Occupational health: what factors affect workers’ health?

We review the different aspects of the organizational environment that affect health.

We all spend long hours at work, making it a very important part of our lives. In this sense, problems at work affect our daily lives, and to some extent determine our degree of happiness. For example, monotonous tasks can cause stress, which can affect our daily life and cause psychological disorders such as anxiety or depression if this situation is prolonged.

What do we mean when we talk about occupational health? What factors affect our well-being at work? In the following lines we explain it to you.

What is occupational health

There are many factors that can affect our well-being at work, either because of the tasks we perform, because we are in a job that does not fulfill us or because of poor relationships with colleagues.

For this reason, work psychologists and other professionals in the field of occupational risk prevention have taken an interest in the health of workers and in finding out what conditions we find in the company or in the job we work in affect our physical and psychological health.. If you want to know what types of health exist, you can read the article "The 10 types of health and their characteristics".

There are different types of health, and occupational health is one of them. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined general health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease". Therefore, we speak of well-being and not of the absence of disease, i.e., the absence of disease alone is not health. Moreover, health is more than just being in good physical shape; we must also take into account our emotional and social health in order to have a healthy life.

Considering this definition, the International Labor Organization (I.L.O.), a specialized agency of the United Nations dealing with labor and industrial relations issues, stated that occupational health "aims to promote and maintain the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers, regardless of their occupation; and thus to protect the worker from risks to his health, to keep him in a job suited to his psychological and physiological aptitudes and to prevent any harm to his well-being".

Factors affecting the occupational health of workers

Occupational health should not only be important for the worker, because when an employee is not well at work, the company will also suffer the consequences: lower performance, higher absenteeism, more sick leave, etc.The company will also suffer the consequences: lower performance, higher absenteeism, more sick leave, etc.

The elements that can affect the well-being of a worker can come from different sources; for example, from the workplace, what are known as working conditions (excessive weight or noise level or work overload), from the organization (e.g. working hours or communication from superiors) or at the psychosocial level (e.g. expectations or the socioeconomic situation of the worker at any given time).

But what factors affect the health of workers? The health of workers can be affected by the presence of different elements. If we talk about the workplace, we can talk about different risk factors, which are those that can reduce the well-being of a worker. According to this, a classification is usually made in 5 groups

1. Safety conditions

This group refers to materials that can cause an accident at work. can cause an accident at work.

• Electrical risks.
• Fire hazards.
• Handling and transport.
• Working machines.
• Work surface.

2. Physical work environment

This group includes those factors of the natural environment that can appear modified in the work environment and that affect and that affect the health of the workers.

• Noise.
• Temperature.
• Vibrations.
• Illumination.
• Radiation.

3. Contaminating factors

Contaminating agents, which are agents external to the person, can be chemical (e.g. gases) or Biological (e.g. fungi).

4. Workload

It has to do with physical and mental efforts. In the former, we can highlight the handling of loads, repeated movements, etc. In the latter, the monotony or the responsibility that falls on a worker..

5. Organizational factors

Organizational factors have to do with the structure and organization of work, which affect the physical, mental and social level. The leadership style, the working hours or the relationship with colleagues..

How to know if you are in a toxic job

We usually speak of a toxic job when the work environment is not appropriate for work. When we talk about work climate we are referring to the work environment and how it affects workers. In other words, we are talking here about working conditions, but attention is also paid to interpersonal relationships, workers' expectations, growth possibilities within the company, and the working environment. and other factors such as remuneration, recognition or the degree of involvement of an employee with the company.

If you want to know the characteristics of a toxic work environment, you can read the article "12 signs that indicate that you are in a toxic work environment".

Occupational health is a multifactorial phenomenon

As you have seen, there are many variables that influence the well-being of workers, which is why we usually talk about different areas in the different areas in the prevention of occupational hazards are often referred toand therefore the work of different professionals.

In order to minimize the risk, we work with different knowledge and techniques: safety at work (application of measures to minimize risks). For example, through standards, industrial hygiene (cleaning, sampling and measurement of pollutants, etc.), occupational medicine (study of work-related diseases), psychosociology (social and psychological factors associated with occupational health) and ergonomics (conditions of adaptation to the workplace).