Safe to Say
For the people who carry the duty, and those who advise them.
Before anything else
Most of you are here because of an email from me, which means we've met, worked or collaborated previously. Thank you for saying yes. This first edition lands the day before People at Work, the free national psychosocial survey tool, switches off for good.
At the end of October I'm hosting the first GraceX RoundTable, for the people who partner with us and for anyone thinking about it. We share what we are learning and what we have tried. If you would like 5-7 minutes to introduce yourself, say what your business does and share one fun fact about you, reply to this email and I'll hold a spot.
What changed in the law
People at Work closes tomorrow, Friday 2 October. New accounts closed on 1 June and new surveys on 1 July. After tomorrow, only reports that have been exported survive, and raw survey data was never downloadable at all. WorkSafe Queensland gives two reasons for the closure: the tool did not cover hazards the model code now names, such as sexual harassment and isolated work, and response rates had been falling.
The duty did not close with the tool. Every Australian jurisdiction now regulates psychosocial risk. Victoria does it through its own psychological health regulations, in force since 1 December 2025. Every other state and territory, and the Commonwealth, does it through work health and safety regulations built on the national model.
What differs is the weight of the code of practice. In most places, a court can use the code as evidence of what you could reasonably have done. In QLD, and in NSW since 1 July 2026, a business must follow the code or show it manages the risk to an equivalent or higher standard. In Victoria, following the compliance code counts as meeting the duties it covers.
One detail worth knowing: the codes in QLD, the ACT and NT still send readers to People at Work. From Saturday, the document a regulator holds you against recommends a tool that no longer exists. The duty those codes describe does not change with it.
The takeaway
If you used People at Work, log in before it closes and export every report. WorkSafe Queensland publishes a guide to doing it. Then write one line next to each report saying what you did after reading it, and when. The report shows what you knew, and that line shows what you did, which is the part the duty asks for.
If you never used it, write down when you last consulted your people about how their work is organised, and what changed as a result. A dated page, even a short one, is the beginning of a record.
If your business is in NSW, help with the next step is now free. On 22 September the NSW Government launched the Psychosocial Advisory Service, built with the Black Dog Institute. It connects workers and employers with trained advisers on issues such as bullying, harassment and work-related stress. Call 13 10 50, select 1 for SafeWork NSW, then press 3. Outside NSW, start with your own state or territory regulator.
One favour to ask. Who do you know who would want to know where their business stands on psychosocial risk? It may well be you. Send them the ten-question check. It prints on two pages, with no sign-up and nothing to submit.
From the field
Over the past few weeks I've asked people who ran People at Work, and people who build tools in this space, what it actually did for them. The answers lined up: it collected data in a structured way, and it did not make anyone compliant, which it was never designed to do.
Someone who builds psychosocial tools made the same point under one of my posts. Plenty of businesses already run their own survey in Microsoft Forms and pull the results together in Excel. The survey is fine. What he sees is the next step stalling: the graphs arrive, and then nothing turns into action, or a team spends months on a plan that no longer matches how the work is done by the time it is finished.
A survey, on any platform, has never protected a business. What it led to does. When an inspector looks at psychosocial risk, I expect the conversation to come down to two questions: what did you know, and what did you do about it? The survey answers the first one. Half the evidence is still missing, even for a business that ran every cycle on time.
Strange but true
Your nostrils take turns, with one doing most of the breathing while the other rests, swapping every few hours. The strange part is that pressure can flip them. Pressure under one armpit opens the nostril on the other side. In a 1993 study, a crutch pressed into the armpit started shifting the airflow within a minute; by about four minutes both sides were even, and by around 17 minutes the other nostril had taken over. Lying on your side does the same thing, which researchers measured in 1986. Yoga practitioners used a T-shaped wooden prop, the yoga danda, under the arm to swap sides on purpose.
So, which armpit did you just press?
Where's the snake?
A situation that looks fine, and the questions that tell you whether a hazard is hiding in it. This month's comes from a reader, who asked about the emotional weight of dealing with distressed or unhappy clients when a claim is declined or money is tight. The codes of practice treat this as part of job demands.
Picture a team of five handling client claims. Most calls are routine. The hard ones are a client whose cover has just been declined, or a family behind on payments who wants to know why the money has not arrived. One person is so good with upset clients that the hardest calls now get passed to her, and she has never once said no.
How many hard calls does each person take in a day, and does anyone know the number?
After a hard call, what comes next: a few minutes, or the next call?
When a client is told no, can the person on the phone explain the decision, or only repeat it?
Can they end a call that turns abusive, and do they know they can?
Who would notice if the person taking the hardest calls went quiet?
Telling a client no is part of the job, so this hazard cannot be removed without removing the work. The duty then is to bring the risk down as far as you reasonably can, and to keep checking that what you put in place still works. The model code ranks the options from most effective to least. Between now and next month, think about your hardest calls in three of those ways. Substitution: is there a less draining way to deliver the same news? Isolation keeps a hazard at a distance, so ask how far the worst calls sit from the person least able to absorb them that day. And engineering is about the tools themselves: what would the phones, the queue or the case system need to do differently to carry some of the load? Training sits lower down that order, and a support line is support, not a control.
I'll work through all of it in the LinkedIn edition next Thursday, 8 October.
In case you missed it
GraceX RoundTable: which time suits you? All times are Sydney time.
A. Tuesday 27 October, 12 pm
B. Tuesday 27 October, 4.30 pm
C. Wednesday 28 October, 9 am
Reply with A, B or C. If none of them works, reply with a time that does.
If this was useful, forward it to someone who carries the same duty. If you want the weekly version, the bell on my LinkedIn profile turns it on.
