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PubMed2005

A snapshot of workplace drug testing in the UK.

BACKGROUND: There is a growing trend towards workplace drug testing in the UK, but there is little published data associated with this work. AIM: This survey reviews our findings from workplace drug testing in comparison with the results obtained from routine illicit drug monitoring. METHODS: The results of the analysis of 1617 specimens from 82 workplace drug testing sources and 12,281 submitted from drug dependency units were collated and compared. RESULTS: Workplace specimens were found to be positive for amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine and heroin. CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here suggest that a regular monitoring is required to discern the true extent of drug use in the workplace, especially in safety critical areas.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2007

Work-related asthma symptoms and attitudes to the workplace.

BACKGROUND: The Health & Safety Executive estimate that between 1500-3000 UK workers develop asthma through potentially avoidable workplace exposures each year. AIMS: To assess the perception of health, safety and the work environment by workers with symptoms suggestive of occupational asthma. METHODS: A total of 97 workers referred to hospital specialists with symptoms suggestive of occupational asthma were studied in order to investigate their attitudes to the workplace, safety and health. A qualitative study design using semi-structured telephone interviews at 2 months and 12 months following enrolment was used at 6 national UK centres with a special interest in occupational asthma. RESULTS: Many workers in the study felt let down by the workplace and management and perceived that a lack of health and safety measures had contributed to the development of their asthma symptoms. Many workers felt that their employers were 'uncaring' and were pursuing or considering medico-legal cases against them. CONCLUSIONS: Workers' perception of risk influences their behaviour in the workplace, and their own health beliefs potentially create barriers to changing this. It is essential to consider workers' perceptions when developing strategies to effect change within the workplace.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Relationship of lumbar strength in shipyard workers to workplace injury claims.

STUDY DESIGN: Strength testing of lumbar extensors of shipyard workers without back injury claims was accomplished to compare isolated lumbar strength with the severity of their workplace physical demands and the incidence of workplace back injury during a 2-year period. OBJECTIVES: To determine if strength is a predictor of workplace injury and if there is a relationship between the physical demands of the job and strength. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The role of preplacement strength testing has not been clarified as a potential means for predicting workplace injury. It has not been clarified whether work activity affects the strength of the worker. METHODS: One hundred fifty-two shipyard workers were strength tested for isometric lumbar extensor strength. They had been classified as to the severity of their job demands according to the Physical Demand Characteristics. All workers at this industry were likewise classified. Those workers who were tested were followed for 2 years to evaluate for claims of back injury. RESULTS: There was a higher incidence of low back injuries in the heavy and very heavy classification. There was, however, no difference in strength among those workers classified in medium, heavy, and very heavy work. Nine percent of those workers tested had back pains during the following 2 years. All but two had higher-than-average strength. CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence that preplacement back strength testing would predict workplace claims of injury.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

The role of the workplace in the production and containment of health costs: the case of stress-related disorders.

Workplaces vary enormously in the amount of harmful stress they produce, even within specific economic sectors. Stress of certain kinds and at certain levels tend to produce health harms and costs that are borne not only by individual employees and employers but also by families and society at large. Variations in stress levels within economic sectors can be traced to variations in management practices that govern key conditions of work involving demand, effort, control and reward. The costs of stress-related disorders produced by adverse governance practices are transferred outside the workplace in varying degrees. The actual extent of this cost transfer depends on policies and programs within the workplace. We can characterize workplaces according to a typology in which the key dimensions are commitment to abate harm through participatory management practices and the effectiveness and efficiency of harm containment through programs such as employee assistance and health promotion. The most health-promoting and cost-avoiding workplaces foster high control, high reward conditions and support employees with employee assistance and health promotion programs. The policy implications of this observation are drawn out.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed2003

The use of mental models in chemical risk protection: developing a generic workplace methodology.

We adopted a comparative approach to evaluate and extend a generic methodology to analyze the different sets of beliefs held about chemical hazards in the workplace. Our study mapped existing knowledge structures about the risks associated with the use of perchloroethylene and rosin-based solder flux in differing workplaces. "Influence diagrams" were used to represent beliefs held by chemical experts; "user models" were developed from data elicited from open-ended interviews with the workplace users of the chemicals. The juxtaposition of expert and user understandings of chemical risks enabled us to identify knowledge gaps and misunderstandings and to reinforce appropriate sets of safety beliefs and behavior relevant to chemical risk communications. By designing safety information to be more relevant to the workplace context of users, we believe that employers and employees may gain improved knowledge about chemical hazards in the workplace, such that better chemical risk management, self-protection, and informed decision making develop over time.

