Distracted Walking

Sharon McKnight SPHR

Distracted walking could be HR folks next nightmare.

We've all thought about how employees using cell phones while driving can be a workers' comp claim in the making but have you ever thought about how their using a cell phone while walking around your building could be as well? I just read an article (see link below) that, at first, made me chuckle but then I got to thinking about it and it's not really so funny.

Sharon

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/technology/17distracted.html?hpw"]www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/technology/17distracted.html?hpw[/URL]

davids

Last year, we had about 6 - 8 workers' comp. claims filed because of "walking incidents." A couple involved tripping on cracked walkways or uneven ground; but most were things like "just turned my ankle while walking" or "heard my knee pop when I took a step." These happened without the distraction of cell phones (as far as I know). And, yes, they were accepted claims.

cnghr

Who needs to be on the phone to do that?! I remember as a kid, turning my head to say something to my mom while walking down the street and smacking right into a parking meter, and as a teenager being so absorbed in conversation with a friend walking right into a telephone pole! And my son broke off one of his front teeth as a kid, when he was playing and ran right into the back of a parked van.

I do think the problem has gotten much worse with the advent of cell phones, however. I looked out my office window a while back and watched a teenaged girl walking down the street texting...at a driveway, she veered off the sidewalk, almost out into traffic, but she never even looked up and her thumbs never stopped moving on her keypad, she just stepped back up onto the sidewalk as if nothing had happened. I thought I was going to see her get run over or cause a wreck, because a couple of drivers thought she was going to walk out in front of them and slammed on their brakes.

Paul in Cannon Beach

One of our summer food service staff tried to convince me that he could fire off a text in the time it took for him to walk from the kitchen to the freezer (about 20 feet).

My response was "Fine, but you aren't watching where you are going."

Dutch2

We do not have a problem, that I aware of, with ee's using such devices while on the job. However, our time clock is just outside my office and it amazes me at the number of ee's that are either posting or talking on their phones as they clock in and out for the day.