Work environment

As an employee, you should feel safe and not be exposed to injuries in your work. Psychosocial problems caused by, for example, conflicts in the workplace are also a work environment problem that must be counteracted.

Feeling comfortable at work is important for a good work environment. It is therefore important that:

• the tasks feel meaningful and developing.
• you can influence the planning of your work.
• know which goals govern the business and how their own tasks relate to the goals.
• the salary is perceived as corresponding to the work effort for you to feel appreciated in your work.

Naturvetarna work to create the best possible conditions in our members' working lives. A sustainable working life is based on sustainable individuals who are affected by the balance in several parts of life, not just the job. We have therefore developed a guide for personal sustainability.

Who is responsible for the work environment?

It is the employer who has the main responsibility for the work environment and who must ensure that the laws and policies in the workplace that concern the work environment are complied with.

As an employee, it is important to know which manager is responsible for the work environment, so that you know who to turn to in case of problems. The work environment responsibility lies primarily with the highest manager, but the responsibility can be delegated to managers at a lower level. This must then be done in writing.

The Work Environment Act's regulation on social and organizational work environment states that the employer must ensure that employees know:

• what tasks they are to perform
• what result is to be achieved with the work
• if there are special ways in which the work should be performed
• which tasks are to be prioritized when available time is not sufficient for all tasks to be performed
• who they can turn to for help and support while working

Systematic work environment management

The employer must conduct systematic work environment management, which means that risk factors in the work are identified and followed up. By making risk and impact analyzes of the work, the risk factors can be discovered already in the planning stage and thus remedied even before they constitute an actual risk. This applies to both physical and social and organizational work environment.

If stress in the workplace is a recurring or long-term problem, you can talk to the safety representative or the work environment representative. They represent the employees in work environment issues and are therefore a good sounding board in such issues.

Stress and mental exhaustion

Working a lot or having a high workload is not dangerous in itself, but when the situation at work begins to affect your general condition, sleep and close relationships, it is time to stop and think about what can be remedied.

There can be stressful factors in private life that are difficult to control, but when it comes to working life, there are regulations for how the employer should promote a long-term sustainable work environment. The employer must conduct systematic work environment work, which means that risk factors in the work are identified and followed up.

The role of the safety representative

Safety representatives must be present at workplaces with at least five employees. For small private companies, there are so-called regional safety representatives who contact companies and help them build routines for a functioning work environment.

Problems with the work environment?

If you as an employee have opinions on the work environment, you should always try to draw the attention of your employer, your local union representatives or your safety representative to the problem.

If this does not help, you as a member can always contact Naturvetarnas membership Helpline. Through talks and negotiations, we also work actively to improve the members' work environment. Through training and support for our elected representatives and safety representatives, we also influence the work environment for the better in your workplace.