Lone worker risk does not always begin with someone setting out to work alone. More often, it starts with an ordinary moment. A manager pops out. A colleague is running a quick errand. A decision to save time. A sentence that begins with “I’ll just…” It feels harmless. After all, what could happen in five minutes? You’re suddenly a Lone worker in 5minutes!
“It Will Only Take A Minute” and Someone Becomes a Lone Worker
The shop is quiet, and it’s mid-afternoon. There are two members of staff behind the counter, chatting between serving customers.
“I’m just popping to the post office,” says one. “Back in five.”
The other nods without thinking. Why would she not? The post office is only around the corner. For a few minutes, nothing changes. Then the phone rings. At the same time, a delivery arrives at the back door, and he’s impatient as he is running late. Already feeling the pressure, a customer walks in who starts getting aggressive because they haven’t got the shop worker’s full attention.
Where there were two people a moment ago, and they could quite easily handle the situation between them, now there is one. Not because anyone planned for someone to be lone working. Not because anybody thought it was risky. Just because someone popped out ‘quickly’ and got caught in the lunchtime queues.
The trouble with lone working is that it often arrives quietly…. You’re a lone worker in 5minutes
The Receptionist Nobody Realised Had Become a Lone Worker
The receptionist at the front desk had just explained to her boss that in May it’s National Receptionists Day, an annual awareness day to recognise the role they have as the first point of contact for many businesses. She half smiled, wondering if he thought she was after a raise. The boss grabs his keys, and took the cue to busy himself “I’m just going to collect something. I won’t be long.”
The receptionist has worked in the office for years. So, the environment was familiar and unthreatening. Customers are few and far between, because most of the business was conducted over the phone, and meetings in-house were scarce. Then a man comes in asking for an appointment. He becomes irritated, louder and impatient when he cannot be seen immediately.
Ordinarily, there would have been someone else nearby. Someone to overhear, to step in, defuse the situation or to call the police. Instead, she is alone and felt it. It was not meant to happen. The other members of staff who work close by were off sick or on vacation, and now the boss “stepped out.” Nobody would have thought of her as a lone worker. She was now! Those few minutes have changed everything.
The Moment a Care Worker Realised She Was Alone
Two care workers arrive together at a client’s home. One realises she has left some paperwork in the car in the car park around the corner. “I’ll just go and get it.” The other waits inside whilst she does. Only while she is alone, the client becomes confused and agitated because they don’t recognise this carer. The atmosphere changes. The room feels smaller. The front door suddenly feels much further away than it did thirty seconds earlier.
Nobody set out to take a risk. Nobody woke up that morning thinking, today, I will work alone. The risk arrived in the gap between one person leaving and the other person noticing they were now on their own.
The Lone Worker Risk – Hidden in the Word “Just”
Just can be a dangerous word
- “I’ll just nip out.”
- “I’ll just do it myself.”
- “I’ll just pop to the car.”
- “I’ll just get in a bit earlier”
- “I’ll just lock up on my own.”
The word makes everything sound smaller than it is. Temporary. Unimportant. Not worth thinking about. But most incidents do not begin with a major decision. They begin with small ones. What could happen in five minutes? You’re suddenly a Lone worker in 5minutes! That five minutes can be enough time for someone to feel vulnerable. Enough time for a situation to escalate. Enough time for an accident to happen – such as a trip where you bang your head.
The most dangerous lone working situations are often the ones nobody planned for.
The answer is not to stop people popping out. Or ban quick errands. Or make every workplace feel wrapped in cotton wool. It is simply to ask one question:
What happens if somebody is left alone?
If that answer makes you pause, then that situation needs thinking about before it happens. Could there be a quick check in? A procedure? A call? A way for staff to let someone know they are suddenly alone? Because five minutes does not sound like much. Until it is the five minutes that change everything.
You can’t have a risk assessment for every eventuality, but you do have a legal duty of care to be aware of and to mitigate risks.
MyTeamSafe® is an award-winning lone-worker App & a proud supporter of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Contact us today about our FREE Lone Working App trial blog@myteamsafe.com