Linda Green, Health and Safety Manager at Go Ape and Air Space talks to SHP about how she found herself climbing trees, swinging on Tarzan nets and descending zip wires at the age of 50; and how her job balances risk with adventure.
I am the H&S Manager for Go Ape and Air Space.
Go Ape is the UK’s number one forest adventure offering 59 ways to live life adventurously including:
Since launching in 2002 Go Ape has welcomed over 6 million adventurers. We also operate 14 adventures in the USA.
Air Space freestyle jumping, launched in 2014, it’s a giant urban playground with over 100 interconnected trampolines, which currently has two sites open (East Kilbride and Wolverhampton). More locations are due to open later this year.
Go Ape was set up by husband and wife team Tristram and Rebecca Mayhew who are ably assisted by a strong and dedicated board of directors and management team. In 2015 we won the National Business Award for ‘Customer Focus’.
I was an operations manager with an international sampling and chemical analysis company. Knowing I’m not afraid to put my head above the parapet, they asked if I would also act as their health and safety representative. In order to facilitate this I completed the NEBOSH certificate at night school, and found I fell in love with the subject and its challenges. I took the decision to change careers to focus solely on health and safety.
I joined local government in 2000 to progress my career and completed 14 years in health and safety enforcement where I investigated 6 workplace fatalities, some quite serious life changing accidents and brought numerous prosecutions. I learnt so much during my time as an enforcement practitioner and was instrumental in assisting some poor performing businesses to become more H&S focused. To encourage them in this I instituted an annual Work Safe Award with gold, silver and bronze levels which was recognised nationally by HSE in the 2004 HELA Annual Report.
I have achieved numerous qualifications since the NEBOSH including an H&S Enforcement Diploma at Leeds University, an MSc in Occupational Safety and Health at Salford University, a Teacher Training Certificate and an Investigation Certificate (based on Police witness and suspect training). I am a Graduate Member of IOSH and just about to progress this to become a Fellow.
In 2010, I was asked by to be the officer responsible for the primary authority agreement with Go Ape under the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BDRO) scheme. So at the age of fifty, I found myself climbing trees, swinging on Tarzan nets, descending zip wires and riding Segways for the benefit of Go Ape! This was a personal challenge for me as I am not a natural outdoor adventurous person.
Then in July 2014 after four years of assisting them they asked me to join the Go Ape Tribe and become their Health and Safety Manager.
I work from home but I do quite a bit of travelling. Last year I visited as many Go Ape sites as possible to carry out health and safety audits, to offer advice and support to area managers, site managers and instructors. I am also heavily involved in our new Air Space venture. I have also flown to our USA HQ on two separate occasions to deliver training to their operations team and site managers.
Since joining, I soon realised that a lot of our instructors are young and with that comes the new modern day issues like stress and depression etc and to be able to support both the employee and their family we now have a 24/7 employee assistance programme.
I produce a quarterly newsletter with the aim of promoting health awareness as well as safety.
I stay in regular touch with former colleagues in LA, HSE contacts and even some of the businesses I worked with when I was an enforcement officer.
The variety and challenges it brings – every day is different and I am always learning something new.
The company itself puts the health and safety of its customers and staff at the top of its agenda. The training and support provided to site managers and instructors is absolutely first class and that helps enormously with my job.
Watching the development of new instructors who may be shy, quiet and nervous become confident, happy and self-motivated is very rewarding.
The expertise of the operations team never ceases to amaze me; they are so focused and take absolute ownership of everything they are involved in.
The directors and senior management are extremely encouraging and caring – everyone has a voice and is listened to.
The company annually chooses a charity to raise funds for – last year was the Teenage Cancer Trust and on presentation of a cheque a teenager gave such a moving account of her cancer and care – it’s stayed with me to this day.
Very much so! Life is full of risks – its how you manage them that matters. I am a wife, mum and “nanny” and a firm believer that you should leave your comfort zone and live life to the full.
As HSE says that health and safety is about managing real risks properly, not being risk averse and stopping people getting on with their lives and so I absolutely love their myth busters – I recommend everyone has a read of them, some of them are so funny.
There is nothing particularly strange, Go Ape and Air Space are not the normal 9-5 job – they are both high-risk activities and even though customer safety instructions and brief are provided accidents do happen. In most cases this is through customer error/over confidence – however full in-depth investigations are conducted.
The company philosophy of “Creating Adventure and encouraging everyone to live life adventurously”– this includes their staff.
They run subsidised “naturally powered days” and trips that actively encourage staff to take part in new outdoor activities, such as fell walking, mountain climbing, biking, overseas adventures and sailing.
Go Ape has cultivated a great company culture – the flexible working environment provides such an excellent work life balance.
You can find out more about Go Ape here.
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Interesting article – one comment has me intrigued – how can you progress from Grad IOSH membership to Fellow member – seemingly jumping the CMIOSH grade? Is this just a typo??
Linda, can you explain why the young lady in the top photo appears to be connected to the rope by 2 separate lanyards?
[…] 4. The weird and wonderful jobs of OSH: Adventure safety– SHP Online […]
Its really good when you love what you are doing, it makes the job easier. I share this post and mention it at my round up post at http://www.theprojectmanagementhq.com/health-and-safety-roundup/