Workplaces have become increasingly diverse as a result of migration and other socio-economic changes in Europe. In the light of post-2004 migration, many Polish migrants find themselves in work-places where multiculture is an everyday lived experience. By drawing on narrative interviews conducted with Polish migrant women in Manchester and Barcelona, this paper focuses on the complexities of interaction with other ethnic groups at work, demonstrating various forms of conviviality. The study reveals more and less meaningful forms of contact at work including workplace friendships, light-hearted forms of conviviality characterised by the interplay of language and humour, relations based on care and respect for difference, as well as forced encounters marked by superficial and involuntary interaction. The findings show that while workplace can be a place of meaningful interaction, it can also involve conflict and tensions. The narratives illustrate that workplace relations can be influenced by the dynamics of gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic circumstances and immigration discourses. The paper contributes analytically and empirically to the understanding of different forms of encounters in the workplace.

The scope of this work focuses on the aspects of quality and safety assurance of the iron cast manufacturing processes. Special attention

was given to the processes of quality control and after-machining of iron casts manufactured on automatic foundry lines. Due to low level

of automation and huge work intensity at this stage of the process, a model area was established which underwent reorganization

in accordance with the assumptions of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM). An analysis of work intensity was carried out and the costs

were divided in order to identify operations with no value added, particularly at individual manufacturing departments. Also an analysis

of ergonomics at work stations was carried out to eliminate activities that are uncomfortable and dangerous to the workers' health. Several

solutions were proposed in terms of rationalization of work organization at iron cast after-machining work stations. The proposed solutions

were assessed with the use of multi-criteria assessment tools and then the best variant was selected based on the assumed optimization

criteria. The summary of the obtained results reflects benefits from implementation of the proposed solutions.

Objectification in the workplace refers to relationships in which employees can be reduced to the status of objects. This phenomenon has deleterious consequences for health. In this study we examine the protective role of reflexivity, i.e. self-consciousness and team reflexivity. 98 employees answered an online questionnaire which measured objectification, self-consciousness, team reflexivity, mentalization and instrumentality/humanness. The results highlighted a moderation effect of private self-consciousness in the relations between objectification and its consequences. An elevation of self-consciousness is associated with a decrease in dementalization and is associated with an increase in instrumentality. Team reflexivity promotes a decrease in instrumentality and an elevation in humanness either directly or indirectly via the diminution of objectification. The two forms of reflexivity are therefore complementary when facing objectification in the workplace and its consequences. The question of the articulation of the self and co-regulation processes is discussed in connection with these results.

Bullying at work is a long-standing area of research interest that requires investigation of the role of the individual exposed to systematic negative behaviour. Studies using cross-sectional samples and broad personality measures have found some distinguishing personal characteristics of employees who are bullied compared to others. Few, however have applied theoretical frameworks to explain why personality can play a part in why an individual ends up at the receiving end of bullying and harassment at work. This article applies an overall and specific theoretical model, the vulnerability thesis, to investigating the role of temperament in relation to workplace bullying. The results show that (1) some employees exposed to bullying at work also acted as perpetrators (provocative victims), that (2) exposure to bullying at work is connected with temperamental emotional vulnerability, and that (3) hostility and self-oriented aggression mediate the role of personality in the form of temperament in relation to workplace bullying. Strengths and weaknesses and potential practical implications for helpers of employees exposed to bullying at work are discussed.

Drawing on the stressor–emotion model, the study examines the mechanisms of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) development: specifically (1) the direct effect of job stressor (bullying at work); (2) the moderation effect of the Dark Triad (DT) and job control (JC); and (3) the moderated moderation effect (DT x JC) on the job stressor–CWB link. Data were collected among 763 white- and blue-collar workers. The hypotheses were tested by means of the PROCESS method. As expected in the hypotheses, high job stressor was directly related to high CWB, and DT moderated (increased) the link. JC also moderated the job stressor–CWB link, but the moderation effect was in a direction opposite to expectations. High job control participants were more likely to report CWB when they reported a high level of the stressors. The moderated moderation effect was supported. JC increases the moderation effect of DT on the job stressor–CWB link. The highest level of CWB was observed when DT and JC were high. The findings provide further insight into processes leading to the development of CWB.

This paper explores how the workplace experience of migrants helps to determine part of the social remittances they can make to their country of origin. The social remittance literature needs to pay more attention to work as an element of the migrant experience. Focus is placed on public internet forums related to newspapers in Poland because these are a very open means of communicating experience to the public sphere. To support the analysis, UK census and other data are used to show both the breadth of work done by Polish migrants in the UK and some of its peculiarities. This is then followed with a more qualitative analysis of selected comments from the gazeta.pl website. The complexities of both the range of migrants’ ideas about their work and also the analysis of internet-based newspaper com-ment sites as a form of public communication are shown.

Increased efficiency of production and improved quality have contributed to the development of ultrasonic technological applications, in which low frequency ultrasounds are generated to operate, accelerate as well as to facilitate technological processes. Technological ultrasonic devices (i.e. sources of ultrasonic noise in the work environment, e.g. ultrasonic washers, ultrasonic welding machines) have relatively high power and their nominal frequencies are in the range from 18 kHz to 40 kHz. In Poland, ultrasonic noise (defined as noise containing high audible and low ultrasonic frequencies from 10 kHz to 40 kHz) is included in the list of factors harmful to health in the work environment and therefore the admissible values of ultrasonic noise in the workplaces are established. The admissible values of ultrasonic noise and the new ultrasonic noise measurement method make it possible to perform the assessment of occupational risk related to ultrasonic noise. According to this method, the scope of the measurements includes the determination of the equivalent sound pressure levels in the 1/3 octave bands with the centre frequencies from 10 kHz to 40 kHz. This paper presents the description of both, i.e. the method for ultrasonic noise measurements and the method of the assessment of occupational risk related to ultrasonic noise. The examples of the results of the assessment of occupational risk related to exposure to ultrasonic noise are also discussed.