Summary: Your Health at Work by Becky Allen

Accord­ing to a recent study by The Con­fer­ence Board regard­ing the work­force, 34% of par­tic­i­pants not­ed a decrease in their men­tal well-being in the past six months, with 37% sens­ing a dimin­ished sense of inclu­sion. Near­ly half of these indi­vid­u­als linked their sen­ti­ments to issues aris­ing in the work environment.

Keep­ing this in con­sid­er­a­tion, the con­densed ver­sion of the book titled Your Well­ness at Work, writ­ten by Becky Allen and Howard Fid­der­man on behalf of the Trades Union Con­gress (TUC), deliv­ers a thor­ough exam­i­na­tion of poten­tial dan­gers in the work­place and chron­ic ill­ness­es, with a spe­cif­ic focus on men­tal and phys­i­cal health prob­lems that are either spawned or exac­er­bat­ed by work-relat­ed factors.

Suggestion

If con­cerns about health haz­ards at the work­place trou­ble you, this book is a must-read. Authors Becky Allen and Howard Fid­der­man, rep­re­sent­ing the Trades Union Con­gress (TUC), present an in-depth review of work­place risks and long-term ill­ness­es, address­ing men­tal health issues and med­ical con­di­tions that are either orig­i­nat­ed or inten­si­fied by work con­di­tions. While the pri­ma­ry focus is on the Unit­ed King­dom, and even though this was writ­ten before the COVID-19 out­break, they offer reme­dies and sug­ges­tions for employ­ers and employ­ees globally.

Key-Points

• Men­tal health stands as a cru­cial work­place matter.
• Work­place intim­ida­tors present health hazards.
• Can­cer pos­es a threat in the workplace.
• Injuries to the back and repet­i­tive stress ail­ments impact millions.
• Employ­ees with dis­abil­i­ties pos­sess work­place entitlements.
• The pro­fes­sion­al pop­u­lace is get­ting old­er and con­fronting per­sis­tent health issues.

Mental health stands as a crucial workplace matter

In the year 2017, a self-gov­ern­ing appraisal pan­el issued crit­i­cal con­clu­sions regard­ing men­tal health with­in the work envi­ron­ment. Every year, men­tal ill­ness­es cost the Unit­ed Kingdom’s econ­o­my £74 bil­lion to £99 bil­lion (approx­i­mate­ly $92 bil­lion to $123 bil­lion), with com­pa­nies bear­ing £33 bil­lion to £42 bil­lion of those expenses.

About 17% of grown-ups — one out of six indi­vid­u­als — endure a men­tal health dis­or­der, as dis­closed by the UK Depart­ment of Health. These issues encom­pass depres­sion, sui­ci­dal thoughts, bipo­lar con­di­tions, eat­ing and sleep dis­or­ders, soli­tude, stress, anx­i­ety episodes, and obses­sive-com­pul­sive disorders.

“For admin­is­tra­tive bod­ies and enti­ties over­see­ing occu­pa­tion­al health and safety…the focus had tra­di­tion­al­ly been on…physical health.”

Three decades pri­or, a major­i­ty of employ­ees grap­pling with men­tal health con­di­tions scarce­ly had any prospects of receiv­ing aid at the work­place. In the con­tem­po­rary pro­fes­sion­al set­ting, health and safe­ty agen­das incor­po­rate men­tal health well-being ini­tia­tives and sui­cide pre­ven­tion strate­gies. Labor unions, men­tal health pro­po­nents, and health­care pro­fes­sion­als have spear­head­ed efforts to acknowl­edge the cor­re­la­tions between work set­tings and men­tal health.

The 2017 appraisal pan­el out­lined spe­cif­ic men­tal health bench­marks for work­places. The pan­el advo­cat­ed that employ­ers should:

• For­mu­late strate­gic schemes to bol­ster employ­ees’ men­tal well-being. Employ­ers should fur­nish details to employ­ees dur­ing recruit­ment pro­ceed­ings and at reg­u­lar inter­vals through­out their tenure.
• Prop­a­gate aware­ness about men­tal health with­in the workforce.
• Fos­ter a healthy equi­lib­ri­um between work and per­son­al life.
• Cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for rou­tine dia­logues between employ­ees and superiors.

