Mental Stress on Harvester Operators

Schlägl

2003

10 S.

3 Abb., 25 Lit. Ang.

Monographie

9867S

133708

High tech operations in Austrian forestry are persistently increasing. Although mechanization relieves men from heavy physical work some new forms of stress become apparent. Very long working days (up to 15 hours), short and bad organized brakes as well as financial responsibility for expensive machines are the most important stress-causing factors. Furthermore harvester operators have to deal with a flood of information during work and additional knowledge of technology and silviculture is often required. In contrast to these demands most harvester operators are insufficiently prepared for their job: average training lessons last only for 4.2 days resulting in a very high drop out rate. This study gives a description of the physiological processes in the human body associated with stress situations and the resulting health problems. Heart rate variability, derived from EKG measurements, and psychological tests are used to determine single stress factors and to analyse the existence of a special combination of different stress factors that influences the stress situation in an extremely unfavourable way. To reduce the drop out rate the qualification of persons for harvester operators has to be determined prior to the start of the employment. This can be done by aptitude tests, such as already used for pilots. In the following work some primary results are presented.