Job growth keeps us healthy. Extreme or sustained work-related stress can hurt us and drain public resources like health care. Psychosocial hazards raise workers’ risk of psychological or bodily injury. Psychosocial hazards must be considered in workplace safety. This guidance helps businesses identify psychosocial hazards and execute them in a practical, proportionate, and industry-appropriate manner.
Your mind matters at work – prioritize a safe and healthy mindset.
Workplace hazards are a well-known and serious concern. The Australian Workplace Health and Safety Act requires that employers provide a safe working environment for their employees, which includes addressing physical hazards such as noise, temperature and lighting levels. However, you might be surprised to learn that the workplace can also be hazardous when it comes to psychosocial conditions such as stress, depression and anxiety.
These types of hazards have adverse effects on employees’ physical health including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. While this may seem like an abstract problem for some industries or professions more than others (for instance, healthcare workers), it’s important for all employers to be mindful of these risks because they’re becoming more common across all industries due to technological advances changing how we work every day – not just office workers but everyone from construction workers to farmers who use heavy equipment during harvest season who could face even greater risk of injury due to psychosocial factors like job demands & expectations in conjunction with stressors related to long hours).
You might have heard that the workplace can be hazardous to your health. This can certainly be true.
Physical hazards such as noise, temperature and light levels can all affect your wellbeing. Psychosocial hazards are also hazardous to workers’ wellbeing and include stress, depression and anxiety.
This is where employers need to be particularly aware of their duty of care towards their employees’ safety as well as protecting them from harm at work by ensuring they have appropriate policies in place which address these issues effectively.
Psychosocial hazards are those that affect workers’ wellbeing, including stress and mental health issues.
They include job insecurity and high workloads as well as shift work or long hours.
Psychosocial hazards can be caused by:
- Your job itself (the nature of your tasks)
- The way you’re treated at work (how well you are managed)
There are many different types of psychosocial hazards at work.
Psychosocial hazards can be physical, chemical or biological. Stress is a type of psychosocial hazard that can affect people’s health and safety at work. Stress is a response to demands placed on workers, such as high workloads and poor working conditions. It can also result from inadequate training for new jobs or difficult interactions with co-workers or supervisors.
The workplace experience is not limited to physical conditions such as noise, temperature or light levels.
Psychosocial hazards are those that affect workers’ wellbeing, including stress and mental health issues. There are many different types of psychosocial hazards at work:
- job insecurity
- harassment (sexual or otherwise)
- bullying or intimidation
Psychosocial hazards can lead to a variety of adverse effects on employees and their families, including stress, depression and anxiety.
Stress is an unavoidable part of life. It’s the body’s natural response to any situation that demands change or adjustment from us. The problem comes when stress becomes chronic and overwhelming; this in turn leads to physical health problems like heart disease or diabetes as well as mental health problems such as depression or anxiety disorders
(1). Depression is characterized by feelings of sadness that interfere with daily functioning for at least two weeks; it affects about 350 million people worldwide
(2). Anxiety disorders include panic disorder (which causes sudden attacks), generalized anxiety disorder (which causes excessive worry) and phobias (such as fear of spiders).
But it can also lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Stress can have a negative impact on your health in many ways:
- It increases your risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing levels of catecholamines (hormones produced by the adrenal gland). These hormones increase blood pressure and heart rate, which increases the risk of developing coronary artery disease.
- Stress increases cortisol levels in the body – this hormone is released when we feel threatened or anxious. High levels of cortisol cause fat deposits to accumulate around our waistline; this leads to weight gain which further increases our risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) because insulin resistance develops when there is too much fat around organs such as muscle tissue or liver cells that produce glucose from food digested by digestive enzymes secreted into small intestine during digestion process called enterocytes; enterocytes absorb sugars present inside them after breaking down proteins into amino acids using pepsinogen enzyme produced by gastric mucosa lining stomach wall; these amino acids along with other nutrients taken orally get absorbed through intestinal walls into bloodstream where they circulate until reaching target organs like brain cells etc.
Stress may also cause musculoskeletal disorders such as back pain and neck pain.
Stress can cause tension in your muscles, which can lead to muscle spasms or strains. It’s important to note that stress is not the only factor that causes these conditions; genetics, age and physical activity are also important factors in developing them.
There are steps employers can take to protect their employees from the harmful effects of psychosocial hazards in the workplace.
The first step in addressing psychosocial hazards is to be aware of them. Psychosocial hazards are not always obvious or easy to spot, so employers should make sure they take the time to conduct a thorough assessment of their workplace’s psychosocial environment. This can be done through tools such as surveys, interviews with employees and managers, or focus groups involving workers from different departments or areas within an organization (such as human resources). It’s also important for employers to consult experts who have experience with this type of assessment; for example, occupational health nurses may have expertise in identifying and measuring stress levels among employees because they regularly administer physical exams at work sites across Australia.
Once you’ve identified any potential psychosocial hazards in your business environment–whether it’s bullying among co-workers or high levels of stress due to long hours spent staring at computer screens–you’ll need some sort of plan for dealing with them effectively so that everyone stays safe throughout their day-to-day activities at work sites across Australia.
Mental safety is just as important as physical safety in the workplace.
As we’ve seen, psychosocial hazards can have serious consequences for employees and their families. The good news is that there are steps employers can take to protect their workers from these risks. In particular, it’s important for businesses to implement policies around stress management, workplace safety and wellbeing initiatives that can help keep workers healthy and productive at work.
