Occupational+Social+Work

=**Chapter 12 - The Workplace**=

__ **THE WORLD OF WORK-Harrison** __
Key terms:
 * __Work__: Not only what people do for money, but also things people do for no pay (for instance, homemakers and stay-at-home parents
 * __Unemployment__: When someone wants a job but does not have paid employment. A person is only officially unemployed when they are available and looking for work.
 * __Discouraged__ workers: People with no paid employment who are not actively looking for work
 * __Underemployment__: When someone is employed but is not working enough hours or earning an adequate income to meet their needs and wants or needs to be working more.



In the US, people are expected to work not only to support themselves but also because it is the "right" thing to do; this is called the **protestant work ethic**. For the economy to function, people need to do work, and so there is little sympathy for those who are not working.

In the late 20th Century, there were dramatic changes in the world of work. Today's average worker receives lower wages upon entering the workforce, has seen his wages eroded by inflation, has less job security, and has fewer health and retirement benefits than workers during the 1980s. Meanwhile, CEOs in 2005 earned 262 times the pay of the average worker (compared to 24 times average income 40 years earlier). Several trends can help us understand why things have changed.



__ Deindustrialization __ is the process by which the US has shifted from a primarily manufacturing-based economy to one based on information and services. Even though real industrial production has increased almost every year since 1987 and total industrial employment has remained relatively stable, increasing labor productivity and a growing workforced has resulted in a massive reduction of the percentage of the labor force engaged in industry. Also, the geography of industrial production has shifted from the Northeast and Midwest toward the Southeast and Southwest.



The __ digital divide __ describes the disparity between the incomes of technical workers and workers in the service sector as compared to non-technology-based jobs and has resulted from the growing use of technology. The digital divide disproportionately affects people of color, people in poor areas without access to technology training, and Native Americans. NPR: Closing Digital Divide, Expanding Digital Literacy [|RTD: Meeting to explore Richmond's 'digital divide']

__ Globalization __ has also had a huge effect on the U.S. economy. Products are increasingly being manufactured abroad, creating fierce competition for domestic businesses, resulting in a loss of domestic jobs, and increasing pressures on American manufacturing workers to become more efficient and accept lower wages and benefits.

Because of these and other factors, American labor unions have taken a serious blow. Union membership fell from 30% in 1960 to 12.1% in 2007, and public sector workers are much more likely to be members of unions than in other sectors. Due to layoffs and downsizing, job losses have been greatest in sectors where unions are strongest, but unionized workers still earn more than their nonunionized counterparts, especially when benefits packages are taken into consideration.



__ **HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND WORK-Heather** __
People have a hard time **separating** their home and personal lives from their worklives in the work place. If there is a stress or problem that is going on at home, it is going to affect attitude and performance at work. Occupational social workers address these issues from inside and outside the workplace. These social workers need to be familiar with **biopyschosocial factors** that affect a person's work life. They also need an understanding of small-group dynamics and organizational behavior. An effective social worker must be able to intervene with individuals, families, organizations, and communities.

Problems that are work-related can mostly be determined by where that person is in life. Factors such as their race, ethnic, relgion, and gender affect them also.

People now are working longer than they have in the past due to proficient personal health care. This means that there are more **older people** in the workforce now. Many older americans are finding it harder to find jobs because: This causes stress on older people and can make them go into retirement earlier then planned.
 * Employers don't want to deal with the stress of training them if they are going to retire soon
 * Economic crisis, so older people get laid off first
 * Even some companies lay them off because they want to reduce their health care and pension costs.

Occupational social workers need to be familiar with small-group dynamics. People are social animals and will do anything to protect their place/role at work. They need to acknowledge this first before they can take action on it. Social workers must also find means of communication between workers in the workplace. People want to avoid conflict so finding a means thats affective and beneficial for both. Finally they need to know how power is distributed in an organization. These kinds of questions first need to be answered to be able to work effectively.

Website where older people can put their resumes to help find work: AGE AND EXPERIENCE: Putting America's Unemployables Back To Work

__ **OCCUPATIONAL SOCIAL WORK-Ivana** __
Social workers intervene on the micro level, helping workers adjust better to their surroundings, and on the macro level, creating programs and policies to improve work conditions. According to Googins and Godfrey, occupational social work is "a field of practice in which social workers attend to the human and social needs of the work community by designing and executing appropriate interventions to insure healthier individuals and environments".

