Beneficial effects on employment and preventive health care: the concept and results of counselling processes from a German project

Since December 1998 a project of working time counselling named "Design of Modern Working Times" is supported by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and the European Union; AWiS-consult is entrusted to carry out this project. The service offered to all companies, institutions, work committees, and employees interested covers information, assessment of existing working time schedules, development of alternative or new working time schedules, and accompanying implementation processes. Up to June 2001 nearly 300 inquiries were worked on, most of them from industry, service companies, and from the field of care and hospitals. Working time design in this project aims not only at work safety and health care but also at beneficial effects on employment. In a special campaign from May 2000 to May 2001, 61 companies were supported by AWiS-consult, with the result of more than 400 new employees and 16 companies with employment secured, so the combination of preventive health care and beneficial effects on employment by working time design can be assessed as successful.     

A questionnaire technique for assessing the stress at work

Subjective perception of the stress at work is a phenomenon reflecting the experience-mediated relationship between the sum of objective conditions of work and the sum of individual's traits available to cope with demands of the work environment. This relationship is mirrored in the function of the whole organism and can be described using the formula S = f (E, D), where S = the state of the organism, E = exposure (i.e. the sum of all stressors the organism is exposed to), and D = disposition (i.e. the sum of traits the organism has available to cope with these stressors). Based on these theoretical considerations, a questionnaire has been developed as a tool for assessing the work stress in different groups of occupations. This "Work Stress Assessment" (WSA) questionnaire was used in a group of 4800 female employees from various branches of the printing industry. Of a total of 160 questionnaire items, 98 items were selected and used to assess the workload in these employees, using a 5-point rating scale of evaluation. The responses were processed statistically, separately for 3531 blue-collar and 1269 white-collar respondents. The use of the factor analysis method revealed that the two groups of jobs had 16 factors in common, 3 factors were specific for blue-collar and 2 factors for white-collar jobs. Judged by factor components, the responses of subjects were well structured and the perceived stress at work turned out to well reflect the reality of conditions of work, which confirms the construct validity of this methodical approach based on the subjective perception of occupational stress. High coefficients of consistency (0.959 for blue-collar and 0.946 for white-collar occupations) point to the reliability of this questionnaire technique. Thus, the WSA questionnaire appears to suitably complement the other methodical approaches aimed at assessing the stress at work in different groups of occupations.     

Flexible working hours and well-being in Finland

Flexibility of working hours became more prevalent in the 1990s in Finland. According to a representative survey on Finnish wage and salary earners (n = 1790) at the beginning of 2000, a great majority of male (76%) and female (65%) employees regularly worked overtime and/or had irregular working hours every month. These employees were flexible in meeting the needs of their companies/employers. Individual flexibility of working hours was far less common, only one third of male and female employees were able to regulate their working hours. A better balance between company-controlled and individual flexibility would, however, improve the well-being of employees. Employees working overtime without being allowed to regulate their working hours felt more symptoms of distress and had more conflicts in combining workplace and family roles than those who could individually determine their working hours flexibly. An investment in individually determined flexibility, for example by means of participatory planning, would improve the well-being of employees, and thus also improve the productivity of the organization.     

Psychological symptoms among workers employed in companies undergoing privatization in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Central and Eastern European countries, after abandoning communism, significant political, economic and social changes occurred, followed by the increase in income inequality and social disparity. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological symptoms and monthly income of employees in companies undergoing privatization. The study included 258 workers from seven companies undergoing privatization in the Tuzla Canton region. For the study purposes, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and a general questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic characteristics, income, and workplace, were used. Monthly income of the majority of workers (207 or 80.2%) was below the monthly income in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Workers with salaries below the average salary for Bosnia and Herzegovina have pronounced somatization, anxiety, paranoia, interpersonal sensitivity and hostility. The BSI scale yielded significant negative correlation between the level of monthly salary and the expression of psychological symptoms (r = -0.184, p = 0.002) and between the level of family income and the expression of psychological symptoms (r = -0.123, p = 0.024). Based on the study results, it was determined that socio-economic factors such as the level of salary and total family income and job insecurity, educational level, marital status and gender may be predictors of psychological symptoms.     

