Many companies treat their workers like paperclips and rubber bands… as soon as they don’t function so well, they go into the trash.  And because the thinking is “if one goes, we’ll just get another,” there’s no effort to prevent problems.

But employees are more like cars… a little care and they keep functioning.  And when there’s a problem, getting to the mechanic sooner rather than later most often has a better outcome.

Compared to medical problems, mental health issues are treated even worse.  Employers often don’t understand depression, anxiety, and other common psychiatric disorders.

Pain intersects both medical and psychiatric arenas, having both physical and psychological components.  And good pain care includes attention to both the body and the mind.

Repetitive Stress Injuries

Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) are medical problems that come about from doing some behavior over and over and over, especially in awkward postures.  These days, the most common RSI is carpal tunnel syndrome from computer work.  A worker spending 8 hours a day typing or entering data at a keyboard develops inflammation, muscle spasm and pain in her hands, wrists and arms.  RSI are overuse injuries.

I recently came across a description of Chevron’s response to RSI’s…  and it’s great!

Chevron’s Bio-Psycho-Social Model

First, Chevron works to prevent these injuries.  They have:

• ergonomic assessment for employees at risk, e.g. those workers for whom repetitive movements are part of their jobs.  Are the computers at the right height?  Do the chairs promote good posture?
• education about prevention for both supervisors and employees

Second, Chevron has a response team ready to go at the first signs of problems.  Called a Rapid Response Team, this group, led by an occupational therapist, visits employees at the first sign of discomfort or pain.  They recommend:

• adjustments to the worker’s workstation, e.g. aligning a computer to reduce awkward postures
• different equipment, e.g. a tray for someone’s keyboard, or a soft wrist rest
• changes in workload or job rotation, so some isn’t doing the same job over and over
• medical evaluations when needed
• individual recommendations such as stretching, or changes in posture

Psychological issues 

Most interesting to me is that they also have an understanding of psychological issues that may interfere with the success of these basic steps described above.  One example is what Chevron calls “super workers.”  These are workers who ignore early warning signs of discomfort.  Perhaps they’re stoic or macho, so don’t complain.  Or out of perfectionism, they push themselves too hard for work, going overboard to meet deadlines.

They try to make employees aware of the cost of such behavior to themselves in terms of physical problems and higher stress.  They also educate workers about the risk of not being able to work down the road because of not addressing discomfort when it’s mild and easier to treat.  Chevron also educates supervisors on ways to handle “super workers,” including when to make a referral to the rapid response team.  As well, they work with supervisors to be sure the supervisors themselves aren’t creating the problem by pressuring their supervisees too much.

I think this is a great example of a company understanding the value of their workers, and helping them both medically and psychologically.  They’ve made the connection that prevention, education and assistance is good for their bottom line, as well as the right thing to do.  Bravo!

In terms of worker support, how does your company help?  hurt?  Are you a “super worker” at risk for injury?

Thanks to Blmurch for the photo at Flickr.

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