Myths and Facts Related to the Psychosocial Complex Hazards and Workplace Bully - Essay Example

WORK, HEALTH, AND SAFETY (COMPLEX HAZARDS- PSYCHOSOCIAL/ WORKPLACE BULLY) Executive summary This document describes the entirety of a workplace and the hazards that can ever be situated to it. This document describes the various types of the nuisance that have been happening in a workplace that can destroy the ambiance and make workers and newcomers uncomfortable while at work. This document contains the issues that affect the health of a person most in a workplace and also contains the factors that lead to such inconvenience. Along with the introduction and factors behind the workplace bully and complex psychosocial hazards, this document briefly describes the measure that can be taken in order to evict such mischievous and inhuman behaviours by the organisation and create a good communication between the employees and the administration to maintain a healthy yet friendly atmosphere that makes it easy for the workers and the employees to give their best efforts towards the organisation and never regret being a part of it. Introduction This paper contains the entire myths and facts related to the psychosocial complex hazards and workplace bully and the introduction towards work, health, and safety. It contains a brief description of all the important terms, the relation between the terms, advantages and disadvantages of work, the way in which the ambiance of a workplace affects the worker's health and performance. It also contains the inhuman behaviour of workers towards the other workers and the step that must be taken to avoid such nuisance in the premises. Risk assessment factors and preparations for the same is also explained briefly in the document (Dunn, 2012). Theoretical concepts In order to read and gain knowledge about the phrase "work, health and safety" we must first try to understand what is the actual meaning of all these three words and the reason why it I important to get in terms of this phrase or what is the benefit of knowing the myths and facts behind work, health and safety. Terms like complex hazards, psychosocial and workplace bully etc. will all be discussed in a broad way so that the actual subject becomes clear. Starting with the three different but interconnected terms- Work/ workplace- a workplace is a real location that exists in a physical place where a person or a group of person work. The myth behind the term working man or a working woman often relates to an only scenario where a person is employed by an organisation, he or she works on a shift and earns money for the survival of a family. The fact is somewhat different and more realistic than the above mentioned myth. The fact is, a workplace is any place where a person works. An office or a firm is indeed a workplace, but along with this a school is a workplace where the student's study and the teachers teach. A student is also said to be a working person or a working individual here (Safe Work Australia, 2011). If a person is into freelancing and he or she works from home, even the home is then considered to be a workplace according to that particular person. Mothers and home- makers who spent most of their time in a day in the kitchen and home cooking, cleaning and maintaining it are working woman and the home and kitchen is their workplace. Hence, it can be said that the term work and workplace can have a different meaning for individuals and the importance of every workplace and every working individual is and should be on the equal platform. Health- according to the WHO (World Health Organisation) health is defined as "a state of complete mental, physical and social well- being and not merely the absence of any disease or infirmity". This clearly means that a person who do not possess any kind of disease or physical challenges cannot be marked healthy until and unless he or she is not facing any mental or social stress. Manipulating the definition in a deep manner one can say that no one in this world is healthy as because each and every person is stressed out in some way, be it a social or societal pressure, economic imbalance, mental stress and depression or any other diseases or physical imbalance. This is a very common knowledge that health is directly proportional to life-style and survival. An unhealthy person cannot be stress- free. Though there are various ways and treatments that can help a person to recover from bad health and one can surely live a healthy life-style, if one follows certain rules and regulations in life. Safety measures can be taken to avoid stress and bad health and a pre- planning technique is always helpful in the hectic situation. Pre- planning somehow ensures safety and quick recovery from stress or disease (www.nidirect.gov.uk, n.d.). Hazardous Manual Tasks- A hazardous manual task, as defined in the WHS Regulations, means a task that requires a person to lift, lower, push, pull, carry or otherwise move, hold or restrain any person, animal or thing involving one or more of the following: „„ Repetitive or sustained force „„ High or sudden force „„ Repetitive movement „„ Sustained or awkward posture „„ Exposure to vibration. These factors (known as characteristics of a hazardous manual task) directly stress the body and can lead to injury (Safe Work Australia, 2011). Linking the above mentioned entities and attributes together in one screen brings us to a single subject that teaches the us the accidents that have been happening and may happen to a person or a group of person is a work- place or during work that ends up putting a direct effect on the health of a person or a group of person. The organisation or the workplace surely can be responsible for the accidents and injuries most of the time, but even the individual's carelessness or absence of mind can also be a reason behind an accident, injury or failure (Carter et al., 2013). Before getting into the measures that can be taken in order to completely avoid or possibly minimize the accidents and health threatening situation that might happen in a workplace or during work, let us first discuss what exactly complex hazard is and what are the types of hazards that might occur in a workplace? Complex hazards- risk and hazard are two different terms with completely different meaning but are somehow inter- related. A risk is a scenario that might happen in a workplace depending upon the various factors that are involved in the organisation or the materials with which employees work. The harm that a particular substance might cause under particular situation is known as a risk. A risk itself does not have any real existence. It is just a theoretical logic depending upon which risk management measures are to be taken in order to ensure the safety of human beings in an organisation (Dunn, 2012). Hazard, on the other hand, has a physical existence, unlike risk. A hazard is something that has already happened in the past and can happen in the present affecting a person or an organisation in a physical manner. Hazard is the source that causes a potential harm that can be physical or mental in nature. A hazard cannot occur by itself until and unless there is some event that occurs to it. For example- if there is a drum that contains a flammable chemical it is said to be risky but is not a hazard. The same drum would turn into a hazard only when there a match stick or some fire taken near the drum. It can be said that when an internal or an external entity gets into terms with a risky source the situation turns into a complex hazard (Groves, 2008). Types of hazards that can happen in