Most indi­vid­u­als are hes­i­tant to acknowl­edge men­tal health con­cerns or asso­ci­at­ed con­di­tions. Employ­ees might dread humil­i­a­tion and bias. How­ev­er, rapid inter­ven­tion when signs sur­face enhances out­comes and expe­dites employ­ee recuperation.

“[Employ­ees can] for­ti­fy their men­tal health by ana­lyz­ing stress sources and poor men­tal health caus­es, and by per­son­al­ly ini­ti­at­ing prac­ti­cal mea­sures to mit­i­gate these triggers.”

The sub­se­quent mea­sures offer invalu­able assis­tance to indi­vid­u­als tack­ling men­tal health crises:

• Con­sult your pri­ma­ry health­care provider. Your physi­cian might refer you to a men­tal health specialist.
• Seek sup­port from work­place allies: col­leagues, super­vi­sors, or union representatives.
• Delve into reg­u­la­tions and HR guide­lines for insights on safe­guards, accom­mo­da­tions, and addi­tion­al perks.

Pro­tect your well-being by adopt­ing pre­ven­tive mea­sures to alle­vi­ate stress and emo­tion­al strain. These actions encom­pass man­ag­ing your sched­ule and set­ting clear bound­aries between per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties. Plan reg­u­lar breaks dur­ing the day and uti­lize your allot­ted leave days. Oth­er pre­ven­tive tac­tics include:

• Main­tain a con­sis­tent work­out reg­i­men – This aids in reduc­ing stress, anx­i­ety, and depression.
• Iden­ti­fy your stress trig­gers – Keep track of and acknowl­edge con­flicts, demands, and cir­cum­stances that jeop­ar­dize your men­tal welfare.
• Be present in the moment – Prac­tic­ing mind­ful­ness can deter depression.
• Pur­sue hob­bies and cul­ti­vate con­nec­tions – Active involve­ment in hob­bies, clubs, and com­mu­nal events fos­ters and pre­serves men­tal health and gen­er­al well-being.
• Estab­lish a sup­port sys­tem, either at work or home – This is par­tic­u­lar­ly cru­cial when you are car­ing for a rel­a­tive, friend, or child. Explore men­tal health resources in your vicin­i­ty or work­place, includ­ing Employ­ee Assis­tance Pro­grams (EAPs). Share your con­cerns and stress trig­gers with a com­pan­ion or life partner.

Workplace intimidators present health risks

Harass­ment stem­ming from bul­ly­ing might encom­pass abu­sive con­duct or lan­guage uti­lized by the bul­ly with the intent to humil­i­ate, harm, under­mine, or demor­al­ize anoth­er indi­vid­ual. This mis­con­duct can also man­i­fest in cyber­bul­ly­ing, which involves abu­sive con­duct via email, social media, and oth­er dig­i­tal platforms.

“Com­pared to con­ven­tion­al work­place bul­ly­ing, evi­dence [of cyber­bul­ly­ing] could be eas­i­er to doc­u­ment and trace back to the perpetrator.”

The UK Health and Safe­ty Exec­u­tive (HSE) dis­cov­ered that work­place bul­lies typ­i­cal­ly out­rank their tar­gets. A gov­ern­ment study divulged that man­agers were respon­si­ble for near­ly three-quar­ters of all instances of harass­ment or bul­ly­ing. Rough­ly 30% of employ­ees dis­closed expe­ri­ences of bul­ly­ing dur­ing work hours, with 36% opt­ing to leave jobs fol­low­ing bul­ly­ing episodes. Harass­ment cor­re­lates with spe­cif­ic health issues and haz­ards, includ­ing migraines, headaches, nau­sea, vom­it­ing, sleep dis­or­ders, PTSD, sui­ci­dal thoughts, pan­ic attacks, and sub­stance abuse includ­ing alco­hol, tobac­co, and oth­er substances.

Offi­cial per­son­nel and work­place spe­cial­ists sug­gest that vic­tims of bul­ly­ing or harass­ment can tack­le the sit­u­a­tion by tak­ing these measures:

• Main­tain a log detail­ing dates, times, loca­tions, and oth­er par­tic­u­lars doc­u­ment­ing the harassment.
• Share your encoun­ters with a com­pan­ion or trust­wor­thy co-worker.
• Con­sult with a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive or labor official.
• Reach out to a sup­port helpline, a gov­ern­men­tal bureau, or health professionals.
• Arrange a meet­ing with your com­pa­ny’s HR leaders.

