The gap between a “human” and a “person”

By Pedro Ferreira

The continuous and accelerating rate of change seems to be the new normal for every profession and work context. This much can also be said about our own lives. It seems increasingly difficult to make sense of the boundaries between family, personal life, and work. We struggle to make sense of the organisation around us and the roles we are meant to be fulfilling seem increasingly blurry or hybrid.

Ergonomics has evolved across many boundaries, both scientific and professional practice. In my mind, this has always been one of the key challenges when conveying to stakeholders the relevance and added value of ergonomics. Exchanges with different colleagues worldwide have further reinforced this belief. The blurriness and dynamics at the boundaries of ergonomics seem an unsurmountable problem.

Recently, I have come to question these assumptions: How is this a problem? How does it really manifest itself? As you explore such questions, a much better understanding of the situation and its context emerges. Rather than looking outwards for causes and solutions, I started to focus on my own perceptions and perspectives. What has always appeared like an impossible challenge feels increasingly like an open array of opportunities.

It’s not about the tools and methods but rather the methodology itself. While I’ve always advocated my methodology as one that focuses on the person and its context at work, my self-questioning led me to realise how much I had allowed myself to be drawn into this inescapable tendency to look at the person as yet another part of a system. Much is said today about “technical, organisational and human factors” or even “organisational and human factors”. But ask yourself how much these common expressions do not push you towards levelling out the existing and fundamental differences despite placing these factors in “different boxes”?

The ultimate question is, what differences do I see between a “human” and a “person”? If we aim to explain performance and behaviour, and look at these as the result of a combination of body and brain activity, then little opportunity is there to understand the person. The richness of ergonomics, particularly its multi and inter-disciplinarity, lies in the ability to see the person as more than a mechanistic set of physiology and cognition. Communicating the value of ergonomics must not come from an (implicitly or explicitly) oversimplification of the person but rather by challenging the beliefs of stakeholders in regard to what a person is. In the end, what ergonomics practitioners share with their stakeholders is the desire to make better use of the unique human abilities to cope with the high complexity and uncertainty of our world. This can only be pursued by understanding the persons far beyond the generic human standards.

Train4Work webinar

Train4work – a training tool on HFE for non-specialists that is useful for HFE promotion, on the 14th of November at 13h UTC.

Webinar Series on tools fostering the development of ergonomics and human factors, organized by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES), an IEA regional network, and the Safety and Health Technical Committee of the IEA.

Register for this webinar.

Presenters:

  • Pedro Ferreira, Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES), Treasurer, and Professor at Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering (CENTEC), IST, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Mercedes Sanchis Almenara, Head of Innovation, Occupational Safety and Health Promotion- Institute of Biomechanics (IBV), Polytechnical University of Valencia, Spain.

FFES Logo

Duration: 90 mins

The goal of this online webinar is to present the Train4work product, which is available in 4 languages (English, Spanish, German, and French)

  • Its contents
  • How to use it
  • How it helps in practice

Webinar Chair: Bernard Michez, president of FEES

Zoom link for registration. Registration is free to all interested people. The webinar will be recorded and published on YouTube. Registration permits live interaction with the presenters via Q&A. Register for this webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Register for this webinar.

Online TRAIN4WORK questionnaire

train4workThe project TRAIN4WORK launched an online questionnaire on 13 February 2019 to identify training requirements and define learning objectives and the course structure of new learning material.

The questionnaire aims to gather data to support the development of the online training course, which targets all those involved in the design (or re-development) of work systems but are not ergonomics and human factors specialists.

The questionnaire can be accessed in four different languages

The questionnaire will be open until March 31.

TRAIN4WORK is an initiative of the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies under the umbrella of Erasmus+ to create freely accessible online ergonomics training material.

FFES LogoProject supported by the European Union
Contract Number: 2018-1-ES01-KA203-050887

General Secretary hand over

According to the decision of the FEES council held on the 26th August 2018 in Florence, Aleksandar Zunjic has been unanimously elected, and took over Secretary General office from Pascal Etienne 1st December 2018.