The French 35-hour workweek: a wide-ranging social change

The reduction of the legal working week to 35 hours in France has generated wide-ranging social change. We examine the resulting changes in working-time patterns as well as their repercussions on the use of the time gained and on the quality of life and health. To compensate the reduction in the length of the working week, companies have modified the working-time patterns, by extending operation time (shiftwork, atypical schedules) and by matching the on-site workforce to production requirements (flexible working hours). They have sought to make more efficient use of working time: job intensification or job compression. The effects on the off-the-job life and health are linked to the shiftwork and atypical schedules designed to increase the company's operating time, and adjustments to the company's need for flexibilization impose working time/free time patterns that are at odds with biological rhythms and social life patterns. Changes to working-time patterns have unexpected consequences for work organization: heightened difficulties for the individual and the crew. These changes may generate a range of health problems related to overwork and stress. The way some companies have adapted may call into question the usefulness of work done by employees, thus damaging their social identity and mental well-being.     

Introducing digital tools for sustainable food supply management: Tackling food loss and waste in industrial canteens

Reducing food waste is essential if we want to create a more sustainable food system, which is why halving per capita food waste by 2030 has been included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that by using digital tools to monitor food provisioning and management within canteens, it is possible to achieve a more sustainable food service management within industrial companies and to reduce the overall quantity and environmental impacts of food preparation and consumption thus achieving economic benefits. Longitudinal 2018 and 2019 data collected from the canteen of a major Italian food production company were analyzed. The results showed that the amount of food lost and wasted has decreased over time, reaping important environmental benefits and illustrating specific differences between the food lost in meal preparation and the food left on employees’ plates. It is therefore important to implement education initiatives and to use digital tools to share food-related data collected within companies among both employees and kitchen and catering staff in order to raise awareness of their behavioral strengths and weaknesses. From this perspective, new interventions at both kitchen and customer/worker levels are introduced and discussed.     

Social support for cancer—Selected problems

Cancer creates a difficult situation connected with an extreme psychological burden for the patient, with the main symptom being the high level of stress resulting from the necessity to change the hierarchy of values and life goals, the prospect of physical pain and dependence on others.The main goal of the research was to determine the scope of social support recognized by patients with cancer. Determination of the phases of disease predominantly burdened with stress as well as methods of stress reduction was the indirect goal of the research.The research was conducted in the Wielkopolska province in 2008, and included a target group of patients with head or neck cancer treated by an oncological clinic. The researchers used a diagnostic poll as the method, and a questionnaire as the instrument.The results showed that patients expect and are granted support of two basic types: emotional: allowing them to conquer their own internal tension and negative feelings, to express their fear, anxiety and sorrow, and to give rise to hope; and practical: aiming at the exchange and provision of information and advice that bring about better understanding of their condition, life situation and problems. The latter type of support results in the collection of feedback on the effectiveness of countermeasures taken by the supported patients, and exchange of information about certain procedures and the form of modelling efficient countermeasures.     

Comparison of the Somatic and Psychosexual Maturation in Menarcheal and Nonmenarcheal Girls

This study reports on the relation between somatic and psychosexual development in 911 urban girls age 8 to 17 years. Subjects were examined by anthropometric and questionnaire methods. We compared the variability of somatic proportions and indexes in two groups of girls at the same age, but with different levels of maturation (menarcheal vs nonmenarcheal). We also assessed their attitudes and knowledge in spheres of sexuality, partners, and matrimonial relationships. We observed that menarcheal girls differed significantly for several anthropometrical values (body weight, sitting height, gluteal circumference, arm circumference) for some age groups, and we recorded significant differences in values of some indexes (Quetelet-Bouchard, Pignet-Vervaek, BMI). The psychosexual development of the girls was assessed by the questionnaire method. The girls were asked to explain various terms. The main aim of our questionnaire was to detect the existence of a relationship between somatic and psychosexual development, whether knowledge of menarcheal girls is more advanced than knowledge of nonmenarcheal girls. Our results show that although there is a significant somatic distinction between menarcheal and nonmenarcheal girls, we are not able to unambiguously state that menarcheal girls are more psychosexually developed.     

