Occupational Safety, Health, Security and Green IT Practices
Safe workstation, safe worker
Ergonomics fits the task to the person. Set the monitor top at or just below eye level, an arm's length away; elbows near 90 degrees; feet flat or on a footrest; lower back supported; wrists neutral. Follow 20-20-20: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Take micro-breaks, keep aisles clear, and never overload a single power socket.
Electrical and fire safety
No daisy-chained extension boards, no liquids near equipment, use earthed plugs and a UPS for critical machines. Know the exit route and assembly point. For a small fire use PASS - Pull the pin, Aim at the base, Squeeze the handle, Sweep side to side - and never throw water on an electrical fire.
Information security
Use long unique passwords with a manager, enable 2FA, lock the screen when leaving, and follow the clean-desk rule. Recognise phishing: urgency, unexpected attachments, mismatched sender address, links that do not match the visible text. Malware differs by type - a virus needs a host file, a worm self-replicates across networks, ransomware encrypts data and demands payment. Back up on the 3-2-1 pattern: three copies, two media, one off-site. Personal data must be handled under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
Green IT
Power down or sleep idle machines, enable duplex printing, prefer video calls to travel, virtualise servers, and send e-waste - boards, batteries, toner - only to authorised recyclers.
Worked example
An email from [email protected] says your mailbox closes in two hours unless you log in through a link. Reasoning: the domain is not the company's, the deadline pressures you, and it asks for credentials. Do not click; report it to IT and delete it.
Traps
- Believing antivirus replaces careful behaviour.
- Treating e-waste as ordinary rubbish.
- Mixing up a worm with a virus.