Every 2 years we have to attend a "Safe Manual Handling" course
It's a morning of boring PowerPoint slides, followed by an afternoon on the car park taking it in turns to take a small box out of the back of a van, then put it back in again. All this whilst having a trainer with the charisma and lively voice of Trigger repeating his mantra of "lift with the knees". No lunch provided, it usually rains, and you can't skive as it's at the workplace and the gaffer can look out of the window to make sure everybody is having "fun". God, I hate this course. :(
( Krakapotl picks a pot of cracker petal potholes, Thu 15 Mar 2012, 18:31, 12 replies)

Diarrhoea
and vomiting, especially a 24 hour thing, get you out of everything.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Thu 15 Mar 2012, 18:41, closed)

I'll have to remember that one.
;)
( Krakapotl picks a pot of cracker petal potholes, Wed 21 Mar 2012, 10:44, closed)

Any manual handling/ lifting and handling course is a bullshit waste of time,
none of the scenarios presented resemble real life in the slightest, and everything else is common sense.
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 15 Mar 2012, 21:05, closed)

I disagree a little.
If you ask somebody to pick up a box that's a couple of feet from them they will likely just bend down to it and grab.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 15 Mar 2012, 21:46, closed)

Yup, that's how I would do it.
Asked to turn on a light, I'd reach over and flick the switch. Asked to find my arse with both hands I'd reach down and behind me.

Go on, tell us what to do if we need to pick up a box someone comes at us with a banana.
(ubergeekian, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 14:19, closed)

I make ours relevant to what you'll actually have to pick up
and if you don't undertake a manual handling risk assessment and keep training records, howa re you going to defend a potential civil claim for back injuries when they do it wrong?
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Fri 16 Mar 2012, 9:42, closed)

I should probably rephrase that as "every course that I've been on".
They've all been run by bureaucratic, box-ticking twats who cared nothing for the fact that what they were teaching us was impossible to adhere to in the workplace in question, only ensuring that the company had firmly washed their hands of all responsibility should any incident occur.
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Fri 16 Mar 2012, 12:57, closed)

Yeah, I'm sure that's why they do it
So when we're off work, crippled by a bad back, they're not liable.
( Krakapotl picks a pot of cracker petal potholes, Wed 21 Mar 2012, 10:45, closed)

On my first day working at the central warehouse of a certain high street retailer well known for flogging overpriced tat,
we had similar training as part of the induction, except it took about 20 minutes and involved each of us in turn moving a box from one side of the room to the other.

Since most of us had had previous jobs as labourers or warehouse workers, the trainers knew it was pretty pointless but did it anyway just so they could say we'd had the proper training. We made it slightly more entertaining by sending it up - carrying the box with exaggerated care, theatrically wiping our brows when we put it down, that type of thing.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 15 Mar 2012, 22:11, closed)

:D

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Fri 16 Mar 2012, 8:51, closed)

Take this, multiply by 5 times a week, year after year
Every day at one of our clients' starts with a compulsory 7 a.m. "Safety Meeting" for contractors.

Some repetition is involved. Could range from 5 minutes to well over an hour.
( Squilliam but . . . . *I'm* the one with all the talent!, Sat 17 Mar 2012, 8:38, closed)

*shudders*
Sounds hellish
( Krakapotl picks a pot of cracker petal potholes, Wed 21 Mar 2012, 10:46, closed)