Psychosocial risks of work in depressed economies: an essay on México

Abstract

In an economy like the Mexican economy, which we can call chronically depressed (95% of companies are micro companies, with an informality rate of just over 55% of the Economically Active Population and a process of precariousness in the formal employment area), it is complex to enforce compliance with the standard for the prevention of Psychosocial Risks at Work. The standard came into force in 2020. Official data on the first results are not yet available. Instead, a market of experts and consulting firms is expanding; opening a zone of interpretation with significant doses of ambiguity in their risk prevention offerings. This recent regulation, as has happened with teleworking, can remain active in the letter and passive or attenuated in the facts. There are indications of interpretations that will seek to lighten its burden. Here we offer, in the form of an essay, an approach to the context and analyze the socio-economic factors of the process; some of the approaches to risk assessment and the views of compliance by companies; it also opens the invitation to expand the approach to the problem in the face of a growing market dedicated to the incorporation of algorithmic management of work processes, with obvious implications for the health and mental condition of the working population.