**Historical Background:** During the late 1800s businessmen encountered new workplace challenges. As companies expanded, there was less personal contact between management and workers. Increasing numbers of women and immigrants entered the work workplace. Discontented workers began to organize into unions. In an effort to appease workers, business leaders implemented policies and programs that came to be known as the welfare movement in American business. The business welfare movement was designed to make the work environment more efficient and more welcoming so that workers would not want to unionize.

Starting around 1875, employers hired welfare secretaries, the precursors to modern occupational social workers, to staff programs designed to improve moral development and assist in the socialization of women and immigrants who were new to the workplace. Encyclopedia of Chicago: Social Services

During World War II, women and African Americans entered the workforce in record numbers, primarily to replace white male workers who were fighting the war. Employers brought in social workers to help these newly hired people adjust.

The structured field of practice called industrial or occupational social work did not fully take root until the early 1960s. Concern for the rights of workers was reflected in new worker protection laws. These laws emphasized a challenging relationship between employers and employees.
 * The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) protected men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same company from sex-based wage discrimination.
 * Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
 * The Age Discrimination Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protected individuals who are 40 years of age or older from job discrimination.

Currently, social workers serve a variety of functions within the U.S. workplace. Occupational social workers have created prevention programs, health improvement programs, and mediation programs, among others. The five structures within which occupational social workers generate interventions are:
 * employee assistance programs,
 * labor union social services,
 * human resource management offices,
 * community relations offices, and
 * organizational development initiatives.

**Employee Assistance Programs:** Occupational social workers are most commonly found in employee assistance programs (EAPs). The number of EAPs has steadily increased since their initial development, and currently more than 75 percent of employers offer some type of EAP.

Staffed largely by social workers, EAPs provide short-term therapy, substance abuse treatment, debt counseling, legal aid, and help finding such services as adult day care and child care. Studies indicate that EAP services keep employees working longer and better, reduce turnover and retraining costs, and decrease sick time and absenteeism.

Social workers are particularly valuable in the workplace because of their grounding in the person-in-environment perspective. They focus interventions not only on individual employees, but also on environmental issues that affect employees' lives. Video: Employee Assistance Program Introduction

**Labor Union Social Services:** Many labor unions have social service department that hire social workers to provide services to union members. Unlike EAPs, union social service departments generally focus on human resource policy issues rather than on the provision of direct services. They are often responsible for establishing and managing child-care programs, legal services programs, retiree programs, and other education and prevention programs to help members. Social workers are involved in policy development and political advocacy. They also advocate for better medical and retirement benefits and higher wages.

**Human Resource Management:** Human resource (HR) management involves planning for staffing needs, recruitment, training, labor relations, compensation and benefits, and evaluation of employee performance. Human resource managers strive to develop and implement policies and programs that improve worker productivity and job satisfaction. Human resource personnel also assist companies developing and implementing policies to improve workplace functioning. They monitor and evaluate policies and programs to determine their effectiveness.

**Community Relations:** Community relations programs help companies function better within their community settings. Mergers and acquisitions, globalization, and other forces have caused many companies to shrink operations or move out of communities, taking jobs and charitable contributions with them.

**Organizational Development:** The goal of most organizational development efforts is to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Social workers first analyze the organization to determine what is impeding optimal performance. They then develop programs or policies to improve the situation.

__ **COMMON WORKPLACE CHALLENGES-Brittney** __
Common work place challenges include:
 * Substance abuse
 * Discrimination
 * Mental health issues

The vast majority of drug users are employed, and when they arrive for work, they don't leave their problems at the door. Of the 17.2 million illicit drug users aged 18 or older in 2005, 74.8 percent were employed either full or part time. Furthermore, research indicates that between 10 and 20 percent of the nation's workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs. In fact, industries with the highest rates of drug use are the same as those at a high risk for occupational injuries, such as construction, mining, manufacturing and wholesale.
 * Substance abuse in the workplace **

OSHA (occupational safety & health administration) recognizes that impairment by drug or alcohol use can constitute an avoidable workplace hazard and that drug-free workplace programs can help improve worker safety and health and add value to American businesses. OSHA strongly supports comprehensive drug-free workforce programs, especially within certain workplace environments, such as those involving safety-sensitive duties like operating machinery.

