Occupational health and safety (OHS) is under-researched in the sociology of work and employment. This deficit is most pronounced for white-collar occupations. Despite growing awareness of the significance of psychosocial conditions – notably stress – and musculoskeletal disorders, white-collar work is considered by conventional OHS discourse to be ‘safe’. This study’s locus is clerical processing in the UK public sector, specifically Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, in the context of efficiency savings programmes. The key initiative was lean working, which involved redesigned workflow, task fragmentation, standardization and individual targets. Utilizing a holistic model of white-collar OHS and in-depth quantitative and qualitative data, the evidence of widespread self-reported ill-health symptoms is compelling. Statistical tests of association demonstrate that the transformed work organization that accompanied lean working contributed most to employees’, particularly women’s, ill-health complaints.
BaldryCBainPTaylorP (1997) Sick and tired? Working in the modern office. Work, Employment and Society11(3): 520–39.
2.
BaldryCTaylorPBainP (2007) ‘Bear with me’: the problem of health and wellbeing in call centre work. In: WoodGJamesP (eds) Institutions, Production and Working Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 235–54.
3.
BeynonHGrimshawDRuberyJWardK (2002) Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
BorehamPParkerRThompsonPHallR (2007) New Technology@Work. London: Routledge.
5.
BoydC (2002) Customer violence and employee health and safety. Work, Employment and Society16(1): 151–69.
6.
BurchellBLapidoDWilkinsonF (eds) (2002) Job Insecurity and Work Intensification. London: Routledge.
7.
CarterRDanfordAHowcroftDRichardsonHSmithATaylorP (2011) ‘All they lack is a chain’: lean and the new performance management in the British civil service. New Technology, Work and Employment26(2): 83–97.
8.
CarterRDanfordAHowcroftDRichardsonHSmithATaylorP (2012) ‘Nothing gets done and no one knows why’: PCS and workplace control of lean in HM Revenue and Customs. Industrial Relations Journal43(5): 416–32.
9.
CooperCDewePJ (2004) Stress: A Brief History. Oxford: Blackwell.
10.
CooperCDewePJO’DriscollMP (2001) Organizational Stress: Review and Cue of Theory, Research and Applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
DelbridgeR (1998) Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12.
FerrieJEShipleyMJStansfieldSAMamotMG (2002) Effects of chronic job insecurity and change in job security on self-reported health, minor psychiatric morbidity, physiological measures and health related behaviours in British civil servants: Whitehall II study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health56(6): 450–54.
13.
GershonP (2004) Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency. London: HM Treasury.
14.
GoldenBR (1992) The past is the past – or is it? The use of retrospective accounts as indicators of past strategy. Academy of Management Journal35(4): 848–60.
15.
GreenF (2006) Demanding Work: The Paradox of Job Quality in the Affluent Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
16.
HM Government (2010) Common Sense, Common Safety. London: Cabinet Office.
17.
HMRC (2006) National Staff Survey Results for HMRC. London: HMRC.
JamesPWaltersD (1999) Regulating Health and Safety at Work. London: Intitute of Employment Rights.
24.
JohnstoneRQuinlanM (1993) The origins, management and regulation of occupational illness. In: QuinlanM (ed.) Work and Health: The Origins, Management and Regulation of Occupational Illness. Melbourne: Macmillan.
25.
KaplanHB (ed.) (1996) Psychosocial Stress: Perspectives on Structure, Theory, Life Course and Methods. New York, NY: Academic Press.
26.
KarasekRTheorellT (1990) Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity and the Reconstruction of Working Life. New York, NY: Basic Books.
27.
KinmanGJonesF (2005) Lay representations of workplace stress: what do people really mean when they say they are stressed?Work and Stress19(2): 101–20.
28.
KuperHMarmotM (2003) Job strain, job demands, decision latitude, and risk of coronary heart disease within the Whitehall II study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health57(2): 147–53.
29.
LandsbergisPCahillJSchnallP (1999) The impact of lean production and related new systems of work organization on worker health. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology4(2): 108–30.
30.
LewchukWRobertsonD (1997) Production without empowerment: work re-organization from the perspective of motor vehicle workers. Capital and Class63(3): 37–65.
31.
LofstedtRA (2011) Reclaiming Health and Safety for All: An Independent Review of Health and Safety Legislation. London: Department of Work and Pensions.
32.
McGovernPHillSMillsCWhiteM (2007) Market, Class and Employment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33.
MeloASarricoCRadnorZ (2010) The influence of performance management systems on key actors in universities: the case of an English university. Public Management Review12(2): 233–54.
34.
MessingK (1998) One-Eyed Science: Occupational Health and Women Workers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
35.
MillerCCCardinalLBGlickWH (1997) Retrospective reports in organizational research: a re-examination of recent evidence. Academy of Management Journal40(1): 189–204.
36.
NicholsT (1997) The Sociology of Industrial Injury. London: Mansell.
37.
OsborneJWWatersE (2002) Four assumptions of multiple regression that researchers should always test. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation8(2): 1–5.
38.
OsthusS (2007) For better or worse? Workplace changes and the health and well-being of Norwegian workers. Work, Employment and Society21(4): 731–50.
39.
RadnorZ (2010) Transferring lean into government. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management21(3): 411–28.
40.
RadnorZBucciG (2007) Evaluation of Pace Setter within HMRC Processing. Cardiff and Coventry: A to Z Business Consultancy.
41.
RawG (1992) Sick Building Syndrome: Review of the Evidence on Causes and Solutions, HSE Contract Research Report 42. Watford: BRE/HMSO.
42.
SaloniemiAVirtanenPVanteraJ (2004) The work environment in fixed-term jobs: are poor psychosocial conditions inevitable?Work, Employment and Society18(1): 193–208.
43.
ScholariosDTaylorP (2011) Beneath the glass ceiling: explaining genedered role segmentation in call centres. Human Relations64(10): 1291–1319.
44.
SpriggCAJacksonPR (2006) Call centres as lean service environments: job related strain and the mediating role of work design. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology11(2): 197–212.
45.
SpriggCAStrideCBWallTDHolmanDJSmithPR (2007) Work characteristics, musculoskeletal disorders and the mediating role of psychological strain: a study of call centre employees. Journal of Applied Psychology92(5): 1456–66.
46.
StewartPRichardsonADanfordAMurphyKRichardsonTVassV (2007) Workers’ Struggles against Lean Production in the British Car Industry. London: Pluto.
47.
TaylorPConnellyL (2009) Health, safety and working conditions in a plastics factory. Work, Employment and Society23(1): 160–8.
48.
TaylorPBaldryCEllisVBainP (2003) ‘A unique working environment’: health, sickness and absence management in UK call centres. Work, Employment and Society17(1): 435–58.
49.
WainwrightDCalnanM (2002) Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic. Buckingham: Open University Press.
50.
WarrPCookJDWallTD (1979) Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of psychological well-being. Journal of Occupational Psychology52(2): 285–94.
51.
WattersonA (1994) Whither lay epidemiology in UK public health policy and practice? Some reflections on occupational and environmental health opportunities. Journal of Public Health Medicine12(3): 270–4.
52.
WilliamsC (1999) Danger: bodies at work. Work, Employment and Society13(1): 151–4.
53.
WolkowitzC (2006) Bodies at Work. London: Sage.
54.
WomackJPJonesDT (2003) Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Organisation. London: Simon and Schuster.
55.
WomackJPJonesDTRoosD (1990) The Machine that Changed the World. New York, NY: Macmillan.