Cancer emerges as a workplace hazard

Glob­al­ly, around 666,000 indi­vid­u­als suc­cumb to work­place-relat­ed can­cers annu­al­ly. In the Unit­ed King­dom, occu­pa­tion­al can­cers claim the lives of 8,000 work­ers each year. The cat­a­log of car­cino­genic ele­ments in the work­place includes diesel exhaust, asbestos, and sil­i­ca dust.

Female employ­eesIn­di­vid­u­als who are on the night sched­ule face height­ened chances of devel­op­ing skin, breast, and gas­troin­testi­nal can­cers. Con­sis­tent night shifts con­tribute to a range of health issues for both males and females, such as ele­vat­ed stress lev­els, car­diac prob­lems, diges­tive com­pli­ca­tions, hyper­ten­sion, and an increased like­li­hood of accidents.

“In addi­tion to reg­u­lat­ing expo­sure, employ­ers are legal­ly oblig­at­ed to con­duct suit­able health mon­i­tor­ing of work­ers exposed to spe­cif­ic substances.”

Employ­ers are legal­ly required to safe­guard the well-being of employ­ees while on duty. Accord­ing to the Health and Safe­ty at Work Reg­u­la­tions (1999) in the Unit­ed King­dom, employ­ers must con­duct work­place health assess­ments, which include appraisals of the poten­tial can­cer risks in the work­place. The reg­u­la­tions man­date that employ­ers reg­u­lar­ly mon­i­tor the health of work­ers whose roles expose them to var­i­ous chem­i­cals. Work­ers with cer­tain can­cers con­nect­ed to occu­pa­tion­al haz­ards may be eli­gi­ble for ben­e­fits and recompense.

Millions are affected by back problems and repetitive strain ailments

Clin­i­cal­ly speak­ing, sore backs, neck dis­com­fort, and repet­i­tive strain injuries fall under mus­cu­loskele­tal dis­or­ders (MSDs), a group that also encom­pass­es painful mus­cle and joint injuries. These issues affect mil­lions of employ­ees glob­al­ly and 17% of the pop­u­lace in Eng­land. In the UK, work­place-relat­ed dis­or­ders in this cat­e­go­ry are major con­trib­u­tors to poor occu­pa­tion­al health:

• Approx­i­mate­ly 500,000 work­ers in the UK expe­ri­enced back pain or repet­i­tive strain injuries tied to the work­place in 2016 and 2017.
• MSDs led to near­ly 31 mil­lion com­bined sick days for employ­ees in 2016.
• Back, joint, and mus­cle injuries account­ed for two out of every 10 sick days. Only sick days tak­en by employ­ees due to minor ill­ness­es like coughs and colds sur­passed this rate in 2016.

The Euro­pean Trade Union Con­fed­er­a­tion has labeled back, mus­cle, and joint injuries as an epi­dem­ic. In con­junc­tion with this dec­la­ra­tion, the labor union has also urged the Euro­pean Union to take more robust action on the mus­cu­loskele­tal injuries that com­pro­mise the qual­i­ty of life for numer­ous workers.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the work­place presents numer­ous sce­nar­ios, con­di­tions, and sit­u­a­tions where indi­vid­u­als can injure their backs, legs, necks, joints, and arms. For instance, han­dling and hoist­ing heavy objects can result in injuries or wors­en exist­ing ones. Repet­i­tive motions or poor­ly designed com­put­er setups con­tribute to strain injuries. Few indus­tries remain untouched by this expan­sive cat­e­go­ry of work­place harm, which can afflict employ­ees on farms and con­struc­tion sites, as well as in hos­pi­tals and tra­di­tion­al offices.

“Receiv­ing appro­pri­ate treat­ment and sup­port ear­ly on when you are off work for an extend­ed peri­od can sig­nif­i­cant­ly aid in a suc­cess­ful return to work.”

Pre­ven­tion plays a crit­i­cal role in mit­i­gat­ing cur­rent injuries or avoid­ing severe harm in the work­place. Employ­ers have a legal duty to endorse and fur­nish a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment. A union of cor­po­rate lead­ers, employ­ees, and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als can cre­ate opti­mal pro­ce­dures, risk assess­ment tools, and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams to pre­vent work­place injuries.

