In a global context our environment is pretty safe (see Philippines; in the top 12 countries most prone to natural disasters) but the trainer managed to make people feel like they'd face death as they went to the next room to get the sandwiches. In comparison to people who go to work every day in a city of potholed pavements, less than controlled traffic and the ever present threat of earthquakes and flooding the risk to our health of tripping over a cable kind of seems insignificant.
However the real contrast came in the attitude we're taught. In a hierarchical list of how to deal with a hazard training came around 6 or 7 (if I'd realised I was going to write this I'd have made more notes). This is despite it being clear that in order to carry out actions 1 to 5 or 6 someone would have to have been trained. But this was what the message seemed to be: other people are responsible for keeping you safe at work. What came across was that your employers responsibilities outweigh your own.
When schools in the slums of Manila are teaching primary age children to spot the warning signs of TB and the Red Cross are training people how to deal with serious flooding and earthquake this doesn't seem right.
Yes our employers might have a responsibility to make sure we don't come to harm at work but we do too and maybe the training should look more at how we can practically identify and prevent risk rather than looking at horror stories and reporting procedures.
If we're getting down to details such as bad backs and poor posture why not suggest that the employee use a bit of initiative and raise their monitor with a book? Or if their chair isn't right use a cushion. For some the solution might not be that simple but it often is.
Maybe we should look at teaching people common sense first? Or at least assume they'll be using it on a day to day basis.
