Ergonomics and Work Organization: The Relationship Between Tayloristic Design and Workers’ Health in Banks and Credit Cards Companies

The discussion developed in this paper is based on the results of an ergonomic work analysis carried out with attendants at call centers. Some critical issues and difficulties, like working pace, inadequate tools and workstations, and software inadequacies were detected in working situations. Operator-customer interactions are presented, attempting to put in evidence working constraints, working conditions, and their connection with health problems. The main conclusion is that serving clients, especially when the job is to provide information, is not a simple task, as information is not always available in the computerized system and is completely fragmented. The scope of workers’ actions is very restricted and complicated and recurrent requests are redirected to others. Workers (individually or as groups) have limited possibilities to make adjustments to be able to give more adequate and personalized treatment to clients and, at the same time, to work in a less stressful environment. In periods of increased workload and work intensification, the situation is very much favorable to the incidence of health disorders, such as work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) and others. Some suggestions to improve the work situation are discussed

An ergonomic approach to reorganize parking inspection agents` work productivity, health and safety in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Objective: The Traffic Engineering Company of the City of Sao Paulo (Brazil) observed a decrease in productivity, and an increase in sick leave, accidents and psychological distress among their parking inspection agents. To document this situation, qualitative research was undertaken to obtain an in-depth comprehension of work activity. Participants: Workers, managers and health and safety professionals contributed to the documentation of the problem and to the proposal of possible solutions. Methods: Ergonomic work analysis focusing on real work activity, as well as interviews with individual or groups of stakeholders, were conducted. Results: This research revealed that political-economic factors gradually contributed to: 1) an increasing work load; 2) growing fatigue throughout the day, increasing the workers` vulnerability to incidents and accidents and their tendency to react inappropriately to violence experienced on the street; and 3) excessive individual responsibility to manage dangerous situations. Conclusions: Recommendations to ameliorate the situation are proposed. These suggestions are discussed in terms of feasibility given the impact of macro social factors upon micro work activity, and the associated potential expansion of the ergonomist`s role

Análise do trabalho e serviço de limpeza hospitalar: contribuições da ergonomia e da psicodinâmica do trabalho Work analysis in a higiene service of a hospital: contributions from ergonomics and work psychodynamics

Neste artigo são apresentados os resultados de uma parceria envolvendo dois grupos de pesquisa que estudaram uma situação concreta de trabalho geradora de elevado índice de absenteísmo, afastamentos por doença e por acidentes de trabalho: o Serviço de Limpeza Hospitalar. O objetivo do trabalho é responder a uma demanda específica dos responsáveis por um hospital público. O intuito é entender a problemática referida e buscar soluções através de transformações na organização do trabalho destes profissionais. Para tanto, a equipe de pesquisa envolvida propôs que a mesma situação fosse abordada através de duas metodologias distintas: a da ergonomia e a da psicodinâmica do trabalho. O diálogo que se busca a partir da utilização dessas duas abordagens é útil para a construção de melhorias no trabalho e para analisar as relações de complementaridade, confluência e/ou divergência entre estas duas disciplinas que abordam o trabalhar sobre ópticas distintas.<br>This paper contains the results of a study made in partnership between two research groups. The work situation in a hygiene service of a hospital is the object of the study. The request made by the health and safety services was due to high levels of absenteeism, work diseases and accidents and the direction of the hospital was preoccupied with this scenario and would like to improve the work situation. The study was performed with two different approaches from ergonomics and from work psychodynamics. The results of the study and the dialogue between two different areas can be useful to build work improvements as well as to analyze the relationship between these two disciplines that approaches work with distinct points of view. This discussion concerns complementarities, confluence, and divergence