A quarterly walk-through of common office hazards: exits, electrical, ergonomics, first aid and emergency plans.
Offices are lower risk than sites or kitchens, but trips, overloaded power strips and blocked exits are common. A short walk-through finds them.
Your legal obligations depend on your state and industry. Use this as a practical base.
15 items. Complete it digitally or on paper, whichever your team prefers.
During a quarterly check, an office manager finds a space heater plugged into a chain of power strips under a desk and a blocked side exit. Both are fixed that day, and a note goes to staff about heaters.
OSHA’s exit route rules at 29 CFR 1910.36 and 1910.37 require exit routes to stay free and unobstructed. Where an OSHA standard requires an emergency action plan, employers with more than 10 employees must put it in writing, while smaller ones may share it orally.
| Exit routes | Side exit blocked by file boxes, cleared |
|---|---|
| Cables | 1 cord across aisle at printer, rerouted |
| Extinguishers | 2 units, monthly tags initialed |
| Smoke detectors | 4 tested, all sounded |
| Power strips | Heater on chained strips at desk 9, removed |
| First-aid kit | Bandages and gauze restocked |
| Evacuation drill | Last held May 2, next due this month |
Renee ran this check at Brightline Accounting, a 14-person office in Columbus, Ohio. Each problem was fixed during the walk and written as fixed, so the record shows the outcome, not only the finding.
Quarterly is common.
A trained, designated person.
Check your local requirements.
Share a home workstation checklist.
Whether an office must have extinguishers usually comes from the local fire code, not OSHA. If you do provide portable extinguishers for employees to use, OSHA’s standard at 29 CFR 1910.157 expects a monthly visual check, annual maintenance and training on their use. Some employers instead plan for full evacuation, which changes the requirements.
Some landlords and local fire codes ban them, so check your lease first. Where they are allowed, plug each heater straight into a wall outlet, never a power strip, and keep it about three feet from paper, curtains and bins. Units with tip-over and overheat shutoff are the safer choice.
More for the same job
Assign the work in EZTime to an employee, a team or a whole location, ask for photo proof, and get a late alert instead of chasing people. Book a demo if you want a walkthrough.