Chemical Industry↗

PubMed2004

Workplace breastfeeding support for hospital employees.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding initiation rates have been steadily rising in Hong Kong, but most employed women wean prior to returning to work. While health care providers promote breastfeeding, women receive little support from employers. A few health care facilities offer some workplace breastfeeding support, but little is known about the specific types and amount of support that are offered. AIMS: This paper reports a study whose aim was to describe workplace supports available to breastfeeding women employed by hospitals that provide maternity services in Hong Kong, and to determine if differences in workplace supports exist based on the hospitals' numbers of employees or funding source. METHODS: In late 2001, a cross-sectional survey was completed by nurse managers or lactation consultants most knowledgeable about supports to breastfeeding employees in 19 hospitals. FINDINGS: The number of workplace breastfeeding supports or Breastfeeding Support Score (M = 7.47; sd = 3.37) varied considerably. Mean Breastfeeding Support Score for government-funded hospitals was significantly higher (t = 2.31; P = 0.03) than for private hospitals. Of the 14 hospitals that had a designated space for using a breast pump, only five (26.3%) had a private room with a door that locked. Only two hospitals (11.1%) allowed employees to take breaks as needed to use a pump; employees in 10 (55.6%) had to use their meal and regular break times. Hospitals having a hospital-wide committee that addressed workplace breastfeeding issues had a more supportive environment for breastfeeding employees. Although all surveyed hospitals returned the questionnaire, the sample size was small. It was difficult to ensure accuracy and to differentiate subtle variations in the services provided using a self-report survey. CONCLUSIONS: Facilitating continued breastfeeding after employees' return to work requires that employers understand the needs of breastfeeding employees. Policy at the level of the employer and government is an essential component of creating a supportive environment.

Breast Feeding↗

PubMed2006

Investigation of the relationships among workplace stressors, ways of coping, and the mental health of Chinese head nurses.

Limited information exists about which workplace events are stressful for nurses in charge of a hospital patient-care unit (head nurse) in China and how these nurses cope with these events. Therefore, the purposes of this descriptive study were to examine workplace stressors, ways of coping, and the levels of mental health of Chinese head nurses, as well as to identify the relationships among the workplace stressors, ways of coping, and mental health of Chinese head nurses. To address these purposes, four self-report questionnaires were administered to a convenience sample of 92 head nurses from two teaching hospitals located in one city in central China. The findings suggested that workload, death/dying, and conflict with physicians were the most predominant sources of workplace stress, while the most frequent coping strategies used were positive reappraisal, planful problem solving, and self-control. The mental health scores were found to be lower than prior research has suggested for some nurses in Asia. A number of significant correlations were found among demographic characteristics, workplace stressors, ways of coping, and mental health.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1998

Screening for unhealthy lifestyle factors in the workplace.

OBJECTIVE: To examine (1) the prevalence of four lifestyle behaviours among Australia Post employees and (2) employees' perceptions of the role of the workplace in promotion of lifestyle change. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire involved 688 employees working in Australia Post throughout metropolitan Sydney. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence related to age and sex of alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, inadequate exercise, perception of excessive weight. RESULTS: 36% of men and 11% of women reported drinking alcohol at levels considered hazardous or harmful; 33% of men and 25% of women reported smoking; 51% of men and 62% of women thought they were overweight; 30% of men and 39% of women did not exercise regularly. Younger respondents were more likely to report drinking hazardously or harmfully, were smokers and had multiple risk factors. A majority of respondents thought that their employer should be interested in employee's lifestyle issues, particularly excessive drinking (63%). However, few considered seeking advice from the workplace regarding smoking (16%), weight (25%) and excessive alcohol consumption (12%). CONCLUSIONS: These results show that many of Australia Post employees have unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. While employees perceive that the workplace has an important role in promoting healthy lifestyles among staff, few are presently willing to seek advice from the workplace regarding these issues. Promotion of healthy lifestyles in Australian workplaces is a potentially important public health advance that could reduce the incidence of diseases associated with high-risk lifestyle behaviours.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

The demise of repetitive strain injury in sceptical governing rationalities of workplace managers.

In the mid-1990s, RSI (repetitive strain injury) loomed as an occupational health epidemic in industrialised countries. A decade later, the problem appears to have faded away, but there has been little explanation for how this problem might have diminished. This paper offers an explanation for the decline of RSI in the social relations of workplaces, in the pragmatic, day-to-day governance of occupational health by workplace managers. Using the conceptual lens of governmentality theory, this study examined how workplace managers conceptualised, rationalised and responded to RSI in their work organisations. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 35 managers at four Ontario newspaper workplaces. This paper describes managers as guided by a discourse of scepticism about the legitimacy of RSI complaints. This discourse was 'practised' in different ways at each newspaper in varied RSI-management strategies, but each strategy privileged ideas about RSI being problematic in certain types of workers rather than in types of physical work environments. This conceptualisation of RSI splintered, subordinated and collapsed the problem within a broad human resources framework. This paper suggests that the 'taming' of RSI might have occurred in the context of micro-political, workplace-level shifts in the conceptualisation and management of RSI as an occupational health problem.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Maternal perspectives on postpartum return to the workplace.