It is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of employ­ees to engage in self-care while at work. For this rea­son, tak­ing reg­u­lar breaks through­out the work­day is essen­tial. Dur­ing these breaks, stand up, stretch, and move around. Mea­sures for pre­vent­ing injuries include:

• Avoid­ing alco­hol, tobac­co, and exces­sive weight gain.
• Main­tain­ing an active lifestyle and set­ting a week­ly tar­get of 150 min­utes of phys­i­cal activity.
• Ensur­ing ade­quate expo­sure to sun­light and vit­a­min D.
• Pri­or­i­tiz­ing men­tal well-being.
• Dis­cuss with super­vi­sors or union rep­re­sen­ta­tives about tasks or work duties that cause phys­i­cal discomfort.

Workers with disabilities are entitled to workplace protections

In 2017, the UK devised and released a new strat­e­gy to enhance work­place oppor­tu­ni­ties and safe­guards for employ­ees with dis­abil­i­ties. This ini­tia­tive fol­lowed the enact­ment of the Equal­i­ty Act of 2010, which grant­ed pro­tec­tion against dis­crim­i­na­tion to indi­vid­u­als with disabilities.

The group of indi­vid­u­als cov­ered includes those with men­tal or phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties, can­cer, or an HIV diag­no­sis. The act also pro­tects employ­ees with cer­tain per­sis­tent health con­di­tions like migraines and epilep­sy. The Equal­i­ty Act lays out six sce­nar­ios out­lin­ing the types of bias that dis­abled work­ers some­times encounter:

1. Direct dis­crim­i­na­tion – This form of dis­crim­i­na­tion occurs when dis­abled employ­ees receive infe­ri­or treat­ment com­pared to non-dis­abled work­ers in sim­i­lar work circumstances.
2. Indi­rect dis­crim­i­na­tion – Refers to poli­cies and pro­ce­dures that dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect dis­abled work­ers as opposed to their non-dis­abled colleagues.
3. Lack of accom­mo­da­tions – Employ­ers must pro­vide “rea­son­able” adjust­ments to aid dis­abled employ­ees in the workplace.
4. Dis­abil­i­ty-relat­ed bias – This dis­crim­i­na­tion aris­es when an employ­ee is treat­ed unfair­ly due to accom­mo­da­tions or oth­er fac­tors, such as requests for med­ical time off, direct­ly con­nect­ed to a disability.
5. Bul­ly­ing or harass­ment – This type of dis­crim­i­na­tion mate­ri­al­izes as mis­treat­ment, humil­i­a­tion, or degradation.
6. Vic­tim­iza­tion – This type of dis­crim­i­na­tion often man­i­fests as retal­i­a­tion against indi­vid­u­als who have sub­mit­ted complaints.

The workforce is aging and contending with chronic health issues

An aging work­force stands out as one of the pri­ma­ry trends in both pub­lic health and the pro­fes­sion­al sphere. In 2018, the count of employ­ees aged over 50 sur­passed 10 mil­lion in the UK for the first time. These fig­ures indi­cate that in 2018, 33% of the UK work­force was over 50 years old, as opposed to just 20% in the ear­ly 1990s. Fur­ther­more, life expectan­cy has risen as birth rates have declined. Giv­en these trends, health spe­cial­ists posit that work­places need to become more inclu­sive of aging staff.

The knowl­edge and exper­tise of old­er work­ers are invalu­able to employ­ers. Con­se­quent­ly, numer­ous unfa­vor­able stereo­types regard­ing aging, health, and employ­a­bil­i­ty per­sist in pro­fes­sion­al envi­ron­ments. For instance, one mis­con­cep­tion implies that old­er employ­ees are more prone to call­ing in sick. In real­i­ty, old­er work­ers do not take more sick days than their younger coun­ter­parts. Med­ical and labor experts pro­pose var­i­ous mea­sures for firms aim­ing to accom­mo­date and inte­grate old­er employees:

• Imple­ment flex­i­ble sched­ules, offer­ing part-time options and remote work arrangements.
• Assess the work­place envi­ron­ment for poten­tial risks to old­er workers.
• Ensure equal access to train­ing and education.

