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Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace: What They Are and How to Deal with Them

Work can be challenging enough without dealing with extra pressures that leave you feeling drained, anxious, or even unsafe. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, undervalued, or bullied at work, you might be experiencing what’s known as “psychosocial hazards.” It sounds like jargon, but it’s something many of us face at some point in our working lives.

What Are Psychosocial Hazards?

Psychosocial hazards refer to anything in your workplace that could negatively impact your mental health, wellbeing, or ability to perform. They aren’t physical hazards like slippery floors or heavy lifting, but they can be just as damaging. These hazards can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, or even burnout.

Common psychosocial hazards include:

• Workplace bullying or harassment – Whether it’s sexist comments, being picked on, or left out intentionally, these behaviours can take a toll on your mental health.
• Unreasonable job demands – Ever felt like you’re doing three people’s jobs but only getting paid for one? When work demands are excessive and constant, it’s a major stressor.
• Lack of support – Whether it’s from your boss or co-workers, feeling unsupported can leave you vulnerable to stress and isolation.
• Workplace conflict – Not getting along with colleagues or managers can create an environment where you feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
• Job insecurity – Not knowing if you’ll have a job tomorrow is a massive burden and can affect your mental wellbeing.
• Poor work-life balance – If you’re constantly checking emails after hours or skipping time with family to get work done, it can harm your mental and emotional health.

How to Identify Psychosocial Hazards

If you find yourself dreading work, having trouble sleeping, or feeling anxious about interacting with certain people or tasks, these could be signs of psychosocial hazards. Pay attention to how you feel both during and after work. Do you feel overwhelmed? Drained? Constantly stressed? If yes, there’s a chance psychosocial factors at work could be the cause.

You might also notice:

• Feeling isolated from your co-workers.
• Increased irritability or sensitivity at work.
• Physical symptoms like headaches, fatigue, or changes in appetite.
• Reduced job satisfaction or a feeling of helplessness.

Trust your instincts. If you feel like something isn’t right, it’s worth looking deeper into what’s going on.

How to Report Psychosocial Hazards

In Australia, workplaces have a legal obligation to provide a safe and healthy environment, including your mental wellbeing. If you’re experiencing any psychosocial hazards, reporting them is an important step toward addressing the issue. Here’s how to go about it:

1. Document everything – Keep records of incidents, conversations, and how the situation is affecting your mental health. Having clear documentation can be really helpful when reporting the issue.
2. Speak to someone you trust – This might be a supervisor, HR, or a trusted colleague. Let them know what’s happening and how it’s affecting you. If the issue is with your manager, go higher up the chain.
3. File a formal complaint – If nothing changes after an informal conversation, you may need to lodge a formal complaint. Most workplaces have policies in place for dealing with bullying, harassment, and other psychosocial hazards.
4. Know your rights – In Australia, laws like the Fair Work Act and Work Health and Safety Act protect workers from bullying, harassment, and unsafe work environments. Don’t be afraid to use them.

Where to Find Help and Support

It can be tough to deal with psychosocial hazards on your own, but there are plenty of resources available in Australia to support you:

• Beyond Blue – Offers mental health support for those feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed by work.
• Fair Work Commission – Provides advice on dealing with workplace bullying, unfair treatment, and unsafe work conditions.
• WorkSafe Australia – Can guide you on your rights around workplace safety and mental health, and how to report unsafe working conditions.
• Lifeline – If you’re feeling overwhelmed and need someone to talk to, Lifeline offers 24/7 crisis support.
• Your union – If you’re part of a union, they can be a great resource for understanding your rights and helping you address workplace issues.

Final Thoughts

Psychosocial hazards are often invisible, but their impact can be very real. Whether it’s workplace bullying, unreasonable expectations, or poor support, you deserve to feel safe and supported at work. Don’t hesitate to speak up, seek help, and take action when your mental health is at risk. You’re not alone, and there’s plenty of help out there to guide you through the process. Remember: looking after your wellbeing is just as important as any deadline.

When I tell my clients that they need to declutter their homes and relationships to achieve the success they want in their businesses, I’m typically met with some skepticism. If you’ve never thought about it before, it can be confusing to think that the things we keep with us physically and mentally can have an impact on our business lives.

In truth, however, clutter in our physical environments and relationships energetically blocks the flow of abundance, getting in the way of the success we are reaching for.