OSHA works closely with the US Department of Labor's Working Partners for an Alcohol- and Drug-Free Workplace program to help employers ensure their health and safety plans are enhanced through workplace drug prevention. In particular, OSHA and Working Partners strive to raise awareness about the impact drugs and alcohol have on the workplace and provide information on how to establish drug-free workplace programs. A particular focus is placed on small businesses, since they are less likely than their larger counterparts to have mechanisms in place to prevent workplace substance abuse—despite being more likely to suffer from its negative impact.

Video: What Would You Do? Doctors Get Drunk Before Emergency Call

The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, prohibits employers from discriminating against job seekers and employees on the basis of race, religion, sex, pregnancy, and national origin. Private employers with less than 15 employees are not subject to the Act. However, some states do not set numerical limits. California, for example, prohibits racial or sexual discrimination no matter how few workers the company employs.
 * Discrimination in the workplace **

Before an employee may file a employment discrimination lawsuit in court, he or she must first present the charge to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If the employee fails to file an EEOC charge within the required time period, any federal claim under Title VII will not be allowed.

Sex discrimination in the workplace comes with many different faces. In its most basic form, it involves outright exclusion of women, solely by reason of their gender. However, even where women have gained access to the workplace, sex discrimination may persist in other ways. Examples include identification of particular jobs as “man–only” or “woman–only." Another biased practice is to have two unwritten sets of rules for success: for men, based on performance, and for women, based on appearance. An employer may not make a woman’s level of attractiveness a requirement for a particular job category.

A significant area of occupational gender discrimination is found in a “sex plus” theory, which is based first on the gender of an employee and then adds marital status or child bearing ability. In a U.S. Supreme Court case, a company refused to hire women with pre-school age children but hired men who had pre-school-age children. The Court held that the company was liable to its female employees.

Mental health problems affect many employees- a fact that is usually overlooked because these disorders tend to be hidden at work. Researchers analyzing results from a nationally representative study of Americans ages 15 to 54, reported that 18% of those who were employed said they experienced symptoms of a mental health disorder in the previous month.
 * Mental health issues in the workplace **

But the stigma attached to having a psychiatric disorder is such that employees may be reluctant to seek treatment, out of fear that they might jeopardize their jobs. At the same time, managers may want to help but aren’t sure how to do so.

As a result, mental health disorders often go unrecognized and untreated — not only damaging an individual’s health and career, but also reducing productivity at work. Adequate treatment, on the other hand, can improve job performance. But accomplishing these aims requires a shift in attitudes about the nature of mental disorders and the recognition that such a worthwhile achievement takes effort and time.

Most common mental health problems in the workplace: Symptoms tend to manifest differently at work than they do at home or in other settings.
 * Depression,
 * bipolar disorder,
 * attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and
 * anxiety.

The literature on mental health problems in the workplace suggests that the personal toll on employees and the financial cost to companies could be eased if a greater proportion of workers who need treatment were able to receive it.

Most of the research on the costs and benefits of treatment has been done on employees with depression. The studies have found that when depression is adequately treated, companies reduce job-related accidents, sick days, and employee turnover, as well as improve the number of hours worked and employee productivity.

To overcome barriers to accessing care, and to make it more affordable to companies, the National Institute of Mental Health is sponsoring the Work Outcomes Research and Cost Effectiveness Study at Harvard Medical School. The researchers have published results from a randomized, controlled trial of telephone screening and depression care management for workers at 16 large companies, representing a variety of industries.

__ **WORK-RELATED PUBLIC POLICIES-Harrison** __
People spend a lot of their time working, and work is the most common method of reaching economic success. Thus, social and economic justice is critical in the workplace.

