Stressed on the job? A
recent study analysing the position of local authority waste and refuse collection oper- atives has revealed high levels of work- place stress, resulting in low morale and high levels of absenteeism. In an age where comparable commercial organisations are adopting a more supportive attitude towards their key workers – and where employee engagement and retention is recognised as a key cost-saving strategy – there is a distinct danger that local government is lagging behind. When conducting staff forums for a local authority employing 600 staff, with 50 on the waste and recycling team, serving 80,000 customers, a report by management training and staff development consultancy WorkScales discovered that workplace bullying and low morale was
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The general feeling amongst the workforce was of not being valued or engaged in the decision-making process in any way
rife. Not only did refuse collection and waste management operatives suffer physical and verbal abuse from the gener- al public, but communication from their line managers was also judged as ‘poor’ or ‘non-existent’. According to the study, employees felt de-motivated, stressed, not listened to, unsupported and vulnerable. It appeared that senior management was failing to protect all its employees in contravention of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to assess and
” 10 Local Authority Waste & Recycling October 2010
Absenteeism and low morale is rife among waste operatives in the public sector with many managers ill-equipped to deal with the problem, according to a report
manage the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities, and under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, leaving themselves open to litigation.
Lack of engagement ”What is worrying is that some senior managers in the public sector are not engaging with their staff down the line,” says Madeleine Moore, managing director of WorkScales. “The findings of the study showed that there was no meaningful communication between the senior management team and the workforce – and often no com- munication between the recycling and waste management teams, who were working as separate competitive entities rather than for the good of the department as a whole.” She adds: “Manual workers were never consulted and had no means of finding out what was going on internally unless they used the Intranet. Unfortunately most of them did not know how to use it and were not offered any train- ing to enable them to do so, only compounding their frus- tration. Sadly, line managers are ill-equipped to deal with complaints from their staff members as they often have no people skills training.”
The majority of refuse and recycling collectors and
supervisors said they felt completely unsupported by their line managers and would not consider going to them for help, as their problems were likely to be ridiculed and any confidential personal issues spread round the workplace, making matters worse.
“The general feeling amongst the workforce was of not being valued or engaged in the decision-making process in any way – even though they would have first hand knowl-
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