Beyond the state: policing precariousness in South Africa and Palestine/Israel

This short comment on Loïc Wacquant's ‘Marginality, Ethnicity, and Penality’ begins by highlighting three of Wacquant's most important interventions. It then extends the analysis by drawing on research about urban marginality in South Africa and Palestine/Israel. Whereas Wacquant focuses on the state response to urban marginality, I suggest that it is important to look beyond the state to consider how other actors have responded to the growth of precarious populations. Specifically, I point out that private security companies and residents' associations are at the forefront of efforts to police poor black South Africans, while an imperial network of security forces polices the Palestinian precariat.     

Group Occupational Health Service in a Developing Country

In 1967 an experimental group occupational health service was set up in Dar es Salaam to provide direct service to industrial firms. Larger companies were visited by a doctor, smaller firms in rotation by auxiliaries. After three years 65 companies had joined with over 15,000 employees, and workers were attending the group dispensaries at a rate of over 250,000 visits a year. Such an approach through direct service to the working community appears to be more appropriate to a developing country than a purely advisory central occupational health unit.     

基于城市环境气候图的宁波大气环境分析与调控对策

城市化的蓬勃发展改变了城市气候和环境,产生了诸多气候环境问题,需要有效的城市气候环境信息与调控对策来应对和缓解,城市环境气候图在城市气候环境的规划与调控方面提供了重要指导。在传统城市气候图的基础上,提出了多季节、多环境要素相结合的城市环境气候图构建方法。在此基础上,以具有复杂下垫面和明显季节性气候特征的宁波市区为案例,综合运用遥感反演、GIS空间分析、中尺度数值模拟等技术手段,对城市热负荷、大气污染、通风潜力和风场及整体的城市气候环境进行多季节分析与评估。结果表明:在形成城市气候环境的主要要素方面,城市热负荷、大气污染物分布都具有显著的季节性和空间性差异,宁波市春、夏季同时受热负荷和大气污染影响,冬季仅受大气污染影响,秋季受二者影响均较小;通风潜力的空间格局各季节之间具有高度的相似性;风环境复杂多变,呈现出显著的季节性和空间性差异。对城市气候环境的整体分析发现,城市气候环境高价值区和中价值区主要分布于山林、农田和水体,高风险区位于北仑、镇海和杭州湾南岸的沿海重化工业带,中风险区分布于江北区东部、鄞州城区东西两翼、慈溪城区和奉化城区东北部等工厂厂房密集的区域。进一步在前述分析的基础上,提出了城市风道规划方案和气候环境调控对策,包括2条一级风道、5条二级风道、3条受海陆风影响的三级双向风道、12条受海陆风影响的三级单向风道、13条受山谷风影响的三级单向风道和七类城市气候环境调控对策。提出的多季节、多环境要素相结合的城市环境气候图构建方法适用于季风气候地区复杂气候环境的分析与评估研究,能够提高城市气候环境分析的综合性和准确性,并能够通过风道规划及相关调控对策的制定和实施改善城市热负荷和大气环境质量,缓解各季节的城市气候环境问题,为城市环保、气象、规划等部门提供重要的决策支持,从而促进城市可持续发展和生态城市建设。     

Industrial symbiosis in the forestry sector: A case study in southern Brazil

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is an important concept in the field of industrial ecology that has disseminated worldwide as a practice to decrease the ecological impact of industrial processes through the exchange of by‐products and waste between units in a system. The forestry industry is the main economic activity in the region of Lages in southern Brazil. IS relationships have expanded with the use of waste material from wood processing and strengthened cooperation between companies in different sectors. The aims of this article were to: a) quantify the level of IS in the system, b) identify the benefits of IS for participants, and c) explain why the network further developed IS to the formation of an industrial ecosystem. A questionnaire was administered during visits to 24 forestry companies in order to analyze their products and processes, commercial relations, positive impacts, and local insertion. The industrial symbiosis indicator (ISI) was determined using waste stream data from the system to represent the level of symbiosis among the companies in this region. The results show that the companies participate in a symbiotic network, mainly involving the exchange of chips, bark, sawdust and shavings. In most cases, these exchanges occur between nearby companies, constituting an extensive industrial ecosystem.     

