Mental health at work: Contradictions and limits

Abstract

Along the capitalism development, the conceptions of worker's health has changed, passing from the "preoccupation with the surviving of the body" to the "preoccupation with the worker's mental health". Management of health has been incorporated to the new capitalist enterprising management forms, but in spite of that, the suffering of the worker goes on, expressed in physical manifestations like stress, and chronicle fatigue, burnout and DORT. This essay tries to identify and analyze, through a case study, the existing contradictions about the organizational strategies adopted on mental health at work/labor, having as a reference the workers' perception. The results show that health programs are based in ad hoc and palliative interventions related to the control system of the organization, acting on the effects of work organization, and not based on a real preoccupation with the worker's health.