Lone Working—Your Health, Safety and Wellbeing
02/16/22 • 14 min
In this episode we talk about lone working, and how it can affect health, wellbeing and personal safety. I talk with Joana Faustino, Senior Work Psychologist at RSSB, and Rachel Rowlinson, Associate Director at Britain Thinks, who has a special interest in health matters in the rail industry.
01:56 About Rachel and her role in the railway.
02:34 Who and what was involved in the research.
03:14 Guidance for lone workers and their managers, and just who is a lone worker.
04:55 How many people just might be lone workers?
05:35 How Covid-19 has influenced the number of lone worker roles.
05:54 Are you a lone worker if you work from home?
06:40 What makes you a lone worker?
07:25 The down side of lone working.
08:12 Things about lone working that can affect health, wellbeing, and safety.
09:17 What organisations can do to better support lone workers.
10:19 What lone workers can do to support their own wellbeing—some top tips.
11:22 Top tips from the guidance for physical health and safety.
12:35 The Lone Worker's Wellbeing Action Plan—what keeps lone workers happy and healthy at work, and what causes stress or anxiety
13:31 Sources of support available to lone workers.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
RSSB webpage: Keeping Lone Workers Safe and Secure. This page has links to all three of the guidance documents talked about in this episode.
Related resources:
T1213 Understanding the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Risks and Impacts of Lone Working in Rail—Project Report
https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/T1213
Contact a Samaritan
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ or call 116 123.
In this episode we talk about lone working, and how it can affect health, wellbeing and personal safety. I talk with Joana Faustino, Senior Work Psychologist at RSSB, and Rachel Rowlinson, Associate Director at Britain Thinks, who has a special interest in health matters in the rail industry.
01:56 About Rachel and her role in the railway.
02:34 Who and what was involved in the research.
03:14 Guidance for lone workers and their managers, and just who is a lone worker.
04:55 How many people just might be lone workers?
05:35 How Covid-19 has influenced the number of lone worker roles.
05:54 Are you a lone worker if you work from home?
06:40 What makes you a lone worker?
07:25 The down side of lone working.
08:12 Things about lone working that can affect health, wellbeing, and safety.
09:17 What organisations can do to better support lone workers.
10:19 What lone workers can do to support their own wellbeing—some top tips.
11:22 Top tips from the guidance for physical health and safety.
12:35 The Lone Worker's Wellbeing Action Plan—what keeps lone workers happy and healthy at work, and what causes stress or anxiety
13:31 Sources of support available to lone workers.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
RSSB webpage: Keeping Lone Workers Safe and Secure. This page has links to all three of the guidance documents talked about in this episode.
Related resources:
T1213 Understanding the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Risks and Impacts of Lone Working in Rail—Project Report
https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/T1213
Contact a Samaritan
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ or call 116 123.
Previous Episode
Learning from... - the Clapham Accident
Fortunately, multiple fatality rail accidents in Britain are rare. But only by learning from the past can we reduce risk in the future. Learning and remembering are vital. Even the lessons from a major accident, like that near Clapham Junction in 1988, can all too soon be forgotten.
In this episode we look at the Clapham accident, some of its causes, and how well we have, or haven't, learned from it. Good corporate memory—and incident reporting—as you'll hear, are vital to making our railways a safe place to work and travel.
01:22 A bit about Greg Morse.
02:28 Describing the Clapham accident.
03:15 The causes behind the accident.
04:11 How mistakes came to be made.
04:49 How fatigue is managed today.
05:31 Organisational complacency.
06:18 Clapham's lessons relevant today.
08:00 Looking at the whole system.
09:24 About future episodes.
09:58 Close.
Give us your thoughts and ideas—on this or any other episode: [email protected]
You may also be interested in:
Making Sure Clapham's Lessons Aren't Hidden (RSSB web article by Greg Morse on the 30th anniversary of the accident.)
Remembering Clapham (Michael Woods recalls the day as he was working for a division of BR at the time.)
The Hidden Report (PDF download, 8MB)
RAIB's report on the Cardiff signalling irregularities (PDF download, 3MB)
RAIB's report on the Waterloo collision (PDF download, 2.5MB)
Next Episode
Freight Safety—The Condition of Freight Vehicles on the Network
Checking that freight vehicles are safe to go onto the rail network is not an easy task. It's work that's often done in difficult conditions, and the consequences of mistakes can be costly. The role of ground staff in freight depots and yards has changed dramatically over recent years. The conditions in which they work, in freight depots and yards where they carry out their vital and often challenging work, need to be improved.
Dave Ethell and Devon Johnson, Operational Risk Manager at Freightliner Group, talk about the work they are doing to assure the condition of freight vehicles that go onto the rail network.
01:53 About Devon.
02:34 About Dave.
04:07 About the Condition of Freight Vehicles on the Network (CFVN) Working Group.
05:39 How the freight sector has engaged, and the various stakeholders collaborate.
06:42 The CFVN project's strategic activities, and two core workstreams.
08:28 How the train preparation and loading workstream has been structured. Survey responses from freight ground staff as they engage in the project.
10:33 Open and honest ground staff describe situations and propose solutions.
11:29 Some of the specific themes that came out.
13:58 Training for ground staff roles. Better non-technical skills and working facilities. Two quick wins.
16:40 What the CFVN Working Group will do with the data.
18:16 Hopes for the project—reducing delays, standardising preparation and loading procedures.
These resources may be of interest:
Leading Health and Safety on Britain's Railway – freight derailment chapter https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/leading-health-and-safety-on-britains-railway/freight-derailment
Annual Health and Safety Report 2020-21 https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/risk-and-safety-intelligence/safety-performance-reports
RAIB: Summary of learning – 5. Freight train derailments (see Section 3.2) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-learning-5-freight-train-derailments/summary-of-learning-5-freight-train-derailments
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