Pascal Etienne, ergonomist and former Labour Inspector, member of the board and former president of SELF, the French Speaking Ergonomics Society, has been FEES secretary general from the year 2012 to 2018. In this positon, in addition to the achievement of the administrative tasks of the secretary general position, he has taken part to various FEES initiatives: the organization of the tenth anniversary of FEES in 2013 in Munich and the preparation of the symposia that were held during the event, such as one on the cooperation between ergonomists and other stakeholders with a presentation on ergonomics and Personal Protective Equipment. He provided lectures in several symposia which took place in Lisbon, Amersfoort, Paris and Naples on “ergonomics and creativity”, in preparation of the IEA 20th Congress.

Pascal EtiennePascal Etienne was also involved in the preparation of the conference on “workers and creativity”, held in Brussels in June 2017 organized by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the Belgium Ergonomic Society (BES), CREE and FEES with the support of IEA. He has taken part to the preparation and the adoption of Memorandum of Understanding decided in 2017 by IEA and FEES which reflects the cooperation of both organizations.

Pascal continues his voluntary activity with SELF at national level and with FEES at the European level, handing over the secretary general tasks to the new Board, and acting on various issues such as the follow up of the initiatives on “the future of work” or “the future of ergonomics”.

Merci, Pascal!

As an ergonomist Dr. Aleksandar Zunjic debuted at the 12th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), Toronto, 1994. Today, he is a full Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia, and is holding various courses in the domain of Ergonomics at BSc, MSc and Ph.D. levels.

Dr. Zunjic served as treasurer of the Ergonomics Society of (former) Yugoslavia, ten years as secretary of the Ergonomics Society of Serbia. Since 2016 he is the President of the Ergonomics Society of Serbia, councillor of IEA and FEES.

Aleksandar ZunjicDr. Aleksandar Zunjic works in the IEA TC – Work With Computing Systems (WWCS). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI).

Prof. Zunjic performs managerial functions for several scientific journals, e.g. Editor-in-Chief of IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety and IETI Transactions on Engineering Research and Practice; Editorial Board member of Journal of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering Research, International Journal of Behavioral Research and Psychology, Information Management & Computer Science and Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Development.

Aleksandar has participated in the realization of several international and domestic projects. He has been a leader of an innovative project supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Serbia in 2018. He has five registered patents. Aleksandar Zunjic has been elected for the Secretary General position of FEES in 2018.

All the bests, Aleksandar!

Our president, Bernard Michez Eur Erg

Bernard Michez Eur Erg

Dear members and visitors of the FEES site,

I am honored to be the president of FEES since august 25th 2018.

I am grateful for the great work undertaken by the members as the executive committee of FEES. Since its creation in May 2003, many useful actions have been carried out, such as the support for the creation of new ergonomics organization in Europe, the organization of the Month of Ergonomics, the creation of our internet site, the organization of conferences, … it is now impossible to mention in short the wide range of activities.

Our Federation of European Ergonomics Societies demonstrated the full interest of its role, by welcoming the different candidates, gathering the needs about the profession from the different countries, and contributing to the consolidation of ergonomics. The links between the different regional networks, IEA and CREE are stronger than ever, and the cooperation will increase efficiency and effectiveness.

As a committed professional, I have contributed to the creation and functioning of institutions that are useful in our field.

FFES LogoToday, my challenge is to be as relevant and effective as my predecessors and to continue the ongoing actions. The existing roadmap needs to be pursued and developed according to events and needs. To this end, I will interact closely with the Executive Committee and FEES members. Each of us will bring a stone to this building process. I know it’s an investment of time, especially for the executive bureau, as for all contributors within member societies.

This investment is worthwhile. To be convinced, just look at how far we have come in 30 years in the development and recognition of Ergonomics.

This story is to be continued…..

