September 3, 2013
New City of London skyscraper melts parked car
In Philip Kerr’s 1995 novel Gridiron, a smart building which is programmed to function as its own facilities manager goes rogue and starts bumping off its occupants in a number of interesting and spectacularly violent ways. This might sound like the perfect wish fulfilment fantasy of your average FM, but looks prescient with the news that one of the new tranche of landmark buildings in London has become its own death ray. The Walkie Talkie in Fenchurch Street has been blamed for reflecting and magnifying light from the sun, (literally) glaring at the neighbours and melting parts of a car parked in a nearby street.
August 30, 2013
Sometimes health and safety failures can be a laughing matter
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Workplace
One of the regular refrains from those involved in health and safety management is that while they aren’t killjoys, protecting people from harm is no laughing matter. Well actually yes, sometimes it is. And if the health and safety profession wants to shake off the po-faced image it claims is unjust, it needs to realise that some of the people it is trying to protect are just bloody idiots. And however much you try to make things idiot-proof, you’re unlikely to make them bloody-idiot-proof. Some people will always come up with something you haven’t thought of and a new way to put themselves in harm’s way.
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