Have a Healthy Lifestyle or Organize Work – Creating Healthy Shipboard Work Environments

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a study concerning the work environment on board Swedish passenger vessels. The study explored work-related experiences of personnel in the service department (hotel, restaurant, catering, shops) based on individual and group interviews, observations, survey data and social insurance statistics concerning sick leave longer than 60 days. The results of this paper are based on ten semi-structured individual and group interviews with 16 respondents. The respondents were HR personnel from six shipping companies and crewmembers working onboard. The results show that in the HR personnel’s perception, healthy work environments are often associated to individual personal health activities, such as access to a gym or healthcare, lectures or other measures directed towards the individual seafarer. Aspects of the organizational and social work environments were barely mentioned as stressors or as contributing factors to an increasing number of sick absences. The interviewed crewmembers, however, highlighted the need for both organizational and social measures to foster healthy work environments. The need for employee participation within the organizational design and decision-making processes, including methods on how to conduct risk assessments prior to physical and organizational changes and follow up their consequences were emphasized. Thus, to create safe and sustainable work environments on board, more attention needs to be directed towards including shipboard personnel in the physical and organizational design of their own work environment rather than promoting a healthy lifestyle through measures directed towards the individual worker.