Environment Under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: A Report of the Bureau of Research and Planning, California Medical Association

Active and retired federal employees, together with their dependents, represent the single largest group of persons enrolled in any voluntary health insurance program in the United States. The extent of their coverage and enrollment is of particular interest to physicians in California since this state has the largest proportion of all federal employees enrolled among all states. Of the almost 5(3/4) million federal employees and their dependents, enrollment in California was almost 609,000 or slightly over 10 per cent of all those covered. Better than 3 out of 5 individuals covered were enrolled in service type plans both in the U.S. and in California. Of all persons enrolled in comprehensive group practice and individual practice plans in the U.S., almost one-half were in California alone. Almost 4 out of 5 individuals enrolled were in high option plans. "... an indication that most employees were satisfied with their initial choice of plans."     

The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms

This paper studies drivers for eco‐innovation in Russian manufacturing firms on a sample of 2,212 innovative firms, of which over 600 introduced eco‐innovations. The companies in our sample specifically mention environmental regulation as a reason for engaging in eco‐innovations. Furthermore, we show that those firms who engage in eco‐innovations are motivated even stronger by the desire to increase resource efficiency. Companies under state ownership are especially prone to a higher likelihood to invest. We conclude that regulations are mostly relevant to the late comers who are obliged to follow minimum standards. On the other hand, the state uses its controlling influence to press companies under their control to exceed these minimum standards. Thus, we argue, state ownership does indeed have an influence on both the likelihood to eco‐innovate and on the levels of spending. Eco‐innovative state‐owned companies are only prone to invest in eco‐innovations, if they get additional money.     

Weekend work and depressive symptoms among Korean employees

The purpose of this study was to quantify the association between weekend work and depressive symptoms in a representative sample of Korean employees. Subjects were 29?171 employees of companies in Korea. Data were obtained as part of the 2011 Korean Working Conditions Survey. Depressive symptoms were measured as a score of ≤7 on the World Health Organization Well-being Index. The association between weekend work and depressive symptoms was quantified using logistic regression, controlling for sociodemographic and work-related factors including the number of hours worked per week and stratified by gender. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was higher in employees who reported working at least one weekend day in the past month than in employees who reported working no weekend days in the past month. After controlling for confounders, including the number of hours worked per week, 1–4 days of weekend work in the past month (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] of 1.36 [1.18–1.57] in males and 1.32 [1.12–1.58] in females) and >4 days of weekend work in the past month (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] of 1.45 [1.19–1.78] in males and 1.36 [1.07–1.73] in females) were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Weekend work was related with a significant increase in the prevalence of depressive symptoms in Korean workers.     

Urban Sheep Keeping in West Africa: Can Socioeconomic Household Profiles Explain Management and Productivity?

Rapid urbanization in Africa leads to a spatial concentration of people with different cultural origins and socioeconomic backgrounds resulting in a great diversity of life styles and livelihood strategies. One common strategy in Maroua/Cameroon and Bobo-Dioulasso/Burkina Faso is urban sheep keeping. Cluster analyses identified distinct socioeconomic groups with similarities between the towns: traditional livestock keepers, households headed by well educated government employees or traders, and more vulnerable groups formed of households headed by females, retired people or people with limited formal education. The household types in Bobo varied in their perception of the importance and the development of urban sheep keeping and their future plans. Those in Maroua differed in management intensity and in the potential to adapt their practices to the urban environment. Development interventions to reduce environmental pollution and risks for human health associated with urban sheep keeping need to account for these differences in the target group.     

