Season 08 Episode 08: Levellin’ Up: Health Screening vs Human Rights

“It is my human right to grab a meat pie from the local pie cart,” Trajce defends his actions. “Everyone is stressed, so what is your stress level?” enquires Alan, in his effort to empathise and disarm a respondent. “What’s your level, not your age, but your level?” asks Sara, “We’re levelling up – that’s empowering!”

In this episode, the WhyWork crew dig into the uncomfortable truth that many wellness initiatives are a shiny distraction from the core work-related manifestations of harm. Recognising that work is linked to wellbeing, the legal pundits, Trajce and Alan, dig into regulatory materials to determine if the legislation reference the term “wellbeing” as a workplace obligation.

The team debate obligations and terminology - health, welfare, wellness, wellbeing, and wholeness - and how the meaning of these terms might alter depending on each person. Trajce questions the logic of yoga rooms in toxic work environments. Alan reminds us that if work is designed poorly, no fruit bowl or mindfulness session will make up for it.

Together, the team explores how psychosocial hazards, like role conflict, chronic heavy workloads, and low support, erode wellbeing. They query design strategies to improve these conditions. Spoiler alert: it starts with good work design and ends with authentic leadership.

Sara espouses the benefits of sense-making in organisational psychosocial risk management sharing details about her team’s new online material, workshop training, and collaborative development of a software feature in digital risk management software-as-a-service: Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Integrated Solutions for Employers (PRAiSE) with both the PRAiSE Certified Assessor and PRAiSE Certified Manager program, complementing the Psychosocial Risk Analyser (PRA) feature in ErgoAnalyst.

This one’s for the safety leaders, HR teams, and execs who want to move beyond platitudes and into prevention and health promotion.