No senior staff in office

[WayOutOfMyDepth]

My employer has had some people in the office throughout the pandemic as we are classed as key workers and some aspects of the job can't be done remotely. We are mostly junior in terms of grading ie most people on the lowest grade and maybe one or two from one or two grades above. Very rarely someone more senior will come in but they mostly work from home.

There's been a couple of times when people have taken ill/injured themselves and whoever is around has to deal with it.

Some colleagues have fairly complex health needs eg epilepsy, cancer not in remission etc and we have had to manage this ourselves because there is no one from HR and no one health and safety trained on site.

Me and my colleagues only earn £18k and although there is usually someone in from the grade above us they aren't always available. I've had to speak to the 999 service and don't know what I'm talking about when I do. It just doesn't feel either coherent or safe.

How can I raise this? How are other businesses handling it?

To be clear I don't want to take health and safety training myself. I don't want the responsibility given that I don't earn very much. I want our managers to come up with a solution.

Do you not even have a trained first aider on site? You should ask what the company’s non-Covid risk assessment is (through your union rep if you have one).

I was just going to post that I don't think you necessarily need someone senior on site, but you probably should have a first aider. Someone senior isn't necessarily going to know any better than you what to do if someone is injured or ill, but a first aider should, regardless of what grade they are.

Are you asking if a group of normal adults can be left together unsupervised?

In terms of what other workplaces are doing, mine probably isn't a comparable example. I'm not sure if there is a trained first aider on site in my department, but I work in a hospital (I'm non-clinical) and we've all had basic life support training, we can call the crash team if needed, and depending on how serious the illness or injury was we could take a colleague to the Emergency Department. I'm sure we could also find a first aider in another department if needed.

What sort of work is it. Is health and safety mandatory training for everyone . Like pp says is there a first aiders on duty. What have you had to manage so far. Does your manager know how you feel, colleagues with health needs would have risk assessments but they could become unwell at any time whether the manager is there or not.

Left together mostly upsupervised for 16 months during a pandemic yes, and not all of us are 'normal' ie there are people with health conditions and disabilities, same as everywhere, but we don't all know every detail about it the way a manager or HR would.

There is a first aider in a second building down the road but he doesn't work every day and it's a bit tricky when eg someone is having a seizure or has fallen off a set of steps.

They are normal too, they just have health issues, has anyone asked them how they manage their conditions, someone with epilepsy could help share information about their condition. If someone falls down some steps and injured themselves then surely you just call 111 or 999. The manager would do the same. I dont think HR or an onsite manager would do anything differently. Maybe the colleagues at risk need to approach the manager themselves and say they dont feel it's a safe working environment for them but accidents could happen to any of you at any time. Having s first aid course is a good idea for anyone to have regardless of where they work.

Speak to the health and safety executive

www.hse.gov.uk/contact/concerns.htm

Eg we called the ambulance service this week for a colleague who had took ill and none of us even knew his exact age or what medication he was on or if he had a diagnosed condition, and they ask you that and lots of other questions too. We don't have access to that kind of information. It just feels like there's gaps and also it feels like we've been left on our own.

You should have access to a phone number for someone senior. Not sure why they need to actually be there though, you're all adults.

If you were out with a group of mates you could easily not have that information. I've phone an ambulance before and not known half the answers, they can cope.

@DogsSausages yes I know everyone is 'normal' I was using the slightly dismissive language that a pp adopted.

It can be scary but the ambulance crews and hospital staff are used to people not knowing anything about the patient, they do ask these questions but dont expect anyone to know. Calling an ambulance was the right thing to do, was he able to answer these questions himself . It sounds like it is making you feel very anxious, what sort of workplace is it.

@namechercanged if I was out with a group of mates I would expect any situation I found myself in to be less structured than a workplace. It's having to wing it at work that's the problem.

Yes, but the employer has legal responsibilities and there should at least be a risk assessment/plan for how these sorts of situations will be managed if there are no first aiders on site.

@DogsSausages no he couldn't answer the questions. He couldn't speak. I knew he'd had some kind of health issue but I don't know what exactly.

Should have said … no first aiders or managers.

Where the hell are you working with all these accidents that keep happening?!

@MeowPurrGrr

Where the hell are you working with all these accidents that keep happening?!

That is what I thought too lol

Surely the first person to notice phones an ambulance. Then call a manager. Perhaps you need this writing as procedure.

Not sure what else you expect. My work don't have access to my medical history. They'd have my DOB and name, that's it.

If there are people on site with complex medical needs and nobody trained to deal, then THAT definitely needs addressing as it's a serious H&S issue.

It may be as simple as basic level training on how to handle the situation while you await professional medical help. Or it may be not to call medical help unless - e.g. most epilepsy sufferers do not require medical intervention after an attack....

NB - if you end up taking on additional responsibilities such as first aid training, you are entitled to request a pay increase to compensate.

It's just an office. But people do take ill at work and have accidents at work. It's not that it keeps on happening. I mean it's not happening more frequently than previously. It's more that now when it does happen there isn't anyone around who knows what the fuck to do. And that's been the case for 16 months.

Why are there so many of you with health problems? It does sound like you need more first aiders, but quite honestly you could do that yourselves - a basic first aid course isn't expensive and you can take responsibility for yourselves.

However, it does sound like your employer needs more first aiders and you need to ask whether a recent first aid risk assessment has been carried out and do they need more people to train.

Contact the Health and Safety Executive their contact details are in the link I provided. There is laws around health and safety at work and the HSE will advise you if these are being breached.

Would a first aider know about everyone’s medical conditions and medications though? I think there should be a first aided at all times, but I doubt they’d be in a much better position than you. Having said that, if you don’t want t deal with it then I fired you shouldn’t have to.