The psychological working environment

In the same way as the layout of a workstation is important to the health of employees, work pressure and organisation of work as well as social support all influence the psychological working environment.

A bad psychological working environment often leads to increased sickness absence, frequent staff changes, a lack of collegial backing, disputes, uncommitted employees, reduced productivity, and a bad image to the outside world.

For the individual employee, psychological strains at work may cause fatigue, headaches, lack of energy, sleeping difficulties, anxiety, nervousness, irritability, etc. A person who is exposed to over-exertion for a longer period of time may become chronically stressed, burned-out, suffer from depression, a change in personality, stomach ulcers and cardiovascular diseases. This may result in increased sickness absence, an escalation of quarrels among employees, an increased number of (unexplained) industrial accidents, and increased alcohol or medicinal consumption. Also employees may suffer in their private lives due to poor psychological working environment - for instance, sexual problems or marital crises may occur, and possibly also aggression, violence and divorce.

Some of the stress-inducing situations for employees at restaurants, food outlets and food wholesale businesses include:
 

• time pressure and a high work rate where there are many customers;
• conflicting requirements on, for instance, speed and high level of customer service;
• lack of support opportunities from colleagues;
• lack of influence on how to perform work;
• violence or threats from difficult or dissatisfied customers.
   

These are some of the factors that you need to be aware of in order to ensure a good psychological working environment for your employees. This means that there should be a reasonable balance between customer demands, service and work rate.

Time pressure, work rate and social support

Be aware of and inform your employees about what kind of customer service is required, and make sure that the required staff is present so that they are able to offer the desired customer service and quality. Avoid unclear or conflicting requirements, as well as longer periods of high time pressure. You may, for instance, introduce self-service counters if there are regular longer periods of time with many customers in relation to the number of employees. Make sure that you regularly talk to your employees about work, and ensure that regular meetings are held. Remember also to commend your employees when they have performed particularly well.

Violence and threats of violence

At some workplaces there is an increased risk of violence from customers, and this induces an extreme psychological strain on the employees. If this is the case at your place of business, you must evaluate the risk.

You and your employees may, for instance, further examine the layout of the workplace, location and customers, and you can discuss the actual risk of violence and threats. You should draw up guidelines together with your employees on how to prevent and deal with violence, threats and robbery. Make sure that all employees know the precautions as laid down in agreements, so that everyone knows how to react if there is a robbery, or if they are exposed to violence or threats of violence.

The instructions must naturally be repeated when hiring new employees.

Problems with the psychological working environment may be more difficult to see than the physical working environment. However, the results of efforts are immediately visible in terms of the employees, their effectiveness and earnings.