Psychosocial Risk Factors; The nature of the job, workload and work tempo vary according to the work schedule, relations at the workplace and career.
What is psychosocial hazard?
Psychosocial hazards are aspects of job design, organisation and management, and the social and environmental conditions in which it is performed, that have the potential to cause psychological, social, or physical harm.
When the requirements of the job conflict with the knowledge, skills and needs of the worker (quantitative overload, qualitative underload) and especially when the worker’s control over his job and the social support of his job are insufficient, the job and the psychosocial hazards it creates become stressful and begin to affect health and create psychosocial risks.
Psychosocial risk factors in occupational safety
The existence of psychosocial risks has been accepted in both developed and developing countries and many studies have been conducted on it. Especially considering the health problems caused by work-related stress, psychosocial risk factors are accepted as a phenomenon that adversely affects the productivity of the employee. As a result of work-related stress, the use of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs increases, and as a result, psychosocial risk factors are not only a factor affecting the working life of the employee, but also negatively affect the family and social life of the employee. Of course, workers whose mental health is affected by the work environment can make a common law claim for their psychological injury.
Work stress
In today’s world, factors such as the acceleration of the transition to the information age, the competitiveness in production and customer relations, the increase in the demand for qualified workforce, the innovation and change affecting the structure and management styles of the existing systems in every field affect the business life deeply. In such an environment, employees may experience intense work stress due to reasons such as having to act quickly, having problems adapting to change, or facing a workload beyond their capacity.
Occupational stress is also defined as a situation that brings about changes arising from people’s work relationships and preventing people from their normal functions. Stress; It can accelerate physical and psychological disorders, cause job dissatisfaction and performance problems, increase employee turnover and absenteeism, create depression and anxiety, and cause various physical disorders. Many stress-related disorders can lead to consequences such as loss of motivation, slowing down of work, change in performance, decreased productivity, various diseases and death.
Symptoms of stress caused by psychosocial risk factors
Stress related symptoms; can be grouped into 4 groups as physical, emotional, mental, and social;
Physical symptoms
- Headache
- Irregular sleep
- Back pains
- Jaw twitching or teeth grinding
- Constipation, diarrhea, and colitis
- Debris
- Muscle pains
- Indigestion
- Ulcer
- Hypertension
- Heart attack
- Excessive Sweating
- Change in appetite
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Increase in accidents
Emotional symptoms
- Anxiety or worry
- Depression or crying quickly
- Rapid and continuous change of mental state
- Irritability
- Tension
- Decreased self-confidence or feelings of insecurity
- Hypersensitivity or fragility
- outbursts of anger
- aggression or hostility
- feeling emotionally drained
Mental symptoms
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Forgetfulness
- Confusion
- Weakness in memory
- Excessive daydreaming
- Preoccupation with a single idea or thought
- Loss of sense of humour
- Increase in errors
- Weakening in reasoning
Social symptoms
- Distrust towards people
- Blame others
- Not going to appointments or cancelling too soon
- Trying to find fault with people and hurting them verbally
- Overly defensive attitude
- Be offended by many people
- Not talk
Stress management
Since stress arises because of the relationship between the individual and his environment; In a sense, preventing the negative effects of stress will be possible by controlling the environment. In this context, first; It is necessary to eliminate and/or control the causes of stress, secondly, to eliminate the effects of stress, and thirdly, to increase the resistance of individuals by making them stronger against stress.
Managers and employees generally prefer one of the “problem-focused” or “emotion-focused” approaches in coping with stress at the institutional level. The problem-focused approach suggests focusing on the sources of stress and is considered a more effective approach than the other. It is seen that those who follow this approach are more optimistic and more successful in coping with stress. Emotion-focused approach, on the other hand, generally focuses on the good aspects of the event rather than the sources of stress, and “It could have been worse!”, “There is good in every job!” It is evaluated as an approach that recommends coping with stress with thoughts such as.
Institutional stages in combating stress
Institutional management must first find the sources of stress that lead employees to stress. Since the structure, culture and characteristics of each institution will be different, sources of stress may also differ within themselves. The institution must share the methods and strategies it has developed with its employees to reduce and eliminate sources of stress. Because it will only be possible to provide employees with the experience of combating stress by including them in this process. On the other hand, the management of the institution should be in constant communication with the employees about the consequences of stress and should make constant changes to reach more effective stress management techniques by informing them of the developments.
Stress management stages
- Identifying sources of stress,
- Reducing or eliminating sources of stress,
- Providing employees with a stress experience,
- Informing employees about the consequences of stress,
- Helping to be more effective at dealing with stress.
Work health and safety laws in NSW define work-related injuries/accidents also on psychological/psychiatric grounds. Nurse primary psychological injuries caused by employment are included in the NSW workers compensation system while secondary psychological/psychiatric problems arise as a result of another work injury are precluded from this scheme. If you suffered a psychological injury, you may be entitled to a compensation benefit, including a common law payout. For this, we recommend that you contact a personal injury lawyer for a work injury damages claim. In this way, you can learn in the most accurate way what your legal entitlements are.
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