Work activity in food service: The significance of customer relations, tipping practices and gender for preventing musculoskeletal disorders

Laperrière, Ève; Messing, Karen; Bourbonnais, Renée

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2016.05.013

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…With the customer's prominent role in relationship to the wages of a food service worker, considerations for the customer often dominate work activities both physically and emotionally. Restaurant culture's expectation of “fast” service leads to working at a fast and unsafe pace, creating physical strain and fatigue 55 . Servers often put concerns for their customers above their own health, resulting in higher rates of musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in women 55,107 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Restaurant culture's expectation of “fast” service leads to working at a fast and unsafe pace, creating physical strain and fatigue 55 . Servers often put concerns for their customers above their own health, resulting in higher rates of musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in women 55,107 . This is particularly pervasive for servers of color who are tipped significantly less than white servers 108 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Workers with less than 1 month on the job were over three times more likely to be injured than someone who had the position for more than a year (CI 95% : 3.17‐3.25) 54 . Turnover in food service is as high as 70% annually, leaving a large portion of the workforce with short tenures 55,56 . Of all the accidents reported in a study of kitchen injuries, 38.4% were suffered by workers with less than 1 year of work tenure 42 .…”

Section: Occupational Health In Restaurant Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The health of restaurant work: A historical and social context to the occupational health of food service

Lippert

Rosing

Tendick-Matesanz³

2020

American J Industrial Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The United States currently has over one million restaurants, making food service one of the largest workforces and industry sectors in the nation's economy. Historically, concern for the health of early restaurant workers was tied largely to the hygiene of the food and thus the wellbeing of the customer rather than the individuals preparing the food. The landscape of occupational illness and injury that resulted is fraught with some of the starkest health disparities in wages, discrimination, benefits, injuries, and illness seen among US laborers. These disparities have consistently been associated with social class and economic position. Conditions identified during the early years of restaurant work, before the introduction of occupational safety and health protections, persist today largely due to tipped wages, dependence on customer discretion, and the management structure. Research and intervention efforts to control occupational health hazards should be directed toward the socioeconomic and structural roots of health problems among food service workers in the United States. Such efforts have important implications for enhancing worker protections, improving wages, and restructuring working conditions for restaurant and food service workers.They also suggest opportunities for occupational health practitioners and researchers to contribute to system-level change analysis to address centuries-old occupational health challenges still facing one of the largest sectors of workers in the country. K E Y W O R D Sfood service, kitchen, occupational health, restaurant, service industry, United States

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Occupational Health In Restaurant Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The health of restaurant work: A historical and social context to the occupational health of food service

Lippert

Rosing

Tendick-Matesanz³

2020

American J Industrial Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several ergonomic studies have shown that within the same work team, with identical job descriptions and mandates, men and women can perform different tasks, the differences being systematic in nature. 8,9 In several jobs, such as cleaning in hospitals [8][9][10] or clothing production, for example, 11 work assignments are sometimes divided between ''light work'' for women and ''heavy work'' for men. This gendering of tasks is related to the perception of natural abilities of men and women relative to the perception of the requirements of each type of work activity.…”

Section: Differences In Occupational Exposures Between Men and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking Account of Gender Differences When Designing Interventions in Occupational Health? Lessons from a Study of the “Healthy Enterprise” Standard in Québec: Les différences de genre sont-elles prises en compte lors de la conception des interventions de prévention en santé au travail? Résultats d une étude sur la norme “Entreprises en Santé” dans les entreprises au Québec

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The literature shows substantial differences in occupational exposures between men and women, both between and within occupations, but remains very sparse on whether interventions are tailored to gender differences in the workplace. Our objective was to determine whether gender differences are taken into account when designing prevention interventions. This study is part of a project on the evaluation of interventions implemented in the framework of the "Healthy Enterprise" standard in Quebec organizations. Three sets of quantitative and qualitative data were collected in seven organizations and triangulated. Our results show that in the process of elaborating and implementing activities, the main objectives were to reach a maximum number of workers and meet the needs identified in a health and risk diagnosis. Activities were not tailored to the needs of specific subgroups of employees, such as gender or age. Not distinguishing men's and women's situations in this diagnosis may play a role in intervention design. Résumé La littérature montre des différences d'exposition au travail importantes entre les hommes et les femmes, y compris à catégories d'emploi identiques. Les études sur l'adaptation des interventions de prévention aux différences de genre dans les milieux de travail sont quasiment inexistantes dans la littérature. Notre objectif était de déterminer dans quelle mesure les différences de genre sont prises en compte lors de la conception des interventions de prévention. Cette étude fait partie d'un projet d'évaluation des interventions mises en uvre dans le cadre de la norme «Entreprises en santéé au Québec. Trois séries de données quantitatives et qualitatives ont été collectées auprès de sept organisations et analysées par triangulation. Nos résultats montrent que lors du processus d'élaboration des activités, les principaux objectifs étaient d'atteindre un nombre maximal de travailleurs et de remplir les besoins identifiés dans le diagnostic des risques et de la santé des travailleurs. Le fait que la situation des hommes et des femmes n'ait pas été analysée séparément dans le diagnostic peut avoir joué un râle dans ce résultat. Les activités de prévention n'ont pas été conçues en tenant compte de sous-groupes de travailleurs en fonction du genre ou de l'âge.

show abstract

“…Silvia et al [ 5 ] reported back pain across multiple industrial sectors and again reported higher prevalence for females. Laperriere et al [ 6 ] detailed higher prevalence of self-reported work-related pain for females than males in food service work. Anton and Weeks [ 7 ] described higher rates of MSD symptoms for female grocery workers than their male counterparts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age and sex related differences in shoulder abduction fatigue

Collins

O’Sullivan

2018

BMC Musculoskelet Disord

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundInjury prevalence data commonly indicate trends of higher rates of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in older workers over their younger counterparts, and for females more than males. The purpose of this study was to investigate age and sex-related differences in manifestations of shoulder muscle fatigue in a cohort of young and older working age males and females, in a single experiment design allowing for direct comparison of the fatigue effects between the target groups.MethodsWe report upper trapezius muscle fibre Conduction Velocity (CV) as an indicative measure of muscle fatigability, and isometric endurance time, at three levels of shoulder abduction lifting force set relative to participants’ maximal strength.ResultsUpper trapezius conduction velocity was significantly different between the young and old groups (p = 0.002) as well as between males and females (p = 0.016). Shoulder abduction endurance time was affected by age (P = 0.024) but not sex (p = 0.170).ConclusionsThe study identified age-related improvement in muscle fatigue resistance and increased resistance for females over males, contrary to injury prevalence trends. The muscle fatigue effects are most likely explained by muscle fibre type composition. Experimental fatigue treatments of the upper trapezius were tested at exposures relative to the participants’ strength. Absolute strength is higher when young and is generally higher for males. The findings of this study point towards age and sex-related differences in strength rather than in muscle fatigue resistance as a primary cause for the differences in the injury trends.

show abstract

Work activity in food service: The significance of customer relations, tipping practices and gender for preventing musculoskeletal disorders

Cited by 20 publications

References 54 publications

The health of restaurant work: A historical and social context to the occupational health of food service

The health of restaurant work: A historical and social context to the occupational health of food service

Age and sex related differences in shoulder abduction fatigue

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About