Can my employer expect me to keep working with a flashing monitor?

[MrsOfButt]

I WFH FT. All equipment is supplied by work. My monitor started randomly flashing on and off about 2 weeks ago. Made a report with IT, was still able to work. Heard nothing back. (Have already fiddled with and replugged on all wires).

It's been getting steadily worse, today is the worst it's been. Made another report with IT this morning, (crickets ever since), sent a message to my manager in case it goes off completely. (She's about as useful as a chocolate teapot at the best of times).

I've managed to work throughout the day, but I've got a massive migraine now with the on and off flashing between 8 and 5 all day. Honestly I'm hoping the bloody thing just won't turn on in the morning so they'll have to send me a new one.

Can they really force me to work with a flashing monitor for 9 hours a day? If we were in an office (the entire dept is remote) I feel like it would have been fixed straight away. Can I refuse to keep using it and push them to send me a new one?

This is an H&S issue. Of course you can't be expected to work under those conditions.

Is it a laptop or pc? Could it be the wire rather than screen?

It's a PC, it's possible it could be the wire and not the monitor. But I don't have a spare to plug in and check.

Just say it’s not working at all tomorrow…

Yes I think the monitor might just go off completely when you log in, in the morning.

Can't you buy one and they reimburse you

No you can't work with a flashing monitor.

Do you have a remote contract? I WFH but my contracted base is the office so if equipment fails, WiFi down ect we're expected to go to the office. But if you have no office or a home worker contract then you can't work until the equipment is fixed.

I wouldn't have worked, I'd have just sent an email to say that unfortunately my monitor is broken and I will be able to resume my work when IT has resolved the problem.

do you do a DSE assessment? This would be contravening that.

We would be expected to work in the office until this was fixed/replaced. We would also be expected to take the faulty equipment into the IT dept for repair.

If it’s triggered a migrane of course they can’t expect you to keep working with it - health and safety rules do exist

Is there an office you could go in to instead? If not then just say your monitor isn’t working and so you can’t do your work until they replace it.

No, I don't think it's reasonable to expect you to work like that at all, but it also isn't super clear as to whether you've told them how bad it is? It sounds like you mentioned it once a couple of weeks ago, before it became too bad, and then again today. You need to make it really clear that it's not safe to use in its current state.

At my work, I could buy another one and expense it. Are you able to do that to speed things up?

Under the Display Screen Equipment Regs 1992 Schedule, Para 2b:

The image on the screen should be stable, with no flickering or other forms of instability.

So yes, they have a duty to replace it.

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/2792

Thanks for the replies and @SabrinaThwaitethanks for that useful link.

To answer some questions, the nearest office is about 100 miles away, and I am on a WFH contract. We’re not able to buy equipment and then expense it, the company has to supply they’re own.

Send an email to your boss stating that you’ve flagged your monitor is broken with IT and now it’s got to the point it’s unusable.

State in the email you’re not able to pick up your emails so she’ll have to chase IT from now on and liaise with you regarding its replacement via text. Then put on your out of office.

You often find people who are useless don’t do anything until they have to.

But how would you get a monitor into work? You’d hardly carry it in the train and tube?

Report again in the morning - using your phone as the monitor no longer works. Then sit back, watch Netflix until your lovely new monitor arrives.

There are people that are not useless but the issue doesn’t trigger an active response until the issue is actually causing huge problems, this is where they then step in and find a solution.

A stitch in time doesn’t occur to them (too busy) but solving bigger problem does.

It can be massively frustrating but also good to know no problem is too big to be resolved.

She implies that the whole team is remote so there isn't an office space.

Moot point this morning anyway as the monitor wouldn't turn on at all. 😂They're sending me a new one.

I would still request some kind of occ health assessment for your migraines - get something in writing in case there is another issue

Your employer shouldn't expect or even allow you to work at home with hazardous equipment, such as a flashing screen.

Just dropping these links in, in case they are helpful.

https://www.acas.org.uk/health-safety-and-wellbeing-when-working-from-home

https://www.hse.gov.uk/home-working/index.htm

Part of a DSE assessment is the monitor and whether it is clear and free of flickering. Can to start a DSE assessment?