Health and Safety at a Home Act

People keep talking about the new normal’, as if the coronavirus has changed work forever. Companies, thrilled at being able to spend less on their offices are sending out hopeful emails asking their employees to list the benefits of working from home. A few people will love the idea, however a lot of people work for the companionship. 

There are other considerations too. People who love working from home now might not be so happy when their quarterly energy bills come in, or when internet providers realise just how much people need their good broadband speeds and hike the prices up. It might not be as much fun when the sun stops shining.

There are many other hidden problems, that the Health and Safety at Work Act was designed to protect. If you are working at home is your employer still responsible for making sure you are safe at work? Will they send round someone to PAT test your plugs? Will they make you have a fire extinguisher? What about checking that your computer is at the right height? And if it’s not and you get a dowager’s hump can you sue them for not protecting you? 

My daughter is currently working from our home and as she is the clumsiest person on the planet and too short for any chair or table we own, I do worry about our responsibilities. We have already had to buy blinds so that the temporary fix of a bed sheet over the top of the sheer curtains didn’t make it look like she had been taken hostage and have invented a cushion and stool system to save later osteopath bills. However, after an incident with the oven and a near miss with a knife, while she was making her lunch, I’m thinking of having some signs printed. I wonder if I could bill her company for them?

I know I’m old, with a holey brain but the long term effects of these Zoom (other platforms are available) calls are having on our brains worries me. It takes so much more processing power to interact in this way. Yesterday, I had been on 9 of these calls and by the evening I couldn’t properly form a sentence. 

“Chritty Whitty 39 rubbish beach steps.”

They laughed at me.

“You are not making any sense at all.”

“Difficult places sun.”

“Yes mum. I think you need to go to bed.”

The trouble is sleep doesn’t work when your brain is misfiring. 

Today could be interesting, especially as there is a lightening storm.