The lady in the 'buffet-car' sold me a cup of coffee and started putting the cardboard cup with lid into a bag.
"I don't need a bag thanks" said I, being an environmentally sound sort of chap.
"I have to put it in a bag. It's Elfin Safety" replied the lady, stuffing the cup into a bag, "You are in a moving vehicle."
I personally don't believe in elves, and even if they do exist, I doubt whether they spend much of their time on the Virgin Pendolino from London Euston-to-Birmingham New Street. And even if they do exist and love riding on trains, I fail to see how putting cups of coffee into bags makes them more safe.
I got my own back by stealthily replacing the carefully folded bag on the pile while she wasn't looking.
Put On Your Big Boy Pants, Maybe?
21 minutes ago
6 comments:
Unfortunately most "elfansafetyinnit" rules are nothing of the sort - they are a cheap excuse not to use common sense, which is the most valuable prerequisite for effective safety management.
There's one kind of Elfin Safety, like cutting down conker trees, that is clearly madness, but you can see that it might prevent one or two injuries a year (kids throwing sticks, climbing up and falling down and so on).
Then there's the other kind, where I cannot see any logic whatsoever (however flawed or disproportionate). I just don't see how putting the cup in a bag makes anything safer for anybody.
It doesn't. But someone, somewhere got all risk averse and was too afraid to sign off the risk assessment just in case someone, at some point, spilled a cup of coffee and they ended up taking the blame for it. That's how corrosive the culture has become.
But what if a cup falls over inside the bag and hot coffee drips down somebody's leg and they sue, as is bound to happen one day?
Then they will have to have a strict rule never EVER to put cups of coffee in bags. And nobody will understand that rule either.
Exactly, it's silliness filling the vacuum where common sense should reside.
H&S is a neat way for the government to see how robotic people are, how open to bad law.
It is also money for old rope.
If the H&S flunkies did not manage to suggest anything to change, then one would question their role and value (erm...). Therefore, in a situation where nothing needs to be changed, change will happen anyway.
As we know, "Change" in New Labour rarely means "Improvement".
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