Almost 37 percent of those who responded in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's survey that they always have too high a workload work in healthcare, social care or education.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority sees no major differences based on age, gender, level of education or form of employment.
Lars Lööw is not surprised that the biggest challenge lies within the welfare professions.
"In the reports we commission, we see that the work environment comes second, third or fourth in these professions. When you work with the work environment, it becomes a reaction to high sick leave and at the individual level, instead of at the structural level and with preventive work," he tells TT.
Committed to the job
Lööw believes that workers in welfare are often committed to their jobs – and that this can affect the work environment in a negative way.
Employers can probably abuse the commitment, which ultimately leads to people not being able to cope.
Reports of occupational illnesses due to organizational and social causes have increased by 30 percent in one year across the entire labor market. The increase is primarily due to unhealthy workloads in education, healthcare and social care, according to the Swedish Work Environment Authority.
“Horrible”
"It's terrible," says Lööw.
Breaking a bad work environment can be difficult, but Lars Lööw believes it is possible.
"The basic recipe is systematic work environment work, but it has to happen at the right level in the organization. We need to find where the structural problems are, and we as an authority need to do that together with employers and employee organizations," he says.
The report from the Swedish Work Environment Authority is based on responses from the latest work environment survey, in which approximately 17,600 employees participated.
One in ten responded that they always have too high a workload, regardless of their profession.
Nearly 37 percent of those who responded that they always have too high a workload work in healthcare, social care or education.
The professional groups where the largest proportion respond that they always have too high a workload are assistant nurses, university and college teachers, as well as primary and secondary school teachers, after-school educators and preschool teachers.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority cannot see any major differences based on age, gender, level of education or employment type. However, it is somewhat more common for women aged 30–49 to report that they always have too high a workload.
Source: Swedish Work Environment Authority
