A company made work easier and less stressful for workers dealing with the high cognitive demands of their job, by streamlining its procedures and reducing task complexity, according to its quality manager.
A unique study has found emergency workers are less likely than community members to suffer severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after natural and man-made disasters, providing clues to improving worker resilience and safety across all industries.
> Workplace stress training urged for World Mental Health Day; > Alerts with tips issued after trench and formwork collapse; and > Safe ladder system among WHS and RTW winners in Qld.
Swedish stress experts have identified a number of working conditions that contribute to worker burnout and must be monitored to avoid work-related mental illness.
A tribunal has found a worker's repetitive computer and mouse work caused her tennis elbow, and her regional pain syndrome arose from that injury rather than her non-work-related anxiety.
A short, weekly mindfulness program successfully reduced stressed among emergency despatchers with demanding schedules, suggesting such initiatives can be applied successfully to other challenging workplaces.
Employers have a duty to minimise workers' psychological stress and can do so by proactively boosting office morale and enforcing manageable workloads, a recruitment expert says. Meanwhile, employers have been warned that problem gambling can have a significant impact on the workplace, and offered tips to help struggling staff.
Employers have been urged to use R U OK? Day this week to kick off and maintain strategies promoting positive mental health at work, while the Mental Health Commission has found an electronic stress-reduction intervention provides "good value for money" for employers, in addition to numerous benefits not included in the economic modelling.
Workers who can mentally and physically detach from work after hours have fewer concentration problems, sleep better and are at lower risk of depression and exhaustion, according to a study on work breaks, which highlights the important role managers play in facilitating this behaviour.
High workloads and other organisational factors compel workers to go to work when they're sick, significantly increasing their levels of exhaustion and creating a vicious cycle that adversely affects employers, Swedish researchers have found.
