The work environment includes the access and physical layout, the people we interact with and the expectations, policies and procedures of the organisation. All work tasks are carried out in the context of the work environment and that environment can significantly increase or decrease the demand of the activity on the person.
For example, talking to someone on the telephone in a busy front office with frequent interruption from visitors makes more demands on one’s attention and concentration than the same task carried out in a quiet office working in isolation. Similarly, distributing mail to colleagues who are located in individual offices over three floors of an office block will demand more physical ability than the same task with colleagues co-located in a large open plan office.
Often, the work environment is not ideal and employees will adapt the way they carry out the task to fit with the environment. This increases the demand of the task on the employee and can lead to work related illness or injury. The ability to adapt oneself to the environment may be affected following a stroke because of ongoing physical, cognitive, perceptual or emotional difficulties.
Environmental and task considerations for Rosemary as a teacher include: working with children and associated risk assessment, local authority policy and procedure, the school and classroom layout and class size and age group / needs level.
Unexpected changes in work load and expectations.
Page last reviewed: 08 Apr 2021
