Working alone

Working alone isn’t only night security. It’s the office manager locking up after everyone else has gone, the cleaner in an empty building, the technician on a remote site, or a staff member driving three hours between jobs with patchy phone coverage.

I treat “working alone” as any time a person can’t get immediate help from a colleague if something goes wrong. Isolated work is the same idea with distance, travel or limited communication thrown in.

Why it matters

Under work health and safety law, you have a duty to keep workers safe so far as is reasonably practicable — including when they work alone. That means thinking about medical emergencies, violence or aggression, vehicle incidents, fatigue, and how long it would take anyone to notice if the person didn’t check in.

The checks that earn their keep

• Who is alone, when, and where. Rosters and job sheets should make that visible.
• A way to call for help that actually works in that place — phone, radio, duress alarm, or a scheduled check-in. Dead zones need a plan, not a hopeful assumption.
• Check-in and overdue procedures. Someone must notice if the check-in doesn’t arrive, and know what to do next.
• Training for the risks of that role — not a generic induction slide.
• A written policy so managers and workers share the same rules.

Put it in writing

Policy 22 in the Workplace Policy Pack covers working alone and isolated work. It sits beside WHS, fatigue, incident reporting and motor vehicles. Templates are not legal advice; match the controls to your real routes and sites.

Related notes: which policies a small business needs and psychosocial hazards. Questions? Use the contact form.

All notes · Related: Workplace Policy Pack · Contact