, so we could hear things up.

 

[Wapinschaw]

Lone working

I have just found this rather old thread, but it takes me back many years to the days of Orderly Corporal and "Security Patrols". These were the routines in which a single bod would set off at intervals of a few hours with the keys to the principal buildings on the base, open up, and go around checking filing cabinets etc were locked and signing a sheet like those in the customer toilets in supermarkets, to confirm you had been in at the appointed hour.

It was easy to sign off the entire duty on the first round but enough people were caught out to encourage compliance.

It always struck me as a stupid system, one unarmed individual with all those keys in the dead of night, no radios or mobiles in those days. You could be gone for hours before anyone wondered where you were, and then where do you start to look?

Please tell me that this has been done away with in favour of something more sensible such as alarms and CCTV!

 

[Joe_90]

I have just found this rather old thread, but it takes me back many years to the days of Orderly Corporal and "Security Patrols". These were the routines in which a single bod would set off at intervals of a few hours with the keys to the principal buildings on the base, open up, and go around checking filing cabinets etc were locked and signing a sheet like those in the customer toilets in supermarkets, to confirm you had been in at the appointed hour.

It was easy to sign off the entire duty on the first round but enough people were caught out to encourage compliance.

It always struck me as a stupid system, one unarmed individual with all those keys in the dead of night, no radios or mobiles in those days. You could be gone for hours before anyone wondered where you were, and then where do you start to look?

Please tell me that this has been done away with in favour of something more sensible such as alarms and CCTV!

Sorry for the necropost but I remember doing this at Coltishall in 2005/2006 as orderly Cpl. I suspect MuttyWhiteDog was the guard commander at the time but I can't prove it.

 

[muttywhitedog]

I did a few stints as Guard Commander at Colt around that time, but there wasn't an Orderly Cpl. The Cpl did all the arming/disarming of the guards and the Guard Cdr did the MGR stuff at night when the MOD Guards had knocked off for the evening.

I'm pretty sure the Police signed out a load of keys to do the Sy checks.