Questionnaire: Can You Prevent a Workplace Accident?

Are you the sort of person who can prevent a workplace accident?

The question is not as straightforward as it may seem. Most will answer ‘Yes, of course I can’. The reality, however, is that some people aren’t aware of how an accident can occur.

Use this questionnaire to test your ability to prevent a workplace accident. Answer yes or no to each of the following questions:

1. Hanging Christmas Decorations

Like everyone else, you want to brighten the office with some colourful decorations. The boxes containing the decorations are on top of a cupboard, however, and just out of your reach.

Do you:

(a) Stand on your chair to reach the boxes? Yes No
(b) Ask someone taller to reach up for them? Yes No
(c) Pull a desk over to the cupboard and stand on it?Yes No
(d) Check if facilities management has a stepladder and use this to reach the boxes, with someone holding the stepladder in place?Yes No

Award yourself one point for each of the following correct answers:

(a) No
(b) Yes
(c) No
(d) Yes

2. The Office Kettle

During the working day, you like regular hot drinks, but you don’t like the drinks available at the canteen or from the cafés outside the office.

Do you:

(a) Bring in your own kettle and plug it in the socket at the side of your desk?Yes No
(b) Use the communal kettle in the office rest area on the same floor as you work? Yes No
(c) Use the kettle that’s two floors up because it boils faster?Yes No

Award yourself one point for each of the following correct answers:

(a) No
(b) Yes
(c) No

3. Filing Cabinets

Your friend Jeremy has a habit of leaving office cabinet drawers open, and abandoning files and papers on the floor. He always clears up the files and shuts the cabinets eventually, but sometimes not for an hour or so.
Do you:

(a) Say to Jeremy “I wish you were tidier’, and do nothing when he ignores you?Yes No
(b) Tidy up after Jeremy and advise him to be tidier?Yes No
(c) Report Jeremy to a manager if he repeatedly ignores your advice about tidying up?Yes No

Award yourself one point for each of the following correct answers:

(a) No
(b) Yes
(c) Yes

4. Trailing Cables

One of the aisles in the office has a cable trailing across it. The cable belongs to a contractor who’s in the office for a day, fixing the heating system.

Do you:
(a) Ignore the matter because the contractor will be gone tomorrow?Yes No
(b) Ask the contractor to either move the cable or, if this isn’t possible, cover it with yellow and black tape and put up a warning sign?Yes No

Award yourself one point for each of the following correct answers:

(a) No
(b) Yes

5. Worn Carpets

The carpet in the office is old and worn. In some places, it curls up at the edges. Your manager says that there’s no money in the budget for replacement floor covering.

Do you:
(a) Accept the manager’s statement and say nothing else?Yes No
(b) Ask the manager to arrange for someone to stick the curled edges down and to put warning tape around the worn areas? Yes No

Award yourself one point for each of the following correct answers:

(a) No
(b) Yes

Your Score

14 points: you clearly have a proactive approach to preventing a workplace accident, and to ensuring the safety of yourself and your colleagues. Excellent.

11-13 points: you need to be more alert to the possibilities of accidents that can exist all around you in the workplace. Look at your wrong answers, and ask yourself why they're incorrect.

10 points or fewer: your workplace accident prevention skills are poor. Read through the test, and consider your incorrect - and the correct - answers carefully.