Stress health risk, workplaces

Studies suggest work stress may increase a person s risk for cardiovascnlar disease, psychological disorders, workplace injnry, and other health problems. Early warning signs may inclnde headaches, sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, job dissatisfaction, and low morale. Ensnre workloads remain in line with workers capabilities and resonrces. Design jobs to provide meaning, stimulation, and opportunities for workers to use their skills. 

Some hazards are caused by workplace exposure. Other hazards arise from a combination of workplace exposure and personal lifestyle. Two examples illustrate this point. Stress may arise at work (and usually does to some extent) and be quite tolerable to an individual. However, combine that with stress from the individual s personal life (such as undergoing a divorce or a bereavement) and harm to health can easily arise. The other example is musculo-skeletal injury, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, which may be experienced by a VDU operator using a keyboard all day. Combine the workplace activity with a hobby of surfing the net and it easy to see that this additional exposure increases the risk of wrist injury. In both these examples it is not easy to determine which of these activities are the causative factors and what their contributions are to the resulting harm. An activity that is not a hazard because it does not cause harm can become one under different circumstances. 

EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress Campaign Guide—Managing stress and psychosocial risks at work European Agency for Safety and Health at Work 29 pp. ISBN 978-92-9240-400-0 doi 10.2802/16611 20I3. 

Dollard, M., Skinner, N., Tuckey, M.R. Bailey, T. (2007). National surveillance of psychosocial risk factors in the workplace An international overview. Work Stress An International Journal of Work, Health Organisations, 21(1), pp. 1-29. 

Other specific tools can help analyze the workplace. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has voluntary and advisory guidelines relating to workplace violence, stress reduction, conflict resolution, risk assessment, and health issues related to this hazard. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has similar resources available. Many other private organizations will provide information and leads to professionals who practice the services needed. Of course, all of these organizations should be used throughout the process of developing and implementing the plan. 

Several factors were discussed in this chapter that affect whether employees react to workplace hazards with alarm, apathy, or something in between. Taken together, these factors shape personal perceptions of risk and illustrate why the job of improving safety is so daunting. This justifies more resources for safety and health programs, as well as intervention plans to motivate continual employee involvement. I discuss various intervention approaches in Section 4. But before discussing strategies to fix the problem, we need to understand how stress, distress, and personal attributions contribute to the problem. That is our topic for the next chapter. 

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