Top Stories
What Are We Doing for Safety? Avoiding a Near Miss–The One that Almost Happened
An employee walks down the hall, stepping over an extension cord stretch across his path. He turns a corner and nearly collides with another worker. To avoid the collision, he steps to the side, spilling hot coffee onto the floor and inadvertently jostling a shelving unit, on which a tool placed close to the edge of the top shelf falls and hits the ground.
No one is hurt in this fictional scenario. However, the employees in it experience multiple near-miss situations- any one of which could have led to a serious injury. A near miss or close call is an unplanned event that did not result in human injury, environmental or equipment damage, or an interruption to normal operation – but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage, in other words, a miss that was nonetheless very near.
Although near misses cause no immediate harm, they can precede events in which a loss or injury could occur. If you experience or witness a near miss, please report to your supervisor so that they can look into the incident and implement the appropriate corrective actions. In some circumstances, such as the near miss could have resulted in serious injury or death, a full investigation and CAIRS report will need to be conducted. If the near miss creates a condition that is less serious – such as a trip hazard due to an electrical cord – the hazard is abated and the risk is communicated to everyone.
Near miss incidents provide a unique learning opportunity as we only have to learn the lesson once and implement appropriate controls and then share it amongst our colleagues to prevent similar accident potentials from happening. By recognizing and reporting near miss incidents, we all can play a vital role in improving our safety and enhancing our safety culture.
Greg Scott Joins UBC as Managing Director of Building Operations
A message from John Metras, Acting Associate Vice-President, Facilities
“I am very pleased to announce that Greg Scott will be joining UBC as the new Managing Director, Building Operations on June 5, 2018. Greg is a professional engineer and LEED accredited professional who brings to UBC a broad base of engineering, operations, asset management and project development experience through senior positions with local government including the City of Delta (Deputy Director of Development), City of Richmond (Director of Operations, Director of Major Projects, Director of Project Development) and City of White Rock (City Engineer, Deputy Director of Operations).
Greg has significant experience building multi-disciplinary teams to deliver quality services and programs related to facilities operations and development. While at the City of Richmond, Greg was the Project Leader for the Olympic Oval project. He also led the development of Canada’s first LEED Gold certified building at the City of White Rock.
We are excited to have an experienced leader to engage and guide the Building Operations team as it moves forward with key initiatives to proactively and cost-effectively manage the operations and maintenance of the university’s facilities, providing a physical environment that supports exceptional learning and research outcomes.
Please join me in welcoming Greg to UBC.”
Building Operations and Energy & Water Services Collaborate To Perform Preventive Maintenance on Systems and Equipment
As part of an ongoing preventive maintenance for the campus high voltage system, feeder shutdowns are scheduled every five years. This past Saturday May 5, 2018 was the 12F11 High Voltage Feeder Shutdown. As usual, a lot of work went into the electrical feeder shutdown. It involved planning and coordinating between Building Ops trades, multiple departments, building users, and other stakeholders. Given the chance to completely de-energize electrical equipment, the crews were able to identify many deficiencies in the buildings. Some repairs were possible within the shutdown; other more substantial system upgrades have been identified for later dates.
In a more proactive approach, Building Operations electricians take the opportunity of doing additional secondary maintenance on all the electrical equipment in the buildings during shutdown. The electrical shop were able to perform maintenance work on all the electrical equipment in Wesbrook and Bio-Medical Research.
Building Operations had workers from 13 different crews on site, either supporting the main effort or taking advantage of the shutdown to perform other maintenance. Electrical maintenance addresses worker safety, prevention of losses and property damage, enhancement of system performance, and reduction of the probability of failure. Over the next month there will be two more feeder shutdowns on May 26 and June 9.
Thank you to E&WS, Building Ops and all faculty and staff for their hard work and cooperation!
IRC Roofing Renewal Underway–Park at Designated Parking Stalls
The IRC Roofing Renewal project is happening from May to September 2018. See map for designated parking for all Building Ops service vehicles.
UBC Wireless Changes Take Effect on May 9
On Wednesday May 9, changes are occurring to the UBC wireless network (Wi-Fi). Your action is required to ensure continued access on your devices (phones, tablets, laptops).
Manual configuration changes must be performed on your devices or else UBC wireless access will cease to connect, restricting its ability to access PeopleSoft and possibly the internet.
How do I update my device?
- Workshop Session
- Wednesday, May 9 – USB Training Room 0042B, 6:30 – 11:30 am
- May 7 – 15 – USB North Atrium (run by UBC IT Services), 8:00 – 10:00 am and 12:00 – 2:00 pm
- Coaches – Representatives from Building Operations and UBC IT are available to assist in updating devices.
- Evan Colville, Caroline Soriano, April Wong and Facilities Managers
- Custodial Services: Denise Tang and Sean Lynch
- Run the UBC IT Auto-Connect tool yourself to update configuration – For instructions on how to update configuration on your device yourself, please visit www.it.ubc.ca/autoconnect
UBC Honours Staff with 25 Years of Service
Established by President Walter Gage in 1971, the 25-year Club recognizes staff with 25 years of service to UBC. The Club also recognizes staff who have reached the additional milestone of 35 years and 40 years of active service. An annual dinner is held in their honor.
On May 10, the following will be inducted in the 25-Year Club:
- Felicia Maria Cerros
- Stella Frangolias
- Maria Kieta-Chung
- Borjana Munjiza
- Filomena O’Connor
- Mike Robson
- Tamas Weidner
35-Year Honouree: Sarita Nair
40-Year Honourees: David Greig and Anne Stanton
Congratulations to all the honourees for your dedication and commitment to UBC!
What to Know How to Build Your Resumé? Come to Lunch and Learn Sessions this May
HR is running a series of lunch and learn sessions to help you improve your resume and succeed in UBC job opportunities. Bring your lunch to these sessions and learn more.
35th Annual Building Operations Golf Tournament Coming Soon
Building Operations’ number 1 social event is happening on June 16th. Guaranteed to be lots of fun and lots of sun (hopefully!). See Winston at the Stores/Tool Crib Counter or any of the committee members to register.
Thank You To All Who Participated in the Faculty and Sports Day on May 4
Faculty and Sports Day is a great way for us to have fun and meet others from other departments of UBC. There were 600 participants in this year’s event. Thank you to those who represented Building Operations as they had fun mini-golfing, racing through a bouncy castle or participating in wheelchair basketball. Thank you Alisdair Rothnie, Ben Scott, Brad Haywood, Deb Capps, Henry Chow, Issac Poku, James Bellavance, Jon Makowski, Matthew Harraway, Matt Shew, Michael Laing, Nikki Gaulton, Richard Culzac, Roozbeh Atabaki, Shirley Tseng, Thomas Shields and Trevor McGregor. Visit the Sports Day website for photos of the event.
We’re Hiring…Check Out These Job Postings
#29755 – Day Part-Time Service Worker
#29756 – Day Part-Time Service Worker
#29470 – Tile Setter (repost)
#29792 – Bricklayer (repost)
#29774 – Payroll Administrator
#29787 – Health and Safety Coordinator
*Note: Always look on designated job postings boards for full listings.
Quick Updates
NPS scored remained at 80% with 4 new promoters and 2 new detractors.
Welcome to UBC: Alexander Hutchinson, Cameron Rothnie, Erick Brock, Joshua de Boar, Nick Sabluti, Roy Davis, Ryan Beach, Sabri Ekici, William Westaway
Francois Desmarais Blue Zone FM from May 7 – June 22