Psychosocial work environment in the educational sector

Introduction
A series of pilot inspections by the Norwegian Labour inspectorate (NLI) recognized the psychosocial work environment to be a critical stressor in the educational sector. The following nation wide inpections in 2009 led to several injunctions adressed to the school owner. The results presented are from the baseline of a longitudinal study on the effects of this campaign.

Methods
In 2010 32 in-depth interwiews were conducted in 8 different schools in 2 municipalities in the southern part of Norway.. The schools varied in sizes and age of students, but none were above middle school. All were owned and funded by the municipalities. A questionnaire was sent to all employees (N= 301) with a response rate of 72,2 %.

Results
Both the quantitative and the qualitative findings suggest that it is not the physical work environment, but the psychological and social work environment that is perceived as the most stressful in the educational sector. Both the employees and their leaders emphasizes an increase in both qualitative and quantitative work load as their most prominent cause of concern, but also the boundaryless nature of their work.

Discussion
A recent educational reform increased the need for teachers, and their leader, to have written documentation that they have fulfilled their rather sustantial legal obligations towards the students. This increase in quantitative work load coincides with an increasing amount of demanding students and a continuous decrease in resources. The quality of the work of employees in the educational sector is difficult to measure and it is therefore difficult to say when it can be considered satisfactory. This lack of natural boundaries makes it easier to overstretch.