Cordon off the Christmas tree!

Posted on December 18, 2013

The team at Courtley are well-organized this year and finished putting the Christmas tree up in record time. We would like to state that it is not cordoned off; it does not have to be checked daily by an electrician, and we will not be wearing ear defenders and eye protection when pulling crackers over Christmas lunch.

For a long time there have been many myths flying around about Christmas decorations in the work place and the dreaded red tape of health and safety. Believe it or not the HSE are as outraged as everyone else. Every year they get many complaints from people that have been told they cannot put up Christmas decorations without wearing a bio-hazard suit; in case anyone touches the tree, gets electrocuted by the lights, drops a bauble on their toe . . . and so on!

In general, if you hear a strange rule with the explanation given simply as ‘health and safety’ and you cannot think of a good reason why that rule exists, then it is probably not a health and safety issue. If you want to see some great examples of these simply go to the HSE website and search for ‘myths’ or click the link below.

Merry Christmas to all – lets not let them spoil the fun this year, get the deckies out of storage . . . And don’t forget, you don’t need a risk assessment to put an angel at the top of the tree!