Requires employers with 50 or more employees to allow unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks per year to: The employer must: These rights are especially useful to women. However, because they are used more often by female employees than by male ones, it makes women more expensive to employ than men, which, it has been argued, results in subtle discrimination against women in the hiring process.
 * The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 **
 * Care for a new child
 * Care for a seriously ill spouse, child, or parent
 * Recover from a serious illness
 * Care for an injured servicemember in the family
 * Address qualifying exigencies arising out of a family member's deployment
 * Restore the employee to the same position upon return to work
 * Protect the employee's benefits while on leave and reinstate benefits upon return to work
 * Protect the employee from retaliation for exercising their rights under the Act

The percentage of mothers who work rose from 47% in 1975 to 71% in 2006. Most two-parent families have both adults working. This causes significant work-family conflict. Employers who provide daycare and other childcare services for workers' chidlren report improved employee recruitment, reduced turnover, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and more positive PR. Empoyer-provided childcare is not without its detracors, though. Day Care: An Office Affair
 * Childcare **

A living wage is the minimum hourly wage needed for an individual to meet their basic needs, including nutrition, shelter, clothing, and transportation, for an extended period of time. Living wage depends on the locality in which the individual lives. Living Wage Calculator
 * Living wages **

Ways of implementing living wage policies include:
 * Minimum wage. This is the most common form of living wage enforcement and, some would argue, the most destructive, since minimum wage is positively correlated with unemployment.
 * Earned-income tax credits
 * Negative income tax: Seems perfect in theory, so why hasn't it ever been implemented? Wiki page for NIT

__ **VALUES AND ETHICS-Heather** __
The field of occupational social work presents an array of ethical challenges. One of the more prominent one is determining who the **client** is. Occupational social workers' clients include:
 * Organizations (must follow policies and procedures)
 * Employees within the organization (employee needs may conflict with employer needs)

This question is difficult in that a social worker can be employed by an organization so in turn the organization is the client. In another situation where they are working with individuals, the needs of the individual might clash with that of the organization so who is the client here? The client can be either the individual or the organization and the ** NASW Code of Ethics ** states that social workers' first responsibility is to the client, so not knowing who the client is creates conflict.

Privacy issues in the workplace are rising and social workers are the ones likely to fight it. But this causes trouble for them because there is potential that the social worker can get fired. It's difficult for social workers who are employed by organizations whose main motive is for profit. That decisions that are good for the organization might be bad for the employees.

Occupational social workers are bound by a code of ethics where they treat family and work members information confidential. It would be unethical for a social worker to tell confidential information of an employer to their supervising boss. There is an exception when the information is required by law in the case of suicide or child abuse.

Fact Sheet: Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring

__ **CRITICAL ISSUES-Ivana** __
__Workplace violence__ The number one reason for workplace violence is layoffs. There are approximately 5,500 incidents of workplace violence everyday, including robberies, assaults, and other criminal acts. In 2003, there was 631 workplace homicides, 487 shootings, and 58 stabbings; 512 female victims and 119 male victims. Homicide is the third leading cause of on-the-job deaths, behind transportation and falls, but it is the fastest-rising cause.

Occupational social workers can address prevention and workplace violence in a number of ways. They can train supervisors to watch for signs of stress and anger, offer stress management programs, intergroup communication programs, and communication training for managers and employees.

Video: Seven tips to prevent workplace violence

__Contingent workers__ Over the past 25 years, contingent workers (temporary, contract, and part-time employees) have constituted and increasing portion of the U.S. labor force. Contingent workers generally make up nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce, which meant roughly 43 million people in 2005. Increasing use of contingent workers is occurring in government employment, as well as in the private sector. In 2006, the federal government spent an estimated $400 billion per year on contract workers.

Using contingent workers offers a number of benefits to companies. They can be called in only when needed, and they cost companies less money than do permanent workers. Contingent workers generally work longer hours for less money than their full-time, permanent counterparts. Although some companies provide health insurance, paid vacations, paid holidays, or other benefits to contingent workers, most do not. Prospects for promotions are poor, and they are often penalized when it comes to Social Security and unemployment compensations.

Contract employees pay both their own and their employer's portions of Social Security withholding, whereas regular employees pay only their own portion. While job security has been shrinking for most employees, the situation is particularly bad for contingent workers. They are easier to fire and are thus more vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, and safety violations.

Social workers can address this issue by lobbying for unemployment insurance, pensions, and health benefits for contingent workers. Increase in the minimum wage and passage of legislation to ensure that these workers receive the same wages as permanent workers who perform the same task would also prove helpful, as would providing them with the same protections against discrimination and health and safety violations that currently protect full-time, permanent employees.

USDoL: Contingent Workers