Workload

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Load and stress as a mechanical model

A workload is the personal impact of a workload from a work activity on the person performing it. This effect depends on the performance of the worker and on previous stresses. Therefore, with the same workload, individual and temporally different effects are to be expected.

Endurable levels of stress are determined by the continuous performance limit. A stress that is above this limit causes fatigue in the affected organs or organ systems . In this context, the continuous performance limit is the maximum performance that is possible in the long term during the usual daily continuous working hours - 8 working hours - and up to which additional recovery is not necessary (see also normal performance ).

In relation to the physical strain, for example, a medium workload, such as lifting a 25 kg carrying basket, results in a higher level of stress for an average worker than for an above-average and well-trained worker. It also makes a difference whether the worker does this in a rested state or has already done this work more often before. See also key indicator method .

The social-psychological stress theory is an appropriate frame of reference for the investigation of psychological stress and strain: according to the person-environment-fit model (person-environment-match model), which is based on the stress theory, there is a gap between perceived work demands on the one hand and personal work skills and work demands on the other from a state of mental tension to health disorders.

The workload is an essential criterion when assigning work tasks to executors (see also: work structuring ). An important criterion here is the permanent load limit , i.e. the amount of stress that remains the same even with continued duration of a load and does not increase constantly (see also: continuous performance limit ).

Sources and individual references

  1. ↑ REFA Association for Work Studies and Business Organization (Ed.): Methodology of Work Studies: Part 1 Basics . Munich: Hanser, 1971 ( ISBN 3-446-14234-7 ). P. 161.
  2. ↑ Rohmert, Walter: The load-stress concept. In: Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft 38 (1984) 4, pp. 193-200.
  3. ^ Lühring, Horst; Seibel, Hans D .: Stress through work and mental health: Effects of discrepancies between work experience and work expectations among industrial workers. (PDF; 623 kB) Retrieved June 26, 2008 . See page 14 . In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie 10 (1981) 4, pp. 395-412.
  4. ↑ REFA Association for Work Studies and Business Organization e. V. (Hrsg.): Methodology of the company organization: Lexicon of the company organization . Munich: Carl-Hanser, 1993. - ISBN 3-446-17523-7 . Page 59.