(advice
for the workplace)
Remember: It is no laughing matter when a workmate is injured from a
practical joke!
Horseplay is often regarded as a friendly,
physical way to let off steam, but this type of fooling around on the job is
dangerous for a number of reasons. At the very least, when you’re playing
pranks and joking around your attention is elsewhere and you’re not focused on
the job at hand.
Directing your horseplay at others and
distracting them from the job they are performing is even more dangerous - it
creates an unsafe working environment where injuries can occur. Even the most
harmless prank can distract someone for a second and cost them a serious
injury. Every year people are injured during horseplay – some lose eyes, get
hit in the head with flying objects, while others could lose their life.Whilst horsing around might start out as a
harmless bit of fun, it’s the target of the joke that suffers either physically
or emotionally. People who joke around at work pose a very real and dangerous
threat not just to themselves but to others around them.
Example
of jokes gone bad:
Pranks and practical jokes in the workplace
undermine safety in
all sorts of ways. Want some real life example of jokes gone bad?
• Consider the humorist who decides to nail his workmate’s boots to the floor.
The victim nearly sprains his back pulling them free. And the boots now have
holes in the soles, making them useless as safety footwear.
• Another prank, traditionally played on all new workers at a certain facility,
involves pushing the victim under the showers. This particular time, though,
the victim is taped into a chair. No-one realizes that the water pouring over
him is hot until he begins screaming. The victim receives third-degree scalds.
• One man, startled by the old “joke” involving a spring-loaded cloth snake in
a harmless-looking tin labeled “nuts,” jerks his head backward and slams it
into a steel shelf, requiring eight stitches. • Sometimes, the recipient of a “joke”
becomes violent. A worker of Roanoke, VA, stabbed Jonathan Freel his co-worker to
death in the parking lot of a sports bar after the victim gives Williams’s
friend a “wedgie.”
Even if a prank goes off “harmlessly” as
planned, there can be unpleasant results. The victim may feel resentful, which
can poison the atmosphere at your workplace and make working together
uncomfortably stressful. Or the victim may try to exact revenge, leading to a
series of escalating pranks, which may eventually hurt someone.
So instead of encouraging or playing tired old gags at work, why not spare a
thought for safety and
suggest your co-workers do the same?
Horseplay
vs Bullying
Bullying is repeated inappropriate
behaviour at work – it can be direct or indirect, verbal or physical, involving
one person or many. Bullying behaviours include horseplay in the workplace
where the “joke” is based on sex, race, religion, physical appearance or
disability.
How
Horseplay Affects the Workplace
When practical jokes are common in the
workplace, employees pay less attention to their jobs because they’re always on
the lookout for the next joke.
Horseplay is a serious safety hazard
that can quickly get out of hand and lead to injury or death. If a workmate
gets hurt as a result of your horseplay or joke you may be liable and you’ll
likely lose your job.
Even if a practical joke isn’t
dangerous, it may be viewed as bullying or harassment and can have an emotional
impact on the target.
What
should you about horseplay on the job?
1.
Don’t initiate horseplay or
practical jokes.
2.
Don’t encourage it e.g. by
laughing.
3.
Don’t be pressured into
participating in it.
4.
Don’t ignore it when you see it
happening talk to the plotters to desist.
5.
If your co-workers ignore your
reprimand, report it to your supervisor. Don’t think of it as telling on a
colleague. You are preventing an accident about to happen AND potentially saving
a co-workers life.
Take Your
Job, Your Responsibilities, and Safety Seriously
1 You’re responsible for performing your job
correctly, which includes safely.
2 Safety
rules and procedures are designed to protect you.
3 Everyone must follow safety rules.
4 Failure to follow the rules is dangerous—for you
and for others.
Horseplay and other safety rule violations can
lead to disciplinary action. Don’t indulge in horseplay or accuse those who
won’t go along of having “no sense of humor.”
Think how bad you would feel if your horseplay
injured or sickened someone else—maybe seriously.
