Employee Health and Safety Complacency in the Workplace

Introduction and Background

In the business world today, the focus has increasingly been on employee well-being. The reason for this is the changing view of the employee as a person with needs rather than merely an automaton assigned to complete a certain job within a certain time frame so that the manager can make a profit. This view also recognizes that happy workers are more productive and ultimately more profitable for the company as a whole. Job satisfaction provides an employee with a sense of well-being, which in turn translates into greater pride in the work being done and hence higher quality performance. Furthermore, a greater sense of well-being leads to lower stress levels and fewer worker hours lost to stress-related illness. This, however, does not appear to correlate with the predominant workplace situation today. As will be shown, many workers place what they perceive as an obligation toward their employer above their own well-being. The focus of this study is to determine the reasons for this.

In conjunction with the understanding that workers need to be well in order to work well, several measures have been introduced — especially during the latter half of the 20th century — to make the workplace more pleasant for employees. Elements such as ergonomics, more reasonable work hours, and financial incentives such as raises and bonuses have become commonplace in businesses around the world. One of the most important elements for ensuring worker satisfaction and retention is the implementation of health and safety standards.

However, in addition to the hypothesis that workers tend to disregard their own health and safety for the sake of their work duties, it is also notable that many incidents of excessively unhealthy conditions — both psychological and physical — continue to be reported. The 21st century should be an age in which employees are entitled to more than a drive to generate revenue. Workers have rights. Yet the very drive to earn a salary tends to push workers toward substantially unsafe practices, including a disregard for their own safety and health at the workplace. To address this issue specifically, the research proposed here focuses on three work areas notorious for their unsafe conditions and frequent lack of adequate safety standards.

The first is the office environment, in which the pressure to complete large workloads within unrealistic time frames leads to stress. The complication is that the manifestations of work-related psychological stress are often difficult to identify in a timely and targeted fashion. The second area is the construction industry, where time constraints motivate workers to forgo the necessary health and safety precautions in favor of completing required work within a required time frame. The problem here is less a lack of standards than the fact that time simply does not allow their implementation. Finally, the cockle-picking industry is addressed — notorious not only for its lack of safety standards, but also for its highly dangerous nature. Gangmasters driven by the need for profit often exploit workers who are ignorant of the law, their rights, and their own obligations regarding health and safety.

These three areas will be examined to determine the exact reasons for employees' disregard of health and safety standards and their own individual well-being. Conclusions and recommendations will address both the issues identified and the possible mitigation of the problem through recommended actions.

The disregard for health and safety for the sake of deadlines is a deeply troubling trend in today's workplace. Having progressed as far as we have in terms of human rights and worker satisfaction, it is unacceptable that the workplace should remain unsafe in any way, or that employers should permit this to be the case.

Study Design and Methodology

Health and safety measures have become one of the most important facets of the business world today. Human resources have enjoyed increasing importance as the focus of studies in human well-being and work satisfaction. Studies have shown how an increase in worker satisfaction ultimately results in an increase in profit. No longer are workers forced to labor under inhuman conditions. Instead, agencies such as the Institution for Occupational Safety and Health (2007) and the Health & Safety Executive (2007) work for employee safety, health, satisfaction, and empowerment. Employees are thereby empowered to take control of their work environment, whereas in the past the work environment and managers were often the controlling factors.

However, it has also been frequently observed that even today the workplace comprises certain hazards — not only physical, but also psychological. This study focuses on these dangers and on how individuals are often inclined to accept such risks rather than making their own health and safety a priority, resulting in illness, injury, or even death. To investigate the reasons for this tendency, three workplace environments notorious for their hazards are considered: stress in the office environment, potentially unsafe actions in the construction environment, and physical danger in the beach environment, specifically in the cockle-picking industry.

The first step of the study is to hypothesize the various factors that lead individuals to place the importance of work over their own health and safety. A number of hypothetical reasons are drawn up for this purpose, divided according to their apparent relevance to each workplace environment investigated.

In the office environment, the following hypotheses appear most relevant with respect to the stress factor:

Individuals may be overloaded with an unreasonable amount of work. The directive of such an individual is to finish the work rather than consider his or her own safety and stress levels. Office workers are generally well informed regarding health and safety standards, but may ignore these under the pressure of a deadline.

It is possible that office workers are bullied into taking on an unreasonable amount of work that should rightfully be handled by more employees, or that they are placed under unrealistic time constraints.

Even if introduced to the HS&E department, office workers may be so focused on pleasing their superiors and proving their value to the company that they overlook the need to consult this department with health and safety questions. It is also possible that they are not informed of the exact services this department offers, or of their rights in that regard.

In the construction environment, the following appear relevant:

Time constraints and bullying play a role in construction workers potentially disregarding health and safety regulations in favor of faster work completion. This results not only in individual health hazards, but also in physical safety hazards for the entire workforce in the vicinity of the project and for the public using the finished product.

Construction workers, depending on their level of work and the contract under which they are employed, may lack the in-depth legal knowledge that office workers often have. This results in ignorance of safety regulations and of the employer's obligation to provide them. Similarly, employers may take advantage of this ignorance and fail to inform workers of their rights.

It is also possible that individuals — particularly those working on a temporary contract basis — are afraid to be replaced if they raise health and safety concerns, and therefore prefer to accept the risk for the sake of their income.

In the beach environment and cockle-picking industry, the following appear relevant:

The work does not require a high level of education, and therefore tends to attract workers with previously low or no income. These individuals tend to be uninformed regarding safety standards both as a result of their limited formal education and the employer's neglect.

As in the other two environments, time constraints and bullying play a role. Workers are afraid to lose their jobs and take the risk rather than complain about safety standards.

The likelihood that workers are fully informed regarding the nature of the company is very low. It is much more likely that they are effectively forced to accept substandard conditions, driven by desperation for survival that overrides health and safety concerns and any related legal issues.

Aims and Objectives

There appears to be a significant discrepancy between the recognition of health and safety as highly important workplace features and their practical application. What is particularly intriguing is that not only managers have motives for ignoring health and safety standards, but individual workers also fail to take responsibility for their own well-being. The objective of this study is to identify the reasons for this tendency and to make suggestions for curbing it.

In our current era, individuals should be focused on their own well-being as a basis for performing better at work, presenting a better image to their superiors, and providing the company's clients with better services. This is important both internally in terms of the workplace and externally in terms of public image. A company widely known for high safety standards is generally regarded more favorably than one without them.

The main aim of this study is therefore to find ways to balance the need for speedy and voluminous work with the well-being that will ensure the quality of such work. In focusing on the three workplace areas mentioned above, the study also aims to benefit specific industries notorious for their lack of health and safety. The aim is not only to find justifications for individual actions, but to curb the self-destructive tendencies of such individuals by empowering them with knowledge.

In developing a deeper understanding of the underlying factors relating to a lack of safety awareness, the research further aims to empower individuals for greater well-being in both their work and general lives. In short, the objective is to gain a deeper understanding of the issues relating to individual health and safety in the workplace, to understand the motivations for ignoring these, and to find methods to curb the apparent self-destructive tendency of workers who place the job ahead of their own needs.