Workplace Issues

After completing this chapter, students should be able to 

Describe the process and implications of providing job enrichment in the workplace. 

Describe how the unionization of employees and the presence of labor unions affect managerial processes and decision making. 

Discuss methods for assisting employees to cope with stress. 

Identify the requirements for intervening with impaired pharmacists. 

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Trimpy, M. and Davidson, S. (1994). Chaos, perfectionism and sabotage Personality disorders in the workplace. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 15 27-36. 

Examples of workplace issues which require safety survey techniques include ... 

A joint L/M occupational safety and health committee is a specialized application of the joint L/M committee and is an excellent fonnaL which others can replicate. This type of committee is organized to address specific workplace issues such as the following ... 

Safety ia the P/M industry workplace is also a concern regarding the operation of compacting presses. Guarding devices are required by OSHA to prevent injuries. Those devices applying specifically to metal powder compacting presses are described in a standard issued by the Metal Powder Industries Federation. 

Scientific and Technological Literacy. There is increasing concern within the business community about the effectiveness of the precoUege education system (K—12) in preparing students for an increasingly technically sophisticated workplace. This issue is of special importance to the chemical enterprise, which will find it more difficult to operate effectively in a society that does not understand science and the scientific process (42). 

In developing countries, priorities have often been different. Industrialization, water and food supply and sanitation, infrastructure improvements, and basic health care are often the focus of the leaders of a country. In some areas, the availability of a job is much more problematic than some consideration about the quality of the air in the workplace or the home. Many dwellings in developing countries do not have closable windows and doors, so the outdoor and indoor air quality issues are different. In some houses where cooking is done by firewood or charcoal, the air quality outdoors may be considerably better than that inside the smoky residence. 

Regulatory and advisory bodies publish methods for ambient air analysis sueh as those issued by the British Standards Institute and the US Environment Proteetion Ageney (Tables 10.24 and 10.25, respeetively). Methods for assessment of workplace air are published by the Health and Safety Exeeutive. Some of these are generie methods (Table 10.26) whilst others are eompound speeifie (Table 10.27). Examples of other offieial methods for monitoring workplaee air quality are those published by the British Standards Institute (Table 10.28), and the US National Institute of Oeeupational Safety and Health (Table 10.29). Table 10.30 provides additional guidanee on analytieal teehniques for a seleetion of substanees. 

These improvements are more likely to occur at the program and element level. For example, at one chemical company a group of senior operators took an initiative to redesign the work permit process that reduced the number of forms required, reduced the time required to issue a permit from an average of two hours to 30 minutes and improved the workplace monitoring needed to ensure a safe work environment. The reduction in the time to issue permits increased maintenance productivity by at least 10 percent, by reducing maintenance worker time spent waiting for permits. This more responsive system also reduced the number of instances where work went ahead without the appropriate permit. 

Healtli issues, most importantly, conttuninants in tlie workplace, have become OSHA s primary concern. Healtli haztu-ds are comple.v and difficult to define. Because of this, OSHA has been slow to implement healtli standards. To be complete, each standard requires medical surveillance, record keeping, monitoring, and physical reviews. On the other side of the ledger, safety hazards are aspects of the work environment tliat are e. pected to cause deatli or serious physical harm immediately or before tlie imminence of such danger can be eliminated. 

The quality of life experienced by people with MCS is shaped, to a great extent, by the level of awareness of environmental health issues where they live and work. Some are recipients of workplace accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act others are harassed and ostracized at work, or fired from their jobs. Some disabled by chemical exposures in the workplace receive workers compensation the majority of chemical-illness claims are denied. Some cities, schools and other institutions have adopted fragrance-free policies and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs to reduce chemical barriers and dangers in public places others still resist despite all the prevalence studies and research indicating that MCS is a serious threat to public health. 

Elizabeth s ability to live well with MCS can be attributed in part to a supportive husband and an employer willing to make accommodations in her workplace. Since I interviewed her, a fragrance-free policy was adopted in her workplace, and environmental health issues have been considered in the planning of renovations in her department. 

Referrals, policy development, research and advocacy. Expertise in indoor air issues, rights of those disabled by chemical/environ-mental exposures, public and commercial buildings access issues, accommodations in the workplace and more. Provides info package, media packages, educational materials and speakers bureau. Member of the President s Committee on Employment of People with... 

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