But it makes sense, doesn’t it? When we have clutter and unwanted stuff in our lives, there isn’t space for the abundance we are seeking. We want more money, nicer clothes, more delicious food, yet all we have is lots of mediocre, old, unused crap taking up our precious space.

This applies to our mental and emotional environments as well. Often we hold onto resentment and deny forgiveness, then wonder why it’s so challenging to feel grateful and truly appreciate the things we have that matter.

If you’re serious about manifesting and welcoming abundance into your 2015, here are some ways you can physically and mentally declutter your life.

Declutter Your Physical Environment

This applies to the physical space you spend your time in on a day-to-day basis: your home, workspace and even your car. Aside from getting rid of the things you don’t use anymore, you should also eliminate the items that are not invited into the next phase of your life with you.

Picture the vision you hold for yourself — the abundance you want, the success you need to achieve, and the place you want to be by the end of 2015. Is that old stained T-shirt or towel with holes welcome in that picture?

Go through every room in the house, every drawer and cabinet. Evaluate if what you’re finding meets the high standard of the improved version of your life you’re working toward. How many spices in your cabinet have never been used? Are you ever going to find the lid for that Tupperware? How about socks without matches or clothes that don’t fit? They don’t belong here, I promise.

When you physically remove these things, you create space for new, improved items. Recently I spent a lot of time decluttering my bathroom of old makeup and half-used lotions or soaps, and the next day a gift from a friend showed up on my door step full of chemical-free, mostly organic self-care goodies. Clear that space so the abundance can come in.

Declutter Your Relationships

It might feel a little unnatural to talk about decluttering your relationships like you would do with your belongings, but similar rules apply. We’re all directly influenced by the people we choose to surround ourselves with; that’s something we learn at school and carry with us through the rest of our lives. To declutter your relationships, you need to be around people who love and support you. When you’re looking to attract abundance, surrounding yourself with others who are abundant is extremely important.

Declutter Your Emotional Baggage

Practice forgiveness — forgiving yourself and others.

Get rid of the fear that lives in your head. This fear will confuse you, keep you playing small, and get in the way of your success.

Stop procrastinating and prioritize. Delegate and eliminate all of it so you aren’t drowning in overwhelm.

Allow yourself to see past the things that have hurt or disappointed you and visualize them as steppingstones and lessons to be learned from.

Release your frustration. This is a must if you want live in the present and not the past.

Everyone has emotional clutter. It’s natural. The important thing is to recognize and declutter your emotional baggage so that it doesn’t prevent you from seeing and taking the opportunities that are right in front of us. When you can release the painful baggage you’ve been hanging onto, great transformation is possible.

by Kathleen Ventura / Mind Body Green

Photo Credit: Arinan Kitina

The majority of the population has no idea what life coaches do. Not only that, but they have no idea what kind of person would hire a life coach. So, here’s some types of people who could use some coaching:

1. You’re stuck. So, you have this decision to make. Either to get married, leave your crappy relationship, change careers, make a geographical change or go after that big, badass dream of yours. Anything. You’re confused with the voices in your head. The one that tells you it’s too risky vs. the one that says “go for it!” You’re swimming with thoughts of “what if I do it and it doesn’t work” vs “what if I don’t do it and I regret it”. And you want a guarantee of the outcome. A life coach will look at her magic 8 ball and tell you the answer. Not really. A life coach will help you dig underneath the thoughts and feelings of “what if’s”, help you discover what’s important to you about this decision, and explore those voices. Which one is the scared and playing-it-safe inner-critic and which one is your bedazzling inner intuitive voice. A life coach won’t make the decision for you, but help you clarify and sort it all out.

2. You’re lost. Maybe you don’t know what your “thing” is. Maybe you don’t love your job, or you feel like you’re living your life like a sloth on auto-pilot (did you know there is such a thing?). Maybe you just got out of college and don’t love the field you studied in. Or, your routine as a parent/spouse is leaving you unfulfilled. And don’t get me started on the guilt you feel about this. Rest assured you are totally normal and there are boatloads of people just like you. I believe everyone is lost before a big breakthrough. A life coach will help you sort out what your true personal values are (you may have NO idea, or may think that your values are what you inherited from your family or other institution) and when you discover those, you can get clear on what is important to you. That way you can decide how you want to honor those values and a really awesome side-effect is you being fulfilled. Imagine that!