Bernard Michez
President of FEES

Trained in ergonomics and practicing ergonomist for almost 35 years, Bernard Michez started as a freelance, contributed to many industrial projects, learned every day about human functioning and project management. Today, he runs the company he created, with a team of 10 practitioners. He is member of SELF, registered European Ergonomist, co-creator of CINOV-Ergonomie and his company is member of it.

Sustaining membership

To support the activities of the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies it is possible to become a sustaining member of FEES. Sustaining membership is both possible for organisations/companies and individual persons.

Supporting FEES can be divided in two different groups:

To support the activities of the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies it is possible to become a sustaining member of FEES. Sustaining membership is both possible for organisations/companies and individual persons.

Supporting FEES can be divided in two different groups:

  • Sustaining membership
  • Supporting organisations and persons

Interested in sustaining membership? Read the summary below or the treasurer of FEES can also give answers to questions about sustaining membership (treasurer@ergonomics-fees.eu).

A. Sustaining Membership

Sustaining members are Organisations and Individual persons that demonstrate their commitment to the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies by providing an annual financial support.

Sustaining members are divided into three groups:

  • Organisations with more than one employee
  • Organisations of one person
  • Individual membership

For these three groups the metal status gives the different benefits. The metal status is:

  • Bronze
  • Silver
  • Gold

1. Organisations with more than one employee

The benefits for this membership are:

  • Bronze:
    • To attend the FEES Council meeting (no voting rights).
    • To publicize the organisation’s name and logo on a special page in the FEES flyer.
    • To publicize the organisation’s name and logo in a specific part of the FEES website.
    • To use the FEES logo on the organisation’s website.
    • To be mentioned in the FEES Annual Report.
  • Silver: all benefits as under Bronze, plus
    • To present written information about the member’s organisation in the annual Council meeting of FEES.
    • To promote the name and logo of the member’s organisation at FEES related meetings.
  • Gold: all benefits as under Silver, plus
    • To present written and oral information about the member’s organisation in the annual Council meeting of FEES.
    • To become offered exposure facilities at FEES organised meetings.
    • To mention scientific based activities on FEES website annual calendar.

The annual payment for this membership is:

  • Bronze € 1000,-
  • Silver € 2500,-
  • Gold € 5000,-

2. Organisations of one person

The sustaining membership for companies with only one working person is also indicated by a metal status and the same benefits as the sustaining members but the annual contribution is lower. These are:

  • Bronze € 500,-
  • Silver € 1000,-
  • Gold € 2000,-

3. Individual membership

The benefits offered by the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies for the sustaining individual membership for the different metal status are:

  • To attend the FEES Council meeting (no voting rights).
  • To use the FEES logo on the personal website.
  • To be mentioned in the FEES Annual Report.
  • To publicize the individual name on a special page in the FEES flyer.
  • To publicize the individual name with hyperlink in a specific part of the FEES website.
  • The possibility to attend FEES endorsed conferences on a reduced price.

The sustaining individual membership is intended for individual persons for a period of at least one year. The basic annual contribution will be € 150,-.

B. Supporting Organizations and Persons

By supporting the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies substantially in a material way – and so indirectly in a financial way – organisations or persons can become supporting organisations or persons on annual basis. Benefits for supporting organizations and persons are:

  • To publicize the organisation’s name and logo on a special page in the FEES flyer.
  • To publicize the organisation’s name and logo in a specific part of the FEES website.
  • To be mentioned in the FEES Annual Report.

Interested in sustaining membership? Apply for sustaining membership today! Contact the treasurer of the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies now: treasurer@ergonomics-fees.eu

Committee meeting in Paris August 2013

ComPromCom meeting 30 Augustus 2013

Present: Gyula Szabó (chair), Huget Désiron, Martti Launis, Annie Drouin, Sylvain Leduc (partially), Reinier Hoftijzer, Pieter Rookmaaker

Minutes attached

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ComPromCom meeting 30 Augustus 2013

Present: Gyula Szabó (chair), Huget Désiron, Martti Launis, Annie Drouin, Sylvain Leduc (partially), Reinier Hoftijzer, Pieter Rookmaaker

Minutes attached

Note comment this page