OBJECTIVE: To describe maternal perceptions about postpartum return to the workplace. DESIGN AND SETTING: The research framework was McCubbin and McCubbin's Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation. Employed, postpartum women, who resided in six different states, were recruited from day care and primary care settings to participate in this descriptive study. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four employed, married women, who returned to the workplace within one year after childbirth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: As part of a larger study, perceptions about combining multiple roles after return to the workplace are the focus for this report. RESULTS: Participants responded to open-ended questions about their return to the workplace during the first months after giving birth. Content analysis of those responses resulted in two major categories, Resiliency Challenges: Negative Aspects (role conflict/overload, family stress, family/child issues, finances, psychosocial issues) and Resiliency Building: Positive Aspects (social support, maternal role satisfaction, positive adaptation, career role satisfaction). CONCLUSIONS: The data support the premise that employed women view returning to the workforce as having more challenges than they expected because the experience was viewed as being mostly negative. Preparing for return to the workplace is an important, but neglected, topic that needs to be addressed and defined more clearly in the literature. Therefore, future research is needed to identify resources and interventions that will help women experience fewer challenges associated with postpartum employment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Development of an ecological assessment tool for a workplace physical activity program standard.

This project was undertaken to develop a Workplace Physical Activity Assessment Tool to evaluate workplace physical activity programs based on a standard of best practices indicated in the literature and by key stakeholders. The development of the Assessment Tool was structured on an ecological model for health and physical activity promotion and an occupational health and safety audit instrument. The project included a review and synthesis of pertinent literature, expert and stakeholder reviews, interrater reliability appraisals, and workplace consultations over three distinct study phases. The Assessment Tool was received positively by the expert reviewers (i.e., academics, policy makers, and practitioners) and revealed generally high interrater reliability. The Workplace Physical Activity Assessment Tool can be used to plan, implement, and evaluate physical activity programs in the workplace. Recommendations for future research are identified.

Alberta↗

PubMed2006

Impact of smoke-free workplace legislation on exposures and health: possibilities for prevention.

The aims of this study were to review experiences with national or statewide smoke-free workplace legislation and data on the occurrence of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure at work, to present the best estimates for health effects related to workplace ETS exposure, and to calculate corresponding population attributable fractions (PAFs) for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases for 14 European countries and the USA. Systematic searches of the Medline database were carried out, with a cut-off date of November 2005. PAFs for the main outcomes were calculated from the best disease-specific effect estimates and country-specific prevalences of work ETS exposure. Significant numbers of workers are exposed to ETS at work, i.e. approximately 7.5 million workers in 15 European Union countries and 24.6 million in the USA. Workplace ETS exposure is causally linked to lung cancer and coronary heart disease, and is related to an increased risk of asthma in adults and reduced birthweight in newborns. Relatively strong evidence links ETS exposure to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and stroke. PAFs in Europe and the USA showed that, at current workplace ETS exposure prevalences, the public health impact is substantial. Experience of national and statewide smoke-free workplace legislation from different countries shows that such legislation leads to significant reductions in employees' environmental tobacco smoke exposure at work, as well as improvements in respiratory and cardiac health.

Coronary Disease↗

PubMed2006

Prevalence and distribution of alcohol use and impairment in the workplace: a U.S. national survey.

OBJECTIVE: Although much research has explored overall alcohol use in the workforce, little research has explored the extent of alcohol use and impairment in the workplace. This study explored the overall prevalence, frequency, and distribution of alcohol use and impairment during the workday. METHOD: Data were collected from a national probability sample of 2805 employed adults using a random digit dialing telephone survey. Alcohol use within 2 hours of reporting to work, alcohol use during the workday, working under the influence of alcohol, and working with a hangover were assessed for the 12 months preceding the interview. RESULTS: Workplace alcohol use and impairment directly affect an estimated 15% of the U.S. workforce (19.2 million workers). Specifically, an estimated 1.83% (2.3 million workers) drink before work, 7.06% (8.9 million workers) drink during the workday, 1.68% (2.1 million workers) work under the influence of alcohol, and 9.23% (11.6 million workers) work with a hangover. The results also suggest that most workplace alcohol use and impairment occur infrequently. The distribution of workplace alcohol use and impairment differs by gender, race, age, marital status, occupation, and work shift. CONCLUSION: Workplace alcohol use and impairment are prevalent enough that additional research should focus on their causes and impact on employee productivity. Moreover, clear policies should be in place regarding alcohol use and impairment at work. But despite management's responsibility for the development and enforcement of such policies, managers report elevated rates of consuming alcohol during the workday, working under the influence of alcohol, and working with a hangover.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

The structure of harassment and abuse in the workplace: a factorial comparison of two measures.

