Workplace Stressors: Harassment, Burnout, Mental Load

Posted on Feb 17, 2025 in Physical Education

Workplace Stressors: Harassment, Burnout, and Mental Load

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Sexual Harassment also occurs in the workplace. It can happen to both women and men. The problem of harassment has more to do with power relationships than sex, although there may be non-consensual physical contact.

Burnout from Work

Burnout is a consequence of exposure to job stressors. We need to work on the development of intense and lasting exchange links between worker and client, worker and patient, or worker and user.

The concepts of stress and burnout are different constructs.

Mental Burden of Work

The mental load is determined by the amount and type of information to be processed in a job and time. These factors must also be added concerning the physical conditions (noise, temperature, lighting) and psycho-social factors (hierarchical relationships, communication system, etc.) in which the work develops.

Mental Fatigue

Mental fatigue is a temporary alteration (decrease) in mental and physical functional efficiency. This change is a function of the intensity and duration of the preceding activity and the temporal pattern of mental pressure.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Manual Handling Assessment Methods: INSHT and NIOSH

NIOSH Advantages:

  • Recommended maximum weight is 23 kg, which could be lifted without problems in these conditions by 75% of women and 90% of men.
  • It notes the task to be performed and can analyze a simple task or multitasking.

NIOSH Disadvantages:

  • The cargo-handling tasks that usually accompany the lifting (keeping the load, pushing, pulling, transporting, climbing, walking, etc.) do not present a significant energy expenditure compared to the survey itself. In general, they should assume more than 10% of the worker’s activity.
  • There should be no possibility of a fall or sudden increases in load.
  • The thermal environment must be appropriate, with temperatures between 19º and 26º and a relative humidity between 35% and 50%.
  • The load is not volatile, not lifted with one hand, in a sitting or kneeling position, or in confined spaces.
  • The coefficient of friction between the ground and the worker’s soles must be sufficient to prevent slips and falls, ideally between 0.4 and 0.5.
  • No trucks or lifts are used.
  • The risk of lifting and lowering the load is similar.
  • The uprising is not too fast and should not exceed 76 inches per second.

INSHT Advantages:

  • As a general rule, loads weighing more than 3 kg are considered strictly. The maximum weight is not recommended to exceed 25kg for women, but the weight should not exceed 15kg.

INSHT Disadvantages:

  • The guide only analyzes simple tasks; if it is multitasking, a more detailed assessment should be performed.

Factors Related to Mental Workload

Ergonomists classify the factors that determine the mental burden suffered by a worker into two main groups:

  • Demands of work.
  • Responsiveness.

Among the demands of work can be found:

  • Job content
  • Information received:
    • Quantity and quality of signals that arrive
    • Dispersion of signals
    • Diversity of sources from which those signals come
    • Variability of the sensory channels through which they are perceived
  • The analysis of such information:
    • Depth of information processing that is required
    • Complexity of reasoning,
    • Degree to which we must resort to memory to perform the task