Why should we pay attention to housekeeping at work? Effective housekeeping can help control or eliminate workplace hazards. Poor housekeeping practices frequently contribute to incidents and look bad from our Client’s perspective. Housekeeping is not just about cleanliness. It includes keeping work areas neat and orderly, maintaining halls and floors free of slip and trip hazards, and removing waste materials (e.g., paper, cardboard) and other fire hazards from work areas. It also requires paying attention to important details such as the layout of the whole workplace, aisle marking, the adequacy of storage facilities, and maintenance. Good housekeeping is also a basic part of incident and fire prevention. Effective housekeeping is an ongoing operation: it is not a one-time or hit-and-miss cleanup done occasionally.

Read more

Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are arriving, people are starting to dream. “As soon as my five closest friends and I get the shot, I’m spending a weekend at a cabin with them. No masks, no social distancing.” “Realistically, it’s definitely not going to be an on / off switch on normal,” said Eleanor Murray, a Boston University epidemiologist. Stage 1 is what you can safely do once you and your close friends or family are vaccinated. Stage 2 is what you can safely do once your city or state has reached herd immunity, where enough people are protected against infection that the virus can’t easily spark new outbreaks. Stage 3 is what you can do once herd immunity is reached internationally. In the meantime, even vaccinated people have to assume they can still become infected and pass along the virus. That means they need to keep wearing masks and social distancing whenever they’re around unvaccinated people.

Read more