Today’s world of risk management, possible litigation and inductions for every possible situation is so far removed from what I started with.
I was talking to a mate the other day who was volunteering for something. He had to arrive the day before it to do an induction and sign a disclaimer and then he had to stand in the sun for nine hours the next day, wow.
It got me think about my risk management skills decades ago, when I was working at an airport.
One day my boss got a fax asking some safety questions in case of a crash. Was there a hydrant there? He ticked Yes, I asked where and he pointed to a garden hose.
Imagine if a plane crashed back then. I would have been trying to put it out with a hose, while waiting for a fire truck. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Then, when I was working at a hospitality business, it had a faulty switchboard that they wouldn’t let me get fixed.
So every time a touring band came with three-phase power requirements I had to turn off the aircon and cold rooms so it didn’t blow, which wasn’t great in summer with more a thousand people in the room.
This went on for years until one NYE. With about 5000 people in the pub it blew, lights out.
A mate of mine, who was half drunk, said he could get the power back on by midnight, as long as he could take his girlfriend into one of the cold rooms. I had no choice. A big yes from me.
He managed to get that job done and we sprang back into life near midnight, an hour after it went pear-shaped.
He then got on with the other job, which confused the bar staff as they couldn’t figure out why the glasses on the cabinet shelves on the outside wall of the cold room was rattling?
How times have changed. I’m not sure they would even have the paperwork these days to cover that risk assessment?
