I worked as a recruiter back in the 90s. I was in my office, minding my own business, when I heard a knock at my door. I looked up and saw an administrative assistant in tears.
- She accidentally stabbed herself in the thigh
- with a pencil
- while trying to open a box.
For reals.
She was in pain and asked, “Should I go to the hospital?”
I had one thought:
- Thank god the pencil isn’t still in your thigh.
There wasn’t any blood so I improvised and suggested a trip to the employee medical department instead of a hysterical call to 911. Human Resources is all about flexibility and creativity. I just rolled with my instincts, yo.
In the spirit of office accidents, I’m sharing an article that lists America’s eight unhealthiest jobs. The list isn’t shocking or odd except that it leaves out firefighters and police officers. (I guess fire and guns aren’t as dangerous as I thought.)
Here’s the list.
- Construction Worker
- Office/Administrative Staff
- Sales Staff (too many donuts?)
- Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants
- Janitors and Housekeepers
- Registered Nurses
- Waiters
- Computer Specialists
I’ve seen accidents at work, and most of them are related to employees who are taking a shortcuts or ‘zoning out’ on the job; however, employees have rights (for now) and the article suggests the importance of understanding your options. Get to know the OSHA website, understand your work comp rights & responsibilities, and have a full understanding of your safety-related responsibilities at the office.
Yes, even the most cynical HR bloggers among us have attend compulsory ‘office safety’ seminars. It’s not so bad. There are always donuts.
If I showed this list to my sales staff, they’d be requesting more “comp time.” (and we don’t have comp time - but they can’t seem to remember that)
I’m thinking that sales made it on the list because the potential for their egos to trip over each other is very high.
Don’t even get me started on comp time. I can’t tell you how many exempt-level people, and people who should know better, would come in my office and request comp time. I’m like, “We’ve had this discussion before. You’re exempt. No comp time. Now can I please have these five minutes of my life back?”
the pencil in thigh story is too much. did she need a tetanus shot?
Pencils are dangerous and should be banned from the workplace for our protection.
Or at the very least, I should be able to sue for physical and emotional distress for the pain, suffering, and permanent scarring resulting from a pencil-related injury. There were no signs in the office explicitly stating that you should never attempt to reach for a freshly-sharpened pencil without a full OSHA-approved hand guard of some sort in place.
Okay, so I did this at home, but still, I’m an American and I want someone else found to be legally responsible.
I still have the gray mark on my palm, bits of graphite left behind after I pulled out the pencil tip - it’s my Tattoo Of Shame. Oddly enough, I showed it to a co-worker who showed me his own permanent pencil mark from a similar mishap. Hmm… do I detect the delicate scent of a class action lawsuit?
@cols I don’t think so — but now I can’t remember. I do remember thinking, “Who opens a box with a pencil?” (I still think that way. If you’re going to open a box with anything, it should be a pen & not a dull pencil.) Better yet, how about using a fancy box opener?? We were a Fortune 500 company, after all.
@perrik Other things that should be banned from the workforce: stairs. How many injuries could be avoided if we didn’t ask people to climb up a flight of stairs (or walk down a flight of stairs) during office hours?
@laurie Stairs should be at the top of the ban list. Especially the stairwell in our hospital that smells like a mostly, but not entirely clean stable.
While we’re at it, employees should be banned from the workplace. They’re really annoying, and pose a major mental health hazard to the HR department.
I feel for janitors and housekeepers. I can barely use anything stronger than those clorex wipe thingies to clean the swamp. Can you imgaine using bleach and crap all day long on the job? No. Thank. You.
i use colorful thumbtacks to open boxes!
@Perrik You are ready. Take the next HR VP role you can find.
@hrWench The most thankless job in corporate america is the outsourced, demoralized, unmotivated cleaning staff. Next thankless job? The outsourced, demoralized, unmotivated mail room crew.
@Gina Oh, that’s an excellent use of thumbtacks. Might I also recommend a letter opener to fix the jam in the copier?
Biggest danger to Computer Specialists: getting trapped inside the server room, knowingly aware that several systems are going down and people are wondering…where’s the computer guy?
Thanks for the wonderful comment by the way
I am a new-born blog-writer and appreciate the positive reinforcement very much. I’m not majoring in HR, but I find my behavior organizational class very interesting…which is why I linked your blog 
I like punk rock factor too.
-Ally
Sales staff is probably on the list from traffic accidents, as they spend more time on the road *during work hours* than any other trades on the list.
@ally
Get out there are exposure yourself to the wonderful world of blogging about everything & nothing at all. I think you’d also like the Brazen Careerist blog network. There are tons of awesome sites — some are HR related, but most are just fun & interesting.
@Anthony You might be right. I can also see repetitive injuries from lifting boxes of swag.