A qualitative study of the machine operator’s experience of wellbeing in the New Zealand logging industry

Abstract

Background: Prompted by the need to reduce exposure to the physical hazards of the logging workplace, more of Aotearoa New Zealand’s loggers now find themselves operating a machine rather than working ‘on the ground’. This change has enabled more production to be achieved with less workers and with a significant reduction in the rate of serious harm incidents. However, mechanisation is not without its risks to operator wellbeing. This study explores the wellbeing of operators and the psychosocial demands and coping adaptations that contributed to that experience. Methods: Twenty-seven operators were recruited from three regions to participate in a semi-structured interview to explore their experiences of stress and wellbeing. References with consistent meaning were first, coded, and then, using Axial Coding, themes or categories were identified. Defining properties for each of these categories were then used to conceptualise the relationships between the themes. Results: Stress and wellbeing were described as a specific set of experiences resulting from the adaptations participants made in the face of threats to production, a sense of place within the crew and to family wellbeing. Those adaptations were arranged in two pathways that were dependent on what resources were available to the participants. If left entirely to their own skills and time, the participants would cope with threats by working longer hours. If through the decisions their forest owner / manager and contractor made, they had access to sufficient supply chain capacity, work security and job control supported by an effective organisational culture and interpersonal relationships, they could access the work-life balance that was at the heart of their sense of wellbeing. Conclusions: This research has provided an inventory of the psychosocial hazards faced by logging machine operators working in Aotearoa and the resources that enable them to cope. In doing so it has suggested that the potential for operator wellbeing is established in the designing of the overall supply chain (skids, roads, logging equipment configuration, and truck capacity) and the contracts that connect the various services, and then achieved through the way logging businesses are led and managed.