The structures of two measures examining negative experiences in the workplace, one focusing primarily on sexual harassment (SEQ) and one focusing on workplace abuse (GWA), were examined in detail. This article investigated whether the five subscales for the relatively unexplored measure (GWA) are reliably measured by a single underlying construct. It also investigated whether the two workplace-based measures are distinct but related constructs and the consistency of their factor structure across genders. Using a large and diverse organizational survey derived from a Midwestern university, analyses supported the distinctiveness of the two measures and showed that the factor structures for the two constructs were remarkably similar across genders. Analyses also suggested that indices of extreme behavior within each of the constructs were not reliably measured. The findings have important implications for data collection strategies in research focused on negative workplace experiences. This study provides considerable support for the continued use of both measures in research investigating the impact of adverse workplace environment on health.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

The impact of workplace smoking ordinances in California on smoking cessation.

OBJECTIVES: The effect of local workplace smoking laws in California was assessed to determine whether such laws increase smoking cessation. METHODS: Workplace smoking ordinance data from 1990 were appended to 1990 California Tobacco Survey data from 4680 adult indoor workers who were current cigarette smokers or reported smoking in the 6 months before the survey. Ordinance effects on cigarette smoking and worksite policy were estimated by using multiple logistic regression controlling for sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: Smokers who worked in localities with a strong workplace ordinance (compared with no workplace ordinance) were more likely to report the existence of a worksite smoking policy (odds ratio [OR] = 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2, 2.2) and to report quitting smoking in the prior 6 months (OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.1, 1.7). In communities with strong ordinances, an estimated 26.4% of smokers quit smoking within 6 months of the survey and were abstinent at the time of the survey, compared with an estimated 19.1% in communities with no ordinance. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace smoking ordinances increased smoking cessation among employed smokers, indicating that these laws may benefit smokers as well as nonsmokers.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Leaving it up to the workers: sociological perspective on the management of health and safety in small workplaces.

Small workplaces present particular challenges for the promotion of occupational health and safety. However, little is known about the social organization of work in such settings and how it relates to matters of health and safety. The research on which this article is based relates patterns of occupational health behavior to the nature of social relationships within the workplace. From a qualitative analysis of interviews with 53 small business owners, the author describes the most common approach to managing workplace health and safety: leaving it up to the workers. This posture is explained in terms of the owners' perception of risk, particularly their understanding of workplace hazards, and their assessment of the social costs of ignoring or addressing such issues. Owners tended to discount or normalize health hazards, and to believe that management intervention in employee health behavior was paternalistic and inconsistent with prevailing patterns of labor relations and norms respecting individual autonomy. Many owners understood health and safety not as a bureaucratic function of management but as a personal moral enterprise in which they did not have legitimate authority. The conceptualization of the owners' responses in terms of "social rationality" has implications for addressing problems of health and safety in small workplaces.

Alberta↗

PubMed1994

Examining violence in the workplace. A look at work-related fatalities.

This study identified only 6 out of a possible 33 homicide classifications for workplace violent crime. As expected, the largest number of offenders represented authority killings. Half that number, however, had the largest number of victims and were classified as nonspecific homicide. Interestingly, there is a high number of domestic homicides occurring in the workplace. One could speculate that as families break up, addresses and telephone numbers easily can be changed--but not necessarily employment. Victims are sought out at their places of employment and killed there. Argument/conflict homicides, which were expected to be high, accounted for only 7 homicides. Another important finding was the large number of suicides in this offender group. An important implication of this study for nurses is that violence in the workplace sometimes can be anticipated and possibly deterred. Hospitals and other facilities--with proper preparation and training of employees, and implementation of strict protocols--can become safer workplaces. In the event that workplace violence does occur, however, the nurse can be prepared--and perhaps save his or her life.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Workplace violence: the dark side of organisational life.

This paper draws on a diverse range of research literature addressing workplace violence, which constitutes one component of the dark side of organisational life. This selective review of the literature has been drawn from the disciplines of nursing, management, psychology and organisational culture. The paper focuses bullying and mobbing in the workplace, addressing its types, causes, the characteristics of bullies and targets and the generalised impact of bullying and mobbing. It also examines whether there are gender issues pertinent to the health care sector. Consideration will also be given to the impact on the individual, group and organization, given the apparent epidemic proportions workplace violence has reached. Ultimately, the question will arise: how can the workplace violence be abolished, specifically within the health care sector, given that we live in a global environment characterised by international bullying (Crawford 1999)? This is a challenge because workplace violence is perpetuated within organisations, due either to cultures of acceptance, or fear of retribution should it be acknowledged and acted upon (or both).

Female↗