pational safety and health institutions are often out of their depth with the new, wide-ranging tasks."⁵

Trade unions repeatedly draw attention to the mental factors related to work at computer terminals and their influence on overall health. The working culture of offices is under growing scrutiny because of the increased pace and concentration which come with modern technology. Dickhausen, the Administrative Director of the German Trade Union Confederation, draws attention to "the resulting mental strains in the workplace, [which] represent a health impairment which must be taken seriously."⁶

The social partners, like government institutions, the employers' liability insurance associations, and the health insurance agencies, agree on the necessity of progressive concepts for prevention which aim to reduce psychological and mental stress and which specifically include the promotion of health within companies.

Mental stressors in the workplace (Source: www.ergo-online.de)

A study published in 1997 on the "Design of work requirements with respect to mental health and safe conduct"⁷ points out that the restrictive content of work has an adverse effect on the genesis of anxiety-induced stress states, especially among elderly employees. The authors come to the following very important conclusion, however:

 

"An incorrect and fatal consequence would be to search for "age-appropriate", simple activities; an approach which is unfortunately still seen as the way to create a humane work design. Especially since the related restrictiveness has precisely the opposite effect of worsening the problem. The results point rather to the need for work design concepts which permit a lifespan-appropriate solution by means of an optional and flexible adaptation of working structures to human resources."⁸

Though statistical evidence is limited, we know that job stress also influences the rate of workplace accidents. The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health attributed "only" 1% of all fatal accidents in 1993 to physical-mental causes.⁹. It is still unclear, however, how many instances of workplace stress are concealed behind the 43% of accidents attributed to behavioural causes.

In the workplace, mental health problems are mainly triggered by overload or underutilisation of capabilities. These work-related influences can lead to a deterioration of existing physical or psychological complaints, to stomach ulcers. heart and circulatory disorders, depressions and addiction. In the early 1980s a study of 840 employees in 10 German industrial companies yielded alarming results¹⁰: It showed that female workers had worse mental health than male workers did. All employees were subject to job