As an office worker, you have an obligation to take reasonable care of yourself and to ensure your actions do not put others at risk of a health and safety injury.
The Office Safety tool can help you identify hazards and risks associated with the work you do so you can take positive action to keep yourself and others safe in the office.
Potential harm
- Anxiety
- Body stressing
- Musculoskeletal disorders
- Stress
Top risks
- Musculoskeletal disorder.
- Mental stress.
- Illness and disease.
- Slips, trips and falls.
What you can do for yourself
As an office worker, there are actions you can take.
- Take steps to ensure you understand how to use the furniture, equipment or tools you are provided with to do your job.
- Adjust your workstation and equipment to fit you. While workers come in all shapes and sizes, furniture is generally designed to suit 80% of people. Chances are something about your workstation won’t quite fit you and may put you at risk of an injury if not modified.
- Take reasonable care for your own health and safety.
- Speak up and report hazards, incidents and unsafe behaviours.
- Don’t take shortcuts.
- Don’t accept an unsafe situation as normal.
Communication and consultation is vital to building a strong health and safety culture in the workplace. Ways you can contribute include to:
- contribute at meetings
- seek information from your intranet
- establish an open and constructive approach to talking to colleagues and managers
- give feedback on policy and procedures when asked.
What you can do for your team
- Take reasonable care to ensure that your behaviour and actions do not adversely affect the health and safety of others.
What employers can do for office workers
- Have systems, policies and procedures in place to manage work health and safety.
- Provide training.
- Model the behaviours you expect your workforce to follow.
- Promptly act on work health and safety issues raised with you.
More information
For more information, see:
- Employees and other workers for complete information on the role and duties of workers, and practical strategies.
- Ergonomic hazards for information on physical factors in the environment that may cause musculoskeletal injuries, such as sedentary work and slips, trips and falls, and how to eliminate these hazards.
Page last reviewed: 20 May 2021