When getting the job done comes at a cost
Consider a team that consistently hits its targets. Customers are served, deadlines are met and the work gets done. The problem arises when those results depend on skipping breaks, staying late or taking unfinished work home.
From the outside, the operation looks successful, but employees are absorbing the gap between what the organisation expects and the time and resources it provides. Eventually, extraordinary effort simply becomes how the job gets done.
That raises an important safety question: what is it costing people to keep the operation running—and what risks are being hidden by the fact that the work is still getting done?
Give familiar problems a clear name
“Psychosocial hazards” may sound technical, but the conditions it describes are familiar: excessive workloads, conflicting instructions, little control over tasks, inadequate support, bullying, harassment or repeated abuse from customers.
A shop assistant regularly facing verbal abuse and an employee given more work than their hours realistically allow face different hazards. In both cases, the potential for harm comes from their working conditions.
That distinction matters. An excessive workload is a hazard. Stress may be the response when demands repeatedly exceed someone’s resources to meet them. Describe the problem only as “employee stress” and attention can quickly turn towards resilience, coping strategies or counselling. Those things may help, but they fail to address the source of the pressure.
Where challenge becomes risk
Recognising psychosocial hazards does not mean declaring every deadline or busy period unsafe. Work can be demanding and still be healthy and rewarding. A difficult week with clear priorities, adequate resources, supportive management and a realistic end point is very different from an indefinite expectation that employees compensate for insufficient capacity.
Assessment therefore needs to examine the demands employees face and the conditions in which they are expected to meet them:
- How intensive are the demands?
- How frequently do they arise, and how long do they continue?
- How much control and support do employees have?
Irish law already provides the framework
Psychosocial risk does not require employers to invent a new safety system. Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, employers must identify workplace hazards, assess risks and maintain a written risk assessment. Their Safety Statement must set out how safety, health and welfare will be secured and managed. The HSA includes psychosocial hazards within employers’ risk-assessment responsibilities.
Employee consultation can reveal problems that are difficult to see from management level. A team may appear to be performing well precisely because employees are compensating for unrealistic demands, missed breaks or inadequate resources. The objective is not to ask employees to disclose private health information. It is to understand how the work is truly experienced.
From assessment to action
Identifying a psychosocial hazard is only useful if something changes as a result. Where workload exceeds capacity, priorities conflict or employees cannot routinely take breaks, controls might include redistributing work, arranging cover, changing schedules or clarifying which tasks take priority.
Support such as counselling or employee assistance programmes can still be valuable, but it should not substitute for action on the source of the problem. Measures also need to be reviewed: if additional cover was introduced to restore breaks, for example, are employees now able to take them?
Employers looking for a structured approach can use WorkPositiveCI, the free and confidential psychosocial risk-management process supported by the HSA and partner organisations.
Bringing psychosocial hazards into workplace safety is not about labelling ordinary working life as dangerous. It is about recognising when people are repeatedly absorbing pressures that the organisation has the power and responsibility to address.
How NFP can help
Psychosocial risks often sit within everyday working practices, making them difficult to identify. NFP can support organisations in reviewing workplace risk arrangements, identifying areas of concern and considering practical next steps within their wider health and safety framework. Contact NFP today to discuss your organisation’s workplace risk requirements and appropriate next steps.