Lectures: 45
Mental health has become the main cause of occupational diseases in Chile. This was recently reported by the Superintendence of Social Security (Suseso) which specified that 67% of work ailments have their origin in mental disorders and that in these cases, women outnumber men by 22%.
In the diagnosis reported in the framework of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, it was specified that women reached 77% in 2022, nine percentage points more than in the previous year and above the figure reached by men, who represent 55% (20 percentage points more than in 2021).
Among the causes that can explain this difference between both genders is one of the problems that most affects the development of equity: the “double presence” that occurs when a person manages more than one task, for example: housework and relatives, along with paid work activity.
The psychosocial risk is generated in those situations in which excessive work, lack of rest and the difficulty to respond in parallel to different requirements, decrease the level of attention for each task. This causes people to become saturated and have physical and psychological discomfort, due to the difficulty of being mentally and physically managing actions considered obligations at the same time.
For the Occupational Safety Institute (ISL), the risk implied by double presence is one of the great challenges in the delivery of preventive medical benefits.
It is a fact that the participation of women in the labor field has not only left controversies in terms of salary inequality, but also, despite the fact that the “double presence” can affect both genders, it presents a higher prevalence in the female gender. , given that they are normally the ones who organize and carry out domestic work, in addition to caring for children or the elderly or sick. This causes the alteration of their personal, work and social life, with the consequent stress that facilitates the development of physical illnesses associated with musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, cardiac and dermatological disorders, among other pathologies. It also contributes to the symptoms associated with mental health diseases, among which anxiety, depression and chronic fatigue stand out.
The burden generated by the “double presence” prevents the person from carrying out their activities normally, negatively impacting their work, which can lead to demotivation and lack of commitment. This, in turn, leads to an increase in absenteeism that impairs his work performance and affects his responsibilities in the family environment.
If a bad organizational design is added to the double presence, with work overload, oppressive work rhythms, long hours and hours that are incompatible with personal or family life, the situation is even more risky.
One of the factors that is supposed to help incorporate mechanisms that provide flexibility to the working day and/or procedures within an organization will be the recent law that reduces the working day to 40 hours, since there would be a greater margin of time to organize and carry out activities that they could not carry out before, because they were incompatible with their time at work or with that carried out under greater pressure.
However, for an effective and permanent solution over time, factors focused on improving personal skills to organize and plan the time and available resources should also be considered, encouraging the participation of employers in the implementation of an organizational design. that promotes the monitoring of the workload to avoid prolonged times of overload and support from the headquarters, including the strengthening of leaderships that provide opportune and optimal support to their teams.
