Psychological hazards and risks in the construction industry in New South Wales

This brief conference paper explored psychosocial hazards and risks in the New South Wales construction industry. Survey responses were obtained from around 100 people (workers, contractor managers, experts/consultants, project managers) in two private construction companies and one government department having construction project management experience.

Results:

Key findings from the data indicated that:

·????????Most people perceived being pressured to stay back and work long hours. This very frequently led to workers being tired. This constant stress and encroachment on personal/family time is known to contribute to mental health issues.

·????????On the above, people also felt they had to work to unachievable deadlines and unrealistic time pressures “fairly often”.

·????????Most workers felt they did not have a choice in deciding what they do at work but do have a choice in their work pace.

·????????Co-workers were highlighted as being able to help with work issues or providing help and support “some of the time” or “once in a while”. While this highlights the importance of co-workers and communities for support during work and personal issues, it also suggests that it isn’t a common occurrence, with the authors stating that this “indicated that construction workers normally could only hold their feelings to themselves without mental support from co-workers” (p488).

·????????For relationships between workers and their supervisor, reported was that supervisors value workers’ contributions ‘some of the time’, and the supervisor gives the worker sufficient credit for their hard work ‘once in a while’. Although the supervisor support section didn’t seem too bad to me, the authors suggest that workers may need more praise and credit recognition from their leaders.

·????????Workers believed that other workers in their workgroup were free to express their views and feelings during work processes and how they do their work.

·????????Less positive findings were found for bullying. Although verbal abuse was reported as infrequent (e.g. six monthly), workers feeling exclusion or isolation from work activities was a monthly occurrence. Furthermore, being the subject of gossip or false, malicious rumours was reported as weekly, and humiliation through gestures, sarcasm, criticism or insults was reported as happening daily.

Although these findings may not be unexpected, to quote the paper it does highlight that ”construction projects could have unaddressed psychosocial hazards and risks, each of which may be a potential factor for accidents and occupational and psychological injuries” (p483).

Link in comments.

Authors: Rezaeian, N., Tang, L. and Hardie, M., 2021. Proceedings of the 9th World Construction Symposium, 9-10 July 2021, Sri Lanka.