Individual behavioral and autonomic response to emotional stress in humans

Healthy subjects (n = 53) performed a sound version of the proof-reading test under normal conditions and in the state of emotional stress. Stress resistance was evaluated by the overall number of errors. The propensity to active or passive response to stress was evaluated by the number of "false alarms" and signal omissions. The reaction pattern to emotional stress in stress-resistant subjects, irrespective of their behavioral features, consisted in an increase in sympathetic effects on the cardiac rhythm and a decrease in the reaction time to significant signals. In subjects with low stress resistance, no statistically significant changes in the level of sympathetic tone and reaction time were revealed in the state of stress. Subjects with active behavioral response to stress, irrespective of their level of stress resistance, were characterized by aggressiveness, boldness and independence. Subjects with passive response to stress were inclined to conformism, dependence, and passivity.     

Plasma Glutathione and Carotenoid Coloration as Potential Biomarkers of Environmental Stress in Great Tits

Measures of oxidative stress in animals may be useful biomarkers of environmental stressors, such as anthropogenic pollution. In birds, studies of oxidative stress have focused on dietary antioxidants, primarily carotenoids, which are interesting due to their multiple physiological and pigmentary functions but therefore also unspecifically related to oxidative stress. A useful complementary biomarker may be the glutathione system, commonly used in human medicine, but rarely applied to wild, terrestrial vertebrates. In this study of urban versus rural adult and nestling great tits Parus major, we investigated both the carotenoid-based yellow plumage (by reflectance spectrometry) and the plasma levels of glutathione, the latter measured as total glutathione (tGSH) and as the ratio between oxidized and reduced glutathione (GSSG:GSH), respectively. We found that urban adults had higher current oxidative stress (GSSG:GSH) and paler yellow plumage compared to rural adults, suggesting elevated stress in the urban environment. Total glutathione levels (tGSH), however, which may indicate long-term up-regulation of the GSH reservoir, did not differ between the environments. Nestlings did not show any consistent pattern between environments in either tGSH or GSSG:GSH and, among individuals, glutathione levels were uncorrelated with carotenoid coloration. The results thus suggest some population-level correspondence between the two stress biomarkers in adult birds, but more work is obviously needed to understand how the two antioxidant systems interact in different individuals and in response to different environmental disturbances.     

Ethnobotanical knowledge ofBrosimum alicastrum (Moraceae) among urban and rural el salvadorian adolescents

This study represents a systematic attempt to quantify and compare the degree of familiarity among rural and urban El Salvadorian adolescents with ujushte,Brosimum alicastrum Sw. (Moraceae). To do this, we administered a written questionnaire to 177 students attending school in either San Franciso Menéndez or Apopa, El Salvador. Using a closed-end format, the students provided information about their knowledge of the tree and its fruit, frequency and enjoyment of consumption, method of preparation, and the source of their knowledge. Although most of the rural students knew of the tree and ate its fruit, very few of the urban students indicated familiarity. Statistical hypothesis testing demonstrated that the discrepancy between rural and urban knowledge could not be accounted for by differences in reported socioeconomic status. Grandparents were cited as the most important source of information about ujushte.     

Deadwood and paternalism: rationalizing casual labour in an Indian company town

This article is based upon ethnographic research in the Indian company town of Jamshedpur, in the Tata Motors and Telcon companies. I relate the local shift towards casual labour since the 1990s to managerial discourses that rationalize this development. I argue that whilst flexible accumulation may represent a global transformation of employment regimes, the local implementation of this process relies upon a discursive continuity with the past. Referencing a historical language of cultural poverty, predominantly Bengali managers in Jamshedpur continue to claim paternal authority over their mainly Bihari employees, despite no longer fulfilling their traditional ‘parental’ roles vis‐à‐vis the provision of permanent employment. In the latter sections of the article, I discuss the managerial spectre of inefficient permanent workers; ‘deadwood’ whom it is perceived that casualization can prune from the workforce. I argue that whilst permanent employees may exhibit less commitment to the work process than their casual counterparts, their presence on the shop‐floor suggests continuity with the company town ideal and forestalls resistance among casual workers. Far from disembedding labour from social relations, neoliberal employment regimes in Jamshedpur exploit company town paternalism and cultural prejudices.