What Is a Workplace?
In organization theory, the term workplace describes a spatial area in the company work system equipped with the necessary work equipment so that a worker can fulfill his or her work tasks. The workstation is the smallest spatial structural unit in a company.
Operational work systems are companies with private legal form, public authorities, non-profit organizations and public administration. These only achieve their goals if they set up workplaces and hire workers to perform the necessary work tasks.
A workplace is always person-related and thus relates to only one person (unipersonal), regardless of the division of the workplace. While the job is factual and part of the company’s organizational structure, the workplace is part of the process organization.
Legal basis:
- Occupational Safety and Health Act
- Job Protection Law
- Workplace Ordinance
- Technical Rules for Workplaces
What Is a Permanent Workplace?
A permanent workplace is a space where employees stay to carry out their work tasks, according to the purpose of the space. These are those areas of a workplace where the employee(s) is employed on 30 or more days a year, and in principle for more than four hours a day.
Permanent workplaces can be stationary, such as an office desk or a porter’s lodge, or they can be freer in their spatial arrangements, such as working on the production line or storage work.
What Types of Workplaces Are There?
The combination of space, personnel, work equipment, and, if applicable, work project is reflected in the differences between the workplaces.
1. Fixed & Location Changing Workplaces
This is based on the spatial dimension, the place of work. This corresponds to the company’s location (including branches and sites) or, under the right of direction, to another location (as in the case of construction sites, teleworking, homeworking). The location can also change due to the object of work (road and bridge construction).
2. Full- and Part-time Job
In this type of workplace, the personnel components working time and qualification play a role.
3. Office & Production Workplace
In general, an additional distinction is made between an office workstation (cellular office, combination office, open-plan office) and a production workstation (including assembly line, workshop, workbench, workshop). The latter is equipped with the necessary equipment and tools for the specific purposes in production.
Information is generated at an office workstation, worked out, processed, evaluated, received, and forwarded. This includes planning, administration, development, management, consulting or communication, and related activities. A special form is a computer workstation, which is characterized by the use of electronic data processing.
4. Indoor Workplace
No activities involving hazardous substances are carried out at indoor workplaces, and they are not located in noisy areas (e.g. Wertstatt, production hall). Such workplaces can be located in different working environments such as offices, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, salesrooms, museums and libraries.