Well, this is embarrassing. I understand that when you have a workplace there’s an element of duty of care that is needed to ensure everyone is kept safe while on the premises. While I am a stickler for safety rules, at times, I do like to foster an environment that encourages my team to have fun. For ten minutes in the morning, and ten minutes in the afternoon, I like to host these sessions called “refreshers”. Refreshers are essentially a ten minute opportunity that gets workers away from their desks, standing up, and engaging with each other. Each refresher session will have a new type of game that can be completed in ten minutes. Yesterday’s refresher session got out of hand, slightly. To cut a long story short, the team were participating in the activity and somehow someone’s shoe flew through the ceiling.
I have no idea how this person’s shoe flew off, but they felt terrible. I reassured them that there was no need to feel terrible and that they would not be in trouble for their actions. My main concern was ensuring that the ceiling was safe for everyone to continue working in the office. I don’t know how to fix a plasterboard ceiling. In order to be successful, it is important to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Fixing ceilings is definitely not in my arsenal of skills, but keeping the team safe is definitely a strong point. For the time being, I rearranged some of the desks in the office to ensure no one was at risk of the ceiling falling on them.
I managed to find some grid tile ceiling repair experts near me. Melbourne services like this can get quite booked out. Luckily they had an availability later this week, which means the ceiling will be repaired and staff will be back at their desks in no time. I think in future I might move these refresher sessions outside. It’s not the first time they’ve resulted in some damage to the premise. Three months ago someone accidentally damaged a plasterboard wall!