If one is to achieve success in the chosen occupation, then inclusion of Occupational Health (OH) is necessary. This is because sometimes an illness can be a hinderance to rise in corporate ladder or even in a personally run business. It is even more daunting if we realize that that illness happened due to work, workplace or working conditions and was preventable to some extent if timely appropriate steps had been taken.

It means that to succeed in your occupation it helps to be aware and adhere to good practices of health, particularly Occupational Health. Illness, including a work-related illness should not be an obstacle in the way of your success in the chosen occupation. And that is what is meant by ‘occupational health for occupational success.’

This is because OH keeps you protected from the hazards of work, workplace and working conditions. In short, OH identifies hazards at work and mitigates them to ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable). The risk due to hazards at work (or in life in general) can be reduced but never be eliminated.

Illness, including a work-related illness should not be an obstacle in the way of your success in the chosen occupation.

OH practices are followed by large companies, mainly to protect worker from hazards, comply with local laws and avoid litigations. It is win-win for the employer and the employee if OH practices are implemented by the large companies.

But what about smaller companies which cannot afford the services of an OH expertise, either full-time or part-time. And what about the individual entrepreneur, like a CA (chartered accountant) or an independent real estate consultant employing maybe two or three staff members. Even independent medical consultant (doctors) is no exception.  

All those engaged in smaller companies or independent entrepreneurs live through the agony peculiar to their occupation all their lives. However, it was reasonably simple to manage those agonies (hazards) as you will notice in the few examples below:

Example 1: A Chartered Accountant (CA) had eye strain and backache everyday towards the end of the day. These two symptoms would almost disappear during weekends or vacations. Having painkillers on the advice of a doctor initially and subsequently self-administered would relieve the symptoms but the eyesight kept on deteriorating and after working for about 19 years the CA had kidney failure. The CA was successful but lost out on health because of incorrect work practices that led to taking painkillers which damaged the kidneys. By the time the CA was aware that that a good chair and frequent breaks (‘simple adjustments’ in the words of the CA) were all that was required to relieve of both the eyestrain and the backache it was too late and had kidney failure. Unfortunately, the CA had no access to OH specialist who would have advised that working endlessly sitting in wrong postures impacts health, often dangerously. A pain-free working would not have necessitated the need for painkillers and subsequent kidney failure.

Example 2: There is one autorickshaw (a 3-wheel vehicle) driver in Mumbai who wears a safety goggle (says he was aware of its importance and should have worn it before the accident) while driving his autorickshaw. The reason he gave me for his wearing the safety goggle was because once a speck of dust went into his eye and he almost lost control on his driving. Somehow, he managed to get the autorickshaw to the side, washed his eye with water (act), felt better and continued driving. In the evening there was severe redness, and he could not drive the next day. To prevent similar event from happening, he reasoned out (adapt) and bought a goggle and now wears it (adopt) as a part of his occupation. He told me it saves him from accident (he had lost control over his vehicle) and loss of work (he couldn’t work the next day) and so he adheres (demonstrating discipline) to the practice.

Example 3: A group of youngsters working on a startup project in Bengaluru (Bangalore) were excited about it so much that they strayed away from normal routine. The sleep time and hours of sleep both were sacrificed as also eating habits. There was lot of junk food being eaten. Smoking and alcohol increased to de-stress oneself and when it did not work it increased further. The office lacked ergonomic setup despite having funds. There was travel involved too. With all these there was no time to exercise. Slowly some members of the team started to show signs of stress. Additionally, they had gained weight, had aches and pains, and started to get tired early. As a result, the work slowed down. One of them said ‘we can overwork for a few days but not for weeks and months as ultimately the body will burnout.’ They saw a doctor who gave them a very generic advice. It didn’t work. They now sat down together and tried to find a solution for the agonies they were going through. In the new routine, they worked for not more than eight hours and took weekends off yet realized that they were reasonably productive with work going on as per timeline. They reduced smoking, had alcohol responsibly, ate healthy foods including nuts, fruits, and salads, bought some good chairs, and found time to exercise on a treadmill they installed in office. Before anyone would feel exhausted, they started to take breaks and jump on to the treadmill. Someone in the group had the idea to get themselves medically checked and luckily no one had major issues.

I had a chance meeting with people in all the 3 examples above and realized that at a basic level preventing an illness arising out of work can be self-managed if there is awareness and the ability to act, adapt, adopt, and adhere what I call as the 5A.

The 5A approach help individuals or small groups of workers who have no access to OH resources mitigate the work-related effects on health at a basic level.

In the above examples all were successful but those who demonstrated the natural ability based on their awareness and subsequently taking logical steps escaped the ill effects that can happen due to work, workplace or working conditions. No work is safe, it must be made safe by being aware of the unsafe. They made it safe for themselves.

Creating an awareness in workers that a health issue could arise due to work is necessary as no more than 20% of workforce globally has access to an OH physician or a nurse. Awareness comes with having an interaction with people and environment. 

Thus, the 5A approach is important to manage some of the work-related discomfort (illness) at a basic level by individuals or small group of workers, where ‘Awareness’ is interaction and the first step towards the change, ‘Act’ is instinctive, ‘Adapt’ is reasoning and ‘Adopt’ is acceptance and ‘Adhere’ is discipline.

If a worker or workers is aware that something in the job that he/she is doing is causing him health problems, the worker goes to see a doctor. Invariably the worker is given medications to improve the symptoms without going into the cause of the health problem.

Some workers act instinctively and if the action taken helps, they reason it out to adapt it. They continue using the steps take and adopt it as by now they have accepted that it works for them. They know if they leave, the symptoms may recur, so they adhere to the new practice that they have adopted. Most of the time it works.

The 5A approach is a natural flow that occurs if awareness is there that work does harm health. Creating an awareness in workers that a health issue could arise due to work is necessary as no more than 20% of workforce globally has access to an OH physician or a nurse. Awareness comes with having an interaction with people and environment. 

Only if workers are aware that work can impact their health will they take steps to mitigate some of those risks at a basic level and be able to work uninterruptedly to achieve success in their chosen occupation (occupational success), big or small.

We all work, so some of our illnesses could be work-related and we should be aware of this to be able to mitigate the risks to health due to work, workplace or working conditions.

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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations’. Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in industries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. He was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view. Currently he supports individuals, MSMEs (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises) and large corporates with their understanding of Occupational Health.