a workplace There are hundreds of issues that can happen in a workplace and can prove out to be hazardous to a person, a group of person or an organisation in total. All these hazards can be summarized into two different categories, namely psychosocial hazards and workplace bully (Safe Work Australia, 2011). Psychosocial hazards- Being at work as everyone agrees is bliss to mankind. A working person is a content as he or she has an identity. A working person has a sense of security be its economic security, mental happiness and satisfaction or social status. A work provides a human being with the capability to live in the society with dignity and respect. The feeling of satisfaction is a great source of living a healthy life with mental peace (Carter et al., 2013). Also, a workplace provides a person with a platform to socialize and meet new people and gain knowledge. Despite all these blooming facts and facilities, a workplace can be a curse to a person as well. Work can provide mental stress, pressure, depression, sense of being unsafe, sense of being detached from other people, a feeling of loneliness in the crowded arena, and of course health hazards and threats that come for free with work. Interpersonal relationship with the co- workers and seniors, poor connection with the authorities and several other factors can bring consequences in a gratified work routine (Comcare.gov.au, 2014). Some regular issues that can be seen or heard from people working in renowned organisations include: Remote or isolation in work, mental stress due to deadlines, ragging in colleges and hostels, workplace aggression, conflict with team members, democracy, discrimination based on gender, class, community, color etc., harassment (both mental and sexual), politics to reach higher, and violence. Workplace bullying Bullying is a curse to the society and there have been thousands of cases reported under the same since decades. It seems to be an inevitable part of the various organisations, firms, and colleges and people, especially students tend to suffer a lot from such inhuman behaviour of some people. Bullying is actually carried out to have some entertainment and display the power that a senior holds in any organisation (Safe Work Australia, 2011). Some even consider it a source through which newcomers are made acquainted with the people and ambience so that he or she can feel comfortable. But the sense of understanding the difference between a joke and bully is what everyone needs to have. In colleges, ragging became a trend in the past or can say it became a hereditary problem that got passed on from past seniors to the present seniors and so on (Ryan, 2016). Workplace bully has been a major source of causing mental and physical hazard to a person or a group of person and this hazard can sometimes be so complex that it can lead to the death of a person knowingly or unknowingly. If a person commits a suicide due to such inhuman behaviour of people in the workplace, then the reason behind death can be stated as a murder and not suicide anymore. Reason behind workplace bullying- the culture of the workplace, the rules, and regulation made by the management, the lack of security, lack of punishment and proper steps behind any such nuisance, improper selection of candidates and employees, sense of responsibility among people etc. are the major reasons due to which bullying in the workplace can take place. Bullying does not only refer to the stress that a person faces due to the behaviour of some other person or group of people in an organisation. Bullying can be verbal, non-verbal, physical, mental, workload pressure and sexual humiliation in nature (Dunn, 2012). Discrimination against coworkers- worker in terms of gender, caste, color, education etc. is termed as bullying. Involving a person into sexual humiliation for any reason related to work without the person's consent is bullying. The organisation cannot be responsible every time in such cases. There are cases where the management had set the rules, but is somehow unaware of such bullies in the premises or outside it. On the other hand, the organisation may know about the nuisance happening, but are unable to take necessary steps because of political involvements and official pressure (Comcare.gov.au, 2016). Measures to stop workplace bully Risk assessment- the first thing that can be done in order to avoid such inhuman behaviour is carrying out the risk assessment and the situations that can happen or have been happening in the past. After jotting down the risks, the authorities and the decision makers must discuss the measures that can be taken to avoid the risk and maintain a healthy environment. Employees must be assigned to their duties, and serious punishments like unemployment and transfer certificates must be launched in order to ensure that the employees and workers are afraid of carrying out any workplace bully with other workers (Sandler, 2013). Most importantly, it is important to stick to the plan when some nuisance occurs. Some other measures that can be taken include: Setting up a committee that would take care of cases and mischievous things happening in the premises. A counselling committee who would discuss such cases with the concerned bullied person and help him or her get over it. Workplace bully lessons and awareness in the training period of employees. Control measures and rules to stop the inhuman behaviour. Consulting with the employees and workers in order to maintain a healthy ambiance in the workplace. Managing the Risks to Health & Safety- According to Safe Work Australia (2011), a person conducting a business or undertaking must manage risks to health and safety associated with a hazardous manual task. In order to manage risk under the WHS Regulations, a duty holder must: „„ identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to the risk „„ eliminate the risk so far as is reasonably practicable „„ if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk - minimise the risk so far as is reasonably practicable by implementing control measures in accordance with the hierarchy of control „„ maintain the implemented control measure so that it remains effective „„ review, and if necessary revise, risk control measures so as to maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a work environment that is without risks to health and safety. „„ identify manual tasks that are hazardous „„ if necessary, assessing the risks of MSDs associated with the hazardous manual task „„ implement suitable risk control measures „„ review the effectiveness of control measures. Moreover, the person conducting the business or undertaking must consult, so far as is reasonably practicable, with workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking who are (or are likely to be) directly affected by a work health and safety matter. If the workers are represented by a health and safety representative, the consultation must involve that representative. Conclusion As a human resource consultant management it is a responsibility to achieve a great connection between the employees and the administration so that the employees feel free and safe during their working hours in the office premises and can freely report any such misbehaviour of coworkers, seniors, management or any other entities to the head and get the perspective result. It is a duty to keep and maintain a good and safe atmosphere in the workplace so that employees do not have to think about leaving the organisation because of workplace bully or any other psychosocial hazards. 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