Today’s greatest workplace risk isn’t falling or infectious agents, which are more or less under control, but increasing pressure, precarious contracts, and working hours incompatible with life, which, bit by bit, continue to feed the invisible accident rate that does not appear in the news.
In today’s frenetic and competitive market, stress has become almost as common at the office as the coffee machine. It is the second most common workplace health problem and is responsible for half of all absences.
It is most common in the service and care sectors, jobs with a high percentage of female employees, where relationships with people can be exhausting. “The idea that the customer is always right has been very damaging to the wellbeing of many workers,” says José Antonio Llosa, PhD in Psychology at the University of Gijón. According to Llosa, at the other end of the spectrum, the most affected employees are highly skilled workers who face “serious levels of demand for excellence.”
Work-related stress is primarily the result of overwork and an increase in the use of technology. According to the ILO’s most recent health and safety report, 36 percent of the world’s employees work too much (more than 48 hours a week), and all of this overtime puts them at risk.
“There is a close correlation between excessive working hours and accidents at work,” the report warns. “Excessive working hours are associated with the chronic effects of fatigue, which can lead to cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, high rates of anxiety, depression, and sleeping disorders.”
Ana Isabel Mariño, labour and social security inspector, acknowledges that these psychosocial risks, combined with ergonomic risks related to harmful movements and postures, are “the most serious today.” However, companies still fail to take preventative measures. “There are usually no protocols in place, just as there are no protocols for dealing with harassment and even sexual harassment,” says Mariño.
Measures are lacking for both raising awareness within companies and updating current legislation. According to UGT, “psychosocial risks are still not included in the catalogue of professional illnesses.” For this reason, many companies do not include them in their risk analyses and they are ignored in medical examinations.
Over the last year there have been some minor advances “such as the recognition of occupational burnout,” says Llosa. “However, we have to be careful with labels. It’s not the fault of the worker who doesn’t know how to deal with the stress,” she explains. The problem cannot be remedied with anti-anxiety drugs, exercise, or meditation but must be dealt with at the source by changing the way that work is organized.
Job insecurity, precarious contracts, and low wages have created a new category of working poor. Today, in addition to earning low wages, they are also more likely to become sick or injured.
“This flexibility and mobility, this extreme and constant obligation to leave your zone of comfort without any type of security results in extreme physical and emotional exhaustion. Job insecurity is linked to poor mental health outcomes with higher rates of depression, anxiety and despondency. It also impacts the way people organize their lives and frustrates their plans,” says Llosa.
Llosa, who is participating in a research project on precariousness and mental health, also warns of a direct link between job insecurity and drug consumption and between perpetual uncertainty and thoughts of suicide. “Obviously suicidal thoughts do not necessarily equate to attempts, but they are indicative of a very deep malaise.”
At the same time, precariousness has physical consequences. “The number of accidents has increased in absolute terms and in severity since 2013, coinciding with increased labor flexibility,” adds Mariño in reference to the figures for workplace accidents in Spain.
The most vulnerable workers are those employed on a temporary or casual basis, those subcontracted through agencies and the false self-employed. ILO data shows the rate of accidents for these employees to be much higher than for any others.
In addition, they are hired to do the most dangerous work, have less access to training, are more susceptible to harassment and generally have a harder time asserting their rights. They are consistently faced with a choice between health and work, between enduring pain or running the risk of not being called back.
