Week 3 Project

Health and Safety in the Workplace

Workplace Stress

As the vice president of HR, you oversee �fteen departments in two different states. You are often required to �y between Los Angeles, California, and Washington DC. The local commute in Los Angeles is horrendous, and you spend at least fourteen hours per day at work. You even work on the weekends. Everyone is stressed at work due to the merger and the new chief executive of�cer (CEO). He or she recognizes neither the importance of work–life balance nor the concept of mindfulness. A doctor has just informed you that you have work-related stress and hypertension.

Employee Safety

An employee is very angry since he or she did not receive a promotion. The employee has become aggressive and hostile to all the other employees, but he or she is especially confrontational with the female employee that has become his or her manager in the manufacturing plant. His or her behavior is unacceptable. The new manager has now �led a stress claim and harassment claim against the employee.

Workplace Safety

An employee was working in a restaurant and started a grease �re. He was very tired from working a double shift; he grabbed a container of water and poured it on the grease �re. The �ames went out of control. Several employees were injured; fortunately, no one died.

These are three different scenarios to portray how the demands of work and employee aggression can create an unsafe work environment. At some point in your career, you will encounter a workplace safety violation, illness, or injury. You may not always be able to prevent a safety issue, but you can have a very explicit safety protocol for all the employees to follow. Be sure to conduct safety training to keep the employees well informed. When you are faced with investigating a safety violation, workplace illness, or injury, remember to remain calm and gather the facts.

Additional Materials

From your course textbook The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Occupational Safety and Workplace Health, read the following chapters:

The Job Demands-Resources Model

Working Hours, Health, and Well-Being

Exposure to Aggression in the Workplace

From the South University Online Library, read the following articles:

Mindfulness Interventions to Reduce Stress among Nursing Personnel  (https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp? sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edo&AN=ejs34993429&site=eds-live)

Aggression and Bullying in the Workplace: It’s the Position of the Perpetrator that In�uences Employees’ Reactions and Sanctioning Ratings  (https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp? sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=bth&AN=115131650&site=eds-live)

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