The psychodynamics of work and risks of illness among college faculty

Abstract

The intensification of higher education teaching reflects a new paradigm of production and consumption of knowledge, in which demands characterized by the acceleration of activities, alienation and competitiveness coexist. In this sense, it is relevant to investigate the triad work/health/disease among college faculty. Therefore, we sought to analyze the critical indicators of illness at work, as perceived by the professors of the Federal University of Santa Maria (RS), by applying the Inventory on Work and Risk of Illness (Itra) and, later, semi-structured complementary interviews with faculty belonging to the knowledge areas with the highest participation. We identified serious cognitive overload among women (58%) compared to men, with evaluation in critical level (50%), as well as greater burnout, with evaluation in critical level (44%). The Mann-Whitney test revealed significant differences between men and women with regard to physical damage (p = 0.001), social harm (p = 0.01) and cognitive cost (p = 0.04). Thus, the role of gender should be considered as an element that promotes distinctions in perception, assessment and management of aspects involved in work and in vulnerability to risk of illness.