Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This post is about an entirely new topic that I’ve never discussed on this blog before because we’ve never gone over it before! This post is about a Workplace Safety course we began taking a little while ago. Unfortunately, for the entirety of this course I was away sick, for about 2 weeks. Terrible timing, I know. I couldn’t help it! So, this post is pretty important to me, I definitely need the recap about everything that I’ve taught myself from the worksheets and videos we’ve done.

To begin my expedition through the Basecamp course that we were assigned, I watched a highly disturbing video about young workers that were injured during their job. Young workers are the most likely to be injured on the job, actually. It makes sense, as we are just beginning to delve into the fields of work and haven’t gotten the hang of how certain things are supposed to go about. During this unit we were educated on how to stay safe as a young worker, what our rights are and how we can make sure that we are in the safest situations possible at our jobs.

The content of this course is pretty brief so I’ll go over it quickly. We basically read a lot of sheets about safety. It sounds pretty boring and honestly, it was. But I prefer to know my rights as a worker over getting terribly injured for life like some of the people in that video above this paragraph. The sheets that we read briefed us about workplace hazards that we may be exposed to if we’re not careful to judge that what we’re doing is safe. They were in several different categories: Exposure to Biological Hazards (different types of diseases from animals, working conditions, etc), Environmental Exposure (heat, sun, cold), Exposure to Mineral and Chemical Hazards (asbestos, lead, dust, pesticides), Musculoskeletal Injuries (back injuries, sprains, etc), and Noise Hazards. On top of these workplace dangers we talked about our rights as workers to refuse unsafe work. We also talked about the regulations of all workplaces outlined by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. These regulations are put in place to make sure that all workplaces have a certain standard that they must meet to ensure the safety of both the work site and the workers.

Unfortunately, we cannot trust our employers 100 percent to ensure our safety at whatever worksite we are employed at. Sometimes we have to make our own calls about what we feel comfortable and safe doing. Now, I’m not saying that as a young worker I should never have to be forced out of my comfort zone on a job. I know I’ll eventually be working in new, unfamiliar places where I might feel scared or wary to invest myself in my work. This is completely normal for someone new to working. However, if I feel that my safety is in danger, it’s extremely handy to know at least a little bit about some of the problems that I should be aware of when working in conditions that require one to be mindful of their safety, which is essentially in every job. That’s why this course is relevant for someone my age who is just about old enough to get their first job. I’m ready to be able to utilize this knowledge if I’m ever in a situation where I feel that something is off or I am not comfortable with the working conditions I’m faced with.

I made this creative reflection on a part of our Workplace Safety sheet. This is just a small part of the sheet that covers Musculoskeletal Injuries. I never would have thought that back injuries are the second most common reason people miss work. It just goes to show how important it is to stay safe!

Overall, this little blog post hopes to cover the importance of learning about issues in the workplace. I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to hear from those who lost their lives or limbs because of inexperienced work that lead to catastrophe. I’ll be using everything in the future when I get my first job.