Carolina Gomez Mena
Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, October 8, 2022, p. eleven
In Mexico, 75 percent of workers suffer from job stress, a figure that is even higher than in the United States, where 59 percent experience it, said Fernando Salvatti, a specialist in occupational or occupational health at Salud Interactiva.
In the online transmission Psychosocial risks at work and NOM-035-STPS-2018, he added that it is estimated that companies lose 16 billion pesos annually due to psychosocial illnesses and an increase in cases of suicide, harassment labor (mobbing) and drug and alcohol abuse.
Around the NOM, he said, there are various myths, which he denied. “There is no obligation to hire external consultants to implement the standard in the workplace, nor is it necessary to hire a psychologist. It does not contain any stress measurement instrument, so it is false that workplaces have to pay a fine due to worker stress.
It is also not an instrument to carry out a psychological evaluation of employees and does not contain a questionnaire to identify mental disorders.
The standard is an instrument that allows identifying, analyzing and preventing psychosocial risk factors in the workplace and evaluating the environments where employees carry out their activities. In general, it seeks to promote a favorable environment on those sites.
workplace violence
Among the psychosocial risk factors are workplace violence and workload, which can lead to professional burnout stress. (burnout), bullying and organizational problems. All this causes anxiety disorders, stress, organic problems and even sleep disturbances.
He commented that among the employer’s obligations are generating policies for the prevention of psychosocial risks, virtual or physical mechanisms to present complaints and adopt measures to correct abnormal situations. In turn, workers must refrain from carrying out practices contrary to a favorable organizational environment, acts of violence and denounce practices of this nature, as well as participate in information activities and submit to the corresponding medical analyzes and psychological evaluations, among others. .
Absenteeism, he added, represented 7.3 percent of the cost of the annual payroll of Mexican companies, which implied an average loss of 23.8 percent in productivity.
