Psychosocial Risk at work: a necessary discussion

Abstract

We are facing a crisis of an increasing work-related mental illnesses, which makes the expression “psychosocial risks at work” increasingly popular to refer to aspects at work that must be observed to preserve workers' mental health. Public government research institutes establish definitions of what these psychosocial risks are and their impacts on health and become references for action in their countries. However, there is a mix between the factors that cause violence and the damage and health problems themselves. Based on studies on mental health and work present in recent scientific literature, we highlight two central issues cannot be missed: the organization of work and its impact on the worker's subjectivity and the social relations that structure the society marking and socially differentiating male and female workers, influencing the distribution of power and better and worse working conditions according to race, social class, gender, capabilities, among other forms of separation and identification of collectives humans.