The health that workers want

The health that workers want defines employee health specifically: 1) to encompass the health of those who perform work for a living, 2)to focus attention on the forty year period of the lifespan one works, 3)to include, but is not restricted to the traditional concerns of work-related disease and injury and 4)to encompass the health promotion aims of quality of life or a state of optimum health and striving to reach one's potential. Using both quantitative (SF-36 health status questionnaire) and qualitative methods data were gathered from representatives of all workers, at all levels of one Australian university. The results showed that health status declines the lower down the hierarchy a worker is, replicating the famous Whitehall studies. The book is strong because of the voices of the workers that talk about stress in the modern workplace. Social relationships at work are determined by the employer and can augment or diminish that stress. In essence, The Health that workers want provides the other side, if not the down side, to the familiar master narrative of the employer-employee discourse.