Management Of Occupational Health & Safety

Name - Aryan Singh

Student Id - 1087239

Chapter 3 - Case Study 2

Carol is an emergency paramedic first responder in her city. She has always enjoyed
the hustle of working with emergencies and the challenges of dealing with the
unexpected. Lately, though, she has been worried about her own well-being. She
has been very abrupt with her coworkers on several occasions and has had difficulty
concentrating on her job. Though there have been no problems to date, she is worried
that her deteriorating performance might cause a problem, given the critical
nature of her work. She has not yet been to a doctor as she fears they will put her
on medications for depression and worries that if she is told to take time off that
workers’ compensation won’t cover her lost salary. She has come to you for help.
As the HR professional, what would you advise Carol?

Being the HR professional, I would suggest Carol to take a break from her
job and spend some quality time with her family and discuss her problems
with the family members as the best advise can only be given by her own
loved ones. The Carol’s profession is such that which needs an individual
that deals with others situation and help others in the best and fastest
possible way. This job requires a lot of responsibilities and increases the
mental stress of an individual who is facing all these situations on daily
basis.
Carol should give some time to herself and figure out that what the actual
problems are in her life that she is taking so much of stress off. Being
worried of her deteriorating performance and getting depressed off will not
help her to sort out the issue. She needs to work on her skills that will let
her enhance her performance. She needs to maintain a friendly relationship
with her colleagues and focus on her job rather than messing up things in
her mind and thinking about the medications or leaving the job. It’s the
same job she was enjoying doing in the past and focussing on the basic
things will let her back on the track and once again she will start loving her
job positively.

Chapter 4 – Case Study 2

Tadao works as a butcher in a large chain grocery store. His primary responsibility
is cutting up meat using large (and very sharp) knives. He’s been on the job now
for four years and has never had a health and safety complaint. Lately, though, he’s
been experiencing some difficulties. It started a couple of years ago when Tadao
noticed that his right hand was painful at the end of the day and that he was unable
to use the hand for several hours after work. The pain and fatigue didn’t last long,
and Tadao assumed that he was just overworking the hand (Tadao is right-handed).
In the past month or so, the pain has escalated; it often lasts all night and makes
sleep difficult. Tadao also experiences numbness and tingling in the hand. Tadao
has begun to avoid activities that require using his right hand, including shaking
hands with people.
Last Tuesday, Tadao came to work and could not pick up the knife in his right
hand-he had to pick up the knife with his left hand and place it in his right hand
to begin work. Watching him go through this procedure, a co-worker observed,
“Well, it looks like you’ve developed butcher’s claw-it comes from doing the same
motion repeatedly. It happens to us all and there is not much you can do about
it.” As an HR professional responsible for health and safety, do you have a better
answer for Tadao?

Well, Tadao is currently suffering from overexertion injury which are caused
by doing excessive physical work or repeating the same motions for a
longer period. Consider how many times in a day Tadao grip, hold, bend,
twist and clench his right hand to cut the meat and while performing these
activities as part of our daily life may not contribute to an injury but consider
the amount of time he repeats the same motion which leads to pain,
numbness and tickling in his hand. This repetitive strain injury can create
some consequences such as loss of productivity, compensation costs, and
health care costs. More importantly, RSIs are painful and debilitating and
can lower an individual’s overall quality of life. The action of butchering
applies a high impact loading to the wrist, which is flexed into a nonaligned
axis on impact. The shock effect increases the potential risk of tissue
damage and to avoid that damage Tadao must reduce his impact to cut the
meat in order to stay out of risk. He must take this injury seriously and
avoid repeating the same motion as I will suggest him to look another job
because nothing is prior than the health as it can lead to a severe injury.