You don’t often think about an office as an unsafe place to work but the reality is that there are lots of accidents waiting to happen right there in your cubicle or office suite. The most common type of accident involves slips, trips or falls, usually because electrical cords are placed in an unsafe manner in the office, but according to safety experts there are some other real hazards in an office environment.

They include physical hazards like the one above, as well poor equipment and faulty work station design and the physical environment if it involves frequent exposure to high or low temperatures, humidity, light, noise or inadequate ventilation. There may even be chemical or environmental risks from things like cleaning supplies and the toners used in office printers.

Here are some of the most common causes of accidents and injuries in an office environment. Later on, we’ll have some suggestions about how to prevent and avoid them from happening.

Common causes of office accidents

Fatigue
When someone is pushed, or more often these days when we push ourselves, beyond reasonable limits to stay on top of our workload, it often results in physical and mental exhaustion. This can translate into impaired judgment, slower reflexes in operating machinery or motor vehicles, and inattention to details and instructions. That’s when most accidents happen, when we’re not paying attention.

Stress
Our combined personal and professional stress about our work, our health or our families can also contribute to distracted and inattentive behavior at work. These anxieties can lead to making mistakes at work causing injury to ourselves and others. But they are also likely to add to additional health problems like the increased risk of a heart attack, stroke or hypertension.

Slips
The most common areas for slips in an office environment are likely to be break rooms and kitchens. That’s because liquids from coffee to water get splashed around in there, and don’t get cleaned up right away. Slick flooring surfaces like linoleum or hardwood or tiles can be particularly hazardous immediately after they have been mopped or waxed. Sandals and untied running shoes can also lead to slips at the office.

Trips
Anything that is left sitting in a hallway and ‘temporary’ extension cords are all trips waiting to happen. So, too, is carpet that has come loose, and any area where the lighting is poor. These, plus almost all stairs and stairwells, require a little more attention and vigilance to avoid trips and falls. It may sound trivial but many backs and knees and ankles have been sprained and hurt at work after tripping over that ‘temporary’ extension cord.

Falling objects
Nobody expects a filing cabinet or a bookcase to fall on them, and yet every year hundreds of office workers get injured in this way. Sometimes it’s that stack of boxes that are waiting to be shipped to the archives or storage, and there’s just one too many boxes on top. Every time someone touches these boxes, which are left in the hallway far too long, they shift. After a few such shifts, they topple and fall, sometimes right on somebody’s head.

Repetitive strain injuries
Repetitive motion ailments like carpal tunnel syndrome are a common occurrence for workers who are engaged in repetitive motion activities on a regular basis. This risk would apply to a range of employees who spend a lot of time entering data or working with a keyboard. Tell-tale signs are sharp pain that never really goes away or numbness and in the fingers, wrists and hands.

Lifting
We have all done this one. Picked up a box or an object that was just too heavy, or not bending our legs when we lifted. This has resulted is many back injuries and pulled muscles, and sometimes longer term impacts as well. If it looks too heavy, it probably should stay there until you can someone else, or another person to help you, lift or move it.

People-to-people collisions
Sometimes, we just move too fast for our own good. We open a door too quickly or turn a corner much too fast. Boom. We run into another person in the office corridor or hallway. This is often not enough to cause a serious injury, but there are many bumps and bruised heads as a result of people to people collisions at work. If you happen to be coming back with a cup of hot coffee, the danger for real hurt intensifies.

How to prevent accidents and stay safe at work

One good idea to stay safe at work and to maintain a healthy office environment is to conduct a safety audit at least once a year. This can be done in an hour or so by one or two staff and involves going through a checklist that ensures that there aren't accidents waiting to happen. This should include looking at things like the air quality and temperature to ensure that they are adequate, and inspecting walkways and corridors to make sure there aren't any visible hazards.

Another area that should be looked at is the furniture in the office. Old, broken and improperly used equipment can result in a series of ailments and injuries like back and eye strain. Sitting in awkward postures or having to over-reach can produce similarly negative results. Working with ergonomically incorrect furniture and equipment can cause long term damage through repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome which affects between three and six percent of the working population in Canada every year.

Not every accident or injury can be avoided but almost all are preventable. Making sure that work stations are properly designed with ergonomically correct furniture is one big step to take but constant monitoring on behalf of all staff to identify and rectify potential accident risks is just as valuable. Everyone must play their part to make the workplace as safe and comfortable as possible and the basic rule to follow is that if you see a hazard, like an extension cord snaking its way across the office you should take responsibility to correct it. Things that you can't fix should be reported, to your supervisor or to the maintenance staff as appropriate.

Remember that no one should ask you to put you at risk at work. If you feel that a particular situation is potentially dangerous to your health and safety you have the right to refuse to do it. Preventing workplace accidents and injuries is a very personal job that we all must take on and we can make that happen if we put safety first.