Browsing: White-collar work

A pandemic-era study has shown that workers' experiences with flexible work have been "very positive", with benefits to wellbeing, while highlighting gaps in WHS support for these workers. It has identified seven elements that support safe flexible work.

Burnout is commonly associated with cognitive or mental employment demands, but it also affects those with high physical workloads, and can be exacerbated by certain kinds of off-the-job physical activities, researchers have found.

A white-collar worker has unsuccessfully challenged her dismissal for refusing to provide a urine sample for a drug and alcohol test for "personal medical reasons", with a commission stressing that office-based staff aren't "immune" from drug-related injury risks.

A tribunal has rejected a worker's claim that he developed a back injury from prolonged workplace sitting. The worker contended his case was supported by his employer's safety documents on sedentary risks, and a failure to provide him with an adjustable desk in a timely manner.

The struggle of workers to "decode" written communications, which are prolific in remote-work set-ups, is triggering a hunter-gatherer survival mechanism and perceptions of being bullied, a senior WHS researcher says.

In a major report on Australia's "forced experiment" - widespread working-from-home arrangements for the pandemic - the Productivity Commission has detailed employers' WHS duties to remote workers, examined the "right to disconnect" and called for an upcoming WHS review to address the issue.

A worker's typing duties caused him to develop a chronic pain condition, a tribunal has ruled, despite claims that he did not meet the criteria for such a diagnosis, and the dearth of medical literature linking the condition to his area of work.

The proliferation of telecommuting arrangements forced by the COVID-19 pandemic has been linked to health problems ranging from anxiety to back injuries and eye strain, but employers can prevent many of these conditions by identifying and addressing any "mismatch" between remote-work preference and frequency, a study has shown.

A major government employer has been found liable for a worker's psychological injury, after its "messenger" wrongly told him he had been suspended. It was deemed not liable for the man's tinnitus, purportedly caused by the noise of workplace air conditioners.

A bank executive with psychological injuries has unsuccessfully claimed: his manager unreasonably conducted unannounced "skip level" meetings to discuss his management style with his staff; and he was treated poorly after being accused of calling a second manager a "hag" at a work trivia night.