To bring this up at the next zoom meeting?? (Work related)

[tuesdaystea]

Hi all

I'm a cleaner working for a medium sized company. They have properties all over the area that I live in and there is around 8 cleaners in total including myself. We have a new supervisor (who seems nice enough) but doesn't really know what she's doing IMO.
The problem that we're facing is that she has no concern for the staffs health and safety and keeps asking us to do ridiculous things that are frankly quite dangerous and not really in our job description. If we say no and explain we feel uncomfortable doing it for safety reasons she gets a bit arsey with us.

One example is today I've come into work and tried to get into the storage room which is around the back of the property. There is a shared yard and the property next door (commercial property) is having some work done. I have personally spoken to the builder before and asked him not to dump stuff in front of the door as we need to get in and out to get linen and cleaning stock from time to time which he said was fine (but has kept on doing it since 🙄). I found some double patio doors in front of the door this morning which are clearly too heavy for me to shift. I couldn't find the builder anywhere to ask him to move them so I had to phone my supervisor to let her know and her response was "can you not just move it yourself?" (This was after I'd sent her a picture of them and explained they were large heavy patio doors).

I said no and I've had to come from there and leave the clean until they can get hold of the builder to ask him to move them. We normally have a team meeting every couple of months to discuss how things are going, if we have any problems or think anything needs to be improved. WIBU to ask if health and safety can be taken more seriously?

Just to add - after I said no to her she came back and said "oh yes best not incase you move them and they fall and smash, we'd have to pay for them ". Personally I'm more concerned about my safety and if I fell and hurt myself, not if the bloody things smashed!! AIBU?

Can't you have a 1-1 Zoom with her first? Point out a couple of examples, how she would be on very shaky ground if someone got injured after following her advice.

Yeah you 100% need to bring it up. Accidents and death at work are common and your supervisor seems to have no concept of how important HSE is.
She will do if she has a serious accident or is blamed for someone else’s serious accident.

Your employer is liable for your safety, and no doubt they would rightfully be furious that she is encouraging dangerous working practices.

Whether you mention it to her first or bring it up directly with employers is down to you and how well you know them / supervisor but def continue to refuse and document unsafe requests in the meantime.

It might be an idea to speak to her first but I do worry she might take it as a personal attack if I speak to her personally rather than just bring it up in the team meeting (where everyone else can agree) - or is that worse?

I'll be honest, I have no idea why they hired her. She is so disorganised and clearly doesn't care about the staffs wellbeing or safety. As long as the job gets done and ticked off the list that's all she's worried about.

I think bringing it up at a team meeting is more of a personal attack. At least try to deal with it 1-1 first if you can. If she persists - who is responsible for H+S in the company? At some point you need to think about blowing the whistle.

@tuesdaystea

It might be an idea to speak to her first but I do worry she might take it as a personal attack if I speak to her personally rather than just bring it up in the team meeting (where everyone else can agree) - or is that worse?

I'll be honest, I have no idea why they hired her. She is so disorganised and clearly doesn't care about the staffs wellbeing or safety. As long as the job gets done and ticked off the list that's all she's worried about.

It will seem more of an attack if raised in a team meeting

I'm afraid you've answered your own question about why they hired her.

I would have a 1:1 and say "I was a bit worried that you asked me to do xyz, as they would have been an injury risk". Don't say anything about legal liability.

Other option is anonymous report but that will set off speculation about whodunnit!