Chron­ic ill­ness­es are preva­lent, with many employ­ees grap­pling with con­di­tions such as dia­betes, migraines, heart dis­ease, epilep­sy, per­sis­tent pain, brain injuries, and oth­er ail­ments. The sup­port pro­vid­ed by your employ­er can aid in man­ag­ing a chron­ic con­di­tion while at work.

About the Author

The Trades Union Con­gress (TUC) is a union fed­er­a­tion com­pris­ing 50 labor unions in the Unit­ed King­dom, rep­re­sent­ing around 5.6 mil­lion mem­bers. Becky Allen and Howard Fid­der­man work as free­lance authors.

Evaluation

The man­u­al is a prag­mat­ic hand­book aimed at help­ing indi­vid­u­als enhance their phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal wel­fare in the work­place. It is penned by a pair of inde­pen­dent authors who have col­lab­o­rat­ed with the Trades Union Con­gress (TUC), the UK’s largest amal­ga­ma­tion of labor unions, to fur­nish sol­id and per­ti­nent insights and coun­sel. The book com­pris­es of four sections:

• Part I: Your Well­be­ing in the Work­place. This sec­tion intro­duces the notion of work­place well­ness, elu­ci­dat­ing why employ­ees and employ­ers must advo­cate for a safe and health­ful work set­ting. It also delin­eates the legal rights and oblig­a­tions of employ­ees and employ­ers con­cern­ing well­ness and secu­ri­ty mat­ters and offers ben­e­fi­cial resources and con­nec­tions for addi­tion­al assistance.
• Part II: Your Phys­i­cal Wel­fare in the Work­place. This sec­tion dis­cuss­es preva­lent phys­i­cal health haz­ards in the work­place, like dis­com­forts and sprains, dan­ger­ous sub­stances, mishaps, noise, tremors, tem­per­a­ture, illu­mi­na­tion, and radi­a­tion. It expounds upon how these haz­ards can impact the well-being of employ­ees and sug­gest pre­ven­ta­tive or mit­iga­tive actions. It like­wise pro­vides sug­ges­tions and drills to aid indi­vid­u­als in enhanc­ing their stance, fit­ness, nour­ish­ment, hydra­tion, rest, and sanitation.
• Part III: Your Men­tal Wel­fare in the Work­place. This seg­ment address­es com­mon psy­cho­log­i­cal health haz­ards at work, such as strain, uneasi­ness, despon­den­cy, bul­ly­ing, harass­ment, bias, aggres­sion, and trau­ma. It delin­eates how these haz­ards can influ­ence the men­tal well­ness of employ­ees, and offers cop­ing strate­gies. It also dis­pens­es guid­ance and activ­i­ties to fos­ter indi­vid­u­als to for­ti­fy their resilience, self-assur­ance, self-respect, com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, and connections.
• Part IV: Your Wel­fare Beyond the Work­place. This sec­tion assists indi­vid­u­als in putting into prac­tice the teach­ings gar­nered from pri­or sec­tions into their per­son­al and voca­tion­al lives. It encom­pass­es themes such as equi­lib­ri­um between work and per­son­al life, pro­fes­sion­al growth, retire­ment plan­ning, vol­un­teer work, and con­tin­u­ous learn­ing. It also stim­u­lates indi­vid­u­als to exchange their encoun­ters and insights with oth­ers who could ben­e­fit from them.

The book stands as a com­pre­hen­sive and ben­e­fi­cial tool for any­one seek­ing to ame­lio­rate their well-being in the work­place or delv­ing deep­er into the sub­ject. The authors are both sea­soned word­smiths who have delved exten­sive­ly into the realm of work­place health. They artic­u­late in a lucid, con­cise, and cap­ti­vat­ing man­ner that ren­ders the book acces­si­ble and com­pre­hen­si­ble. More­over, they incor­po­rate real-life instances, case learn­ings, data, and quo­ta­tions from spe­cial­ists and labor­ers to under­score their view­points and pro­vide sub­stan­ti­a­tion for their assertions.

The book not only imparts infor­ma­tion but also inspires and empow­ers indi­vid­u­als. It suits any­one keen on refin­ing their well-being in the work­place or gain­ing fur­ther insights on the sub­ject. I strong­ly advo­cate it to indi­vid­u­als intrigued by this area.