3. You’re unhappy. If you’re unhappy, you need a change. Or you need to change. Or maybe you just had a breakdown. Or you’re about to lose your damn mind. Either way, a life coach can help you through this. Your coach will help you pinpoint why you’re unhappy (many times you think it’s one thing, and it’s another) and help you make changes. This also goes back to your values. The majority of the time, people that are unhappy aren’t living their personal values, and the values that are true to them are being stepped on or suffocated. Example: You don’t love your job. Or even if it’s your job as a stay-at-home-mom. What’s making you unhappy isn’t your boss or your kids. Somewhere inside of you might be a value around freedom. Or purpose driven work. Or creativity. And if you’re not getting it, your soul and spirit will suffer.

4. You’re happy. So, why would someone need a life coach if they’re already happy? It’s the perfect time for a life coach. When you’re happy, and you love where you are, you’re more likely to be open to growth. You’re more likely to wonder what else is out there for you to reach out and grab and be more willing to do the work. I’ve met many people that are unhappy that are willing to do the work as well, but being happy can be a great motivator as well.

5. You just got out of a relationship. You’re brokenhearted, or maybe not-so-much. Either way, you’re starting over. And that’s a beautiful place to be. You have every reason to be excited about beginning again on your terms. But, what are your terms? You might not know. Working with a life coach will help you clarify what you want, why it’s important to you, what’s possible for you (hint: everything), and how you can get it. You can brainstorm, strategize, explore and clarify. (And for some clarity on why your relationships might be failing, click here).

6. You’re comfortable. You have your routine. Your comfort zone. It starts here and it ends there. Any variation of it and you squirm. We’ve all been there. It might be one part of your life, or it might be all parts of your life. And yes, life should be comfortable, but are you having FUN? And some kind of excitement? Coaching will invite you, hold your hand and push you to step out of your comfort zone. A coach will challenge you to make new magic this way.

7. You’re scared. Let’s face it: We’re all scared. We’re afraid of the dark, afraid of looking stupid, afraid of failure, afraid of success, afraid of what people will think, afraid of what they’ll say, afraid of being alone, afraid of being seen, afraid of not being seen, afraid of leaving a relationship, Afraid, Afraid, Afraid. A life coach will hold the space for you to name your fears, give you tools to take action despite them, and change the way you look and feel about your fears. You’ll still have fears, you’ll just be able to stand up to them with more courage.

8. You’re done with therapy and thinking, “Now what?”. Therapy and coaching can make a great marriage together and life coaching after therapy can be a perfect self-discovery journey. Many therapists cross over into life coaching, and if you find someone that does that for you, great. But, if you feel your relationship with your therapist has run its course, finding a life coach that will help you with your “now what?” inquiry may be just what you need. Therapy will help you uncover and heal your issues from the past. This is essential for being able to forgive and move past hurtful experiences. Life coaches generally don’t need to know your stories of your past. We’re interested in where you are now and where you want to go. We generally coach people who are of sound mind and who are well mentally and emotionally.

One thing is true about all of these things. No matter what you feel, you are not broken, nor do you “fixing”. You are naturally creative, resourceful and whole when it comes to you and your life. And a life coach can help you tap into that. Also, life coaches aren’t magic bullets, or magic pills. The solution always resides inside of you, but many times we are so fearful, we can’t hear or see it. Coaching can help you look at any situation from a different perspective to get you out of that paralyzing fear.

My hope for you and all people is that when they are ready, they get a coach. You don’t have to spend your life savings on one, there are ways to get coaching inexpensively. All coaches have different styles. Do your research, listen to your heart and find the right one for you.

By Andrea Owen, Author of 52 Ways to Live a Kick-Ass Life

Image by HP Meausonne

The purpose and anticipated end result of this program is for participants to improve the level of satisfaction in each area of ​​life, providing tools and strategies to avoid isolation and, as a consequence, empower and help women improve their self-esteem and motivate them inspire them to become agents of social change, because helping women is Help your community.

This program will contribute to our service delivery by helping the women CALD of the community in their social connection, general well-being and their need to feel part of community.

What are the expected results of the program?

Improve the level of satisfaction in each area of ​​life: career, education, finance, health, development Family and personal. Empower women by improving self-esteem. Motivate and inspire participants to become agents of social change. Involve women to meet with other women and work as a team to help each other and to your community through networking.

This is a 10 session program, customized for women living in the Macarthur area: Goal setting Career and business Education / Training Money and finance Family relationships Health & Wellness Personal development Action Plan and Vision Board Mentoring and Networks Self Assessment and Graduation This program is currently running in partnership with Focus Connect in Campbelltown NSW