Monday, June 16, 2008
Week 3, Blog #2
Chapter 6 includes a discussion of organizing healthy organizations. When I think of health and safety in an organization, I immediately picture the maintenance worker in the field working on heavy machinery with the appropriate personal protective equipment (e.g., hard hat, steel-toe boots). While this concept is important, from an organizational communication perspective, the science of ergonomics is likely more critical. Although it sounds almost silly (it did to me at first), office workers can easily become injured on the job due to a number of seemingly harmless, everyday activities. Actions such as improper posture in one’s chair, inappropriate use of the telephone (e.g., bending one’s neck to hold the phone between one’s shoulder and ear to have two free hands to type or write), incorrect positioning of one’s arms while using a computer keyboard (e.g., can lead to repetitive stress injuries), or even looking at the computer monitor for prolonged periods of time have cost organizations millions of dollars in worker compensation claims and/or lost person-hours each year. Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of this trend, with some requiring that all employees enroll in ergonomics training to minimize the potentially deleterious effects mentioned previously. This is especially important given the increased amount of communication that occurs on-line (like this class!).
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4 comments:
Roy, the same picture comes to mind when I think of health and safety in an organization. I find it weird that some people find it hard to practice "safety" in the workplace and think that absolutely nothing can happen to them. I remember that my dad used to work in a machinery enviornment and he would be the only one using proper equipment when dealing with the chemicals. Everyone took safety classes in order to ensure that all employees were doing what they were supposed to do in order to be safe. However, some of them didn't listen and 3/4 of them ended up without their index fingers because they didn't wear the proper gloves and thought that nothing bad would ever happen to them.
Communication is being given to us and its up to us to listen.
I like your points on the current trend of organizations to think in terms of “healthy” employees. Traditional employee safety is an obvious concern that organizations must be mindful of. (Just watch Discovery Channel’s “Most Dangerous Catch!”)
It is also a motivating factor for organizations to contribute to preventative health when it affects their bottom line. Taken to the extreme though, this has its downsides when an organization starts mandating what employees can and cannot do on their own time thus invading their privacy. Years ago, I worked for a company that had a policy which barred employees from smoking. (I am not sure how they managed to do this legally!) Essentially, they informed applicants that theirs was a smoke-free environment, and that they only hired non-smokers. If an employee developed a smoking habit, he or she was “encouraged” to take advantage of the company’s treatment options to quit. I don’t believe that they could legally terminate someone for smoking though. The obvious motivation of saving money on employee insurance was apparent to all, but they packaged it as an effort to encourage “healthy employees”. You can imagine the upheaval when the company’s founder was seen puffing on a cigar one day after work.
I 100% agree that organizations are becoming more aware of health and safety within working environments. When I worked at Jamba Juice several years ago, we had to wear 'non-slip' shoes and had the option of using earplugs. Now, at the Marriott we are told to use proper safety practices while lifting boxes so no one has a back injury or anything of that nature. It's definitely true that workers compensation can potentially cause a company millions of dollars. It is also important for organizations to address their employees with safety practices so that they receive proper training and are aware of the options given to them. This way, lawsuits and other unfortunate matters can be avoided.
I agree that office enviornments can have injuries as well. You made a great point about holding the phone with your shoulder in order to have two hands to type. I did that all the time at work because I worked in HR. In HR people are always calling anf in order to help that person most of the time I had to look information up on the internet. Everyone in my office wanted a headset and it iis much easier to multi task with one but our corporate level would not allow us to get a headsetpurchased by the company unless we had a Dr.'s note saying that the hand held device was causing harm. This didn't make sense to me. You would think they would purchase the headsets in order to avoid the injuries.
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