Ironclad work overload: prevention of psychosocial hazards among union counsellors in Quebec

Abstract

The role of labour union staffers-as-workers, crucial to the functioning of a union, involves a growing number of increasingly complex demands and requirements. A Quebec union concerned about the health of its members, union counsellors employed by another union, commissioned a study of a prominent psychosocial risk factor: work overload. A case study based on a mixed exploratory participatory design (qual→QUAN; 25 semi-structured interviews, 82 questionnaires) identified individual, interpersonal and organisational determinants, consequences, strategies and possible solutions for the prevention of work overload. The study specifies the workload associated with certain tasks, which are perceived as being more demanding both quantitatively and emotionally. High emotional exhaustion and poor work-life balance underline the urgency of preventing overload. The results point to solutions that mitigate collateral impacts and adopt approaches differentiated by sex/gender, career stage and work-life situation. These reflections on the prevention of a type of psychosocial hazard in trade union action emphasise the importance of understanding the components of workload, and may apply to other professional jobs involving care functions and the management of complex cases.