What is your company's plan?

- Many of us spend a big portion of time each day in the workplace. That could be an office, a warehouse, a manufacturing facility, or a school campus. These days, the chances are pretty good that the facility you're in has an emergency action plan. Since you're inside that facility, you form an important part of that plan, so you really need to be familiar with it. That might sound straightforward but I'm constantly amazed at how many people have never reviewed their company's plan or maybe they got some brief training as part of their initial onboarding but haven't reviewed it for years. At the university where I used to teach, we had extensive plans with specific procedures laid out in writing but I found many of my colleagues were not familiar with them or didn't know where to find them. In all fairness to the university, there was training on all of the procedures at some point but people tend to forget things they don't use. That can be common in the case of an emergency action plan or procedure. Hopefully you don't need them but when you do, it's really important that you know what they are. What are you supposed to do if there's a fire, a bomb threat, or a medical emergency? How about natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes, or wildfires? In situations like these, it's your health and safety that's on the line, so it's a good idea to take the time to review your company's plan every once in a while, so you know how they plan on responding and you know what they want you to do. For example, there may be scenarios in which they want everyone to evacuate to a specific location or a rally point, so they can make sure everyone's accounted for. You would need to know about that, so you know where to go and you know to not just leave. You want to be safe but you also don't want to create an additional burden for your coworkers who might go looking for you. I learned a lot working at that university I mentioned. I set up an OSHA education center there, and I worked as the building safety officer. In these roles, I was able to work with the fire marshal, the police department, and other university departments that had some extremely knowledgeable people, and I learned a great deal about emergencies in the school or workplace and how people behave in those situations. There are two of these things that I want to pass along to you. First, everyone should find out if their school or workplace has a plan and make sure you read it. Second, ask questions. Be familiar with evacuation routes and procedures, along with gathering points, alarms, and other emergency procedures that have already been established.