About 71% of employees have contact with the public in their professional activity. These workers are frequently subject to atypical working times and are often interrupted in their work. More than 20% of these workers report having experienced verbal aggression and 2% state that they have been physically attacked. The workers most concerned by aggression are those working nights or at weekends who are subject to very high work intensity and rigid forms of work organisation.
More people working in contact with the public
In 2003, some 70.9% of employees – representing 63% of male employees and 80% of female employees – reported working in contact with customers, clients, patients, students or other members of the public. This total compared with 63.3% of employees in 1994 when the previous SUMER (Surveillance Médicale des Risques [Medical monitoring of risks]) survey took place. Such an increase also concerns blue-collar workers: 51.9% of qualified industrial workers are in contact with the public during their work, compared with 39.1% in 1994.
Overall, this large proportion of the active population involved in liaising with the public presents some specific features in terms of working conditions, which are detailed in Table 1 below. For example, 34.4% of workers in contact with the public work on Sundays, while 25.4% of those who do not work in contact with the public also work on Sundays. As the first category represents 70.9% of the total working population and the second category represents the remaining 29.1%, on average, 31.8% of the total active population works on a Sunday.
Table 1: Working conditions, according to contact with the public (%)
This table outlines aspects of working conditions, comparing the situation of workers who work in contact with the public and that of workers who do not. | Working conditions | Workers in contact with the public | Workers not in contact with the public |
| Work on Sunday | 34.4 | 25.4 |
| Work on Saturday | 56.2 | 45.2 |
| Working times change daily | 23.3 | 15.3 |
| Work overtime (always or sometimes) | 26.9 | 16.0 |
| Pace of work set by supervisor | 23.1 | 32.5 |
| Pace of work set by routine deadlines of one hour or less | 18.0 | 25.1 |
| Pace of work set by direct dependency on colleagues | 26.2 | 36.8 |
| Pace of work set by immediate external demand | 66.6 | 30.5 |
| Work under high time pressure (always or often) | 42.1 | 36.7 |
| Have to frequently interrupt one task for another unexpectedly | 64.0 | 46.7 |
| Have to solve problems on their own most of the time | 61.0 | 47.5 |
| Able to change order of tasks | 34.3 | 23.3 |
Source: SUMER survey 2003
Exposure to aggression
Among workers in contact with the public, 25.4% of women and 19.2% of men report having been subject to verbal aggression in the 12 months before the survey was conducted; the overall proportion of workers affected in this manner is 22%. In terms of physical attacks, 2.2% of women and 1.5% of men report such an experience, and the overall total of workers in this regard stands at 2%. Employees in health and teaching professions are most exposed to aggression and physical attack, with 33% of such employees reporting this problem. Personnel in a front-desk position are also particularly vulnerable, with 28% citing instances of such abuse.
Aggression and physical attack are usually not isolated incidents: while 20% of the workers affected cite a single case of aggression, 40% state that they have experienced more than three cases in the 12 months before the survey took place.
With regard to working conditions, workers who report experiences of aggression are more frequently subject to a rigid or inadequate work organisation, as shown in Table 2 below. For example, among personnel working more than 20 nights a year, 31.4% report having been subject to aggression from the public in the 12 months before the survey. In fact, for those working more than 20 nights a year, the risk of being subject to aggression is 14% higher than for a worker who does not do such night work.
Table 2: Risk of verbal or physical aggression, according to work organisation (%)
This table outlines the % of workers reporting a case of aggression, according to various types of work organisation. It also notes the probability difference of experiencing aggression between those who work under the listed forms of work organisation and those who do not. | | Proportion of workers reporting a case of aggression (%) | Probability difference compared with those not subject to such work organisation (%) |
| Night work (more than 20 nights a year) | 31.4 | 14 |
| Work on Saturday (more than 10 times a year) | 30.0 | 60 |
| Working times change daily | 30.3 | 28 |
| Working times defined by employer with no possibility to change | 24.2 | 20 |
| Work overtime (always or sometimes) | 26.6 | 14 |
| Shift work | 34.9 | 17 |
| Pace of work set by computer monitoring | 28.3 | 28 |
| Pace of work set by supervisor | 29.5 | 17 |
| Pace of work set by immediate external demand | 26.3 | 44 |
| Work under high time pressure (always or often) | 29.4 | 37 |
| Cannot interrupt the work | 30.7 | 18 |
| Systematically give a written account of activity | 26.3 | 12 |
| Have to frequently interrupt one task for another unexpectedly, generating disruption | 28.9 | 18 |
| Manage other workers | 24.1 | 19 |
| Too few colleagues for the work to be done | 30.3 | 20 |
| Insufficient information | 29.7 | 25 |
| Inadequate working tools | 31.1 | 26 |
| Cannot discuss with supervisor in case of problem | 33.0 | 29 |
| Cannot discuss with colleagues in case of problem | 31.7 | 17 |
Source: SUMER survey 2003
Reference and further information
Research and Statistics Department (Direction de l’Animation de la Recherche, des Études et des Statistiques, DARES) of French Ministry of Labour, Social Relations and Solidarity (Ministère du Travail, des Relations Sociales et de la Solidarité), Contact avec le public: Près d’un salarié sur quatre subit des agressions verbales [Contact with the public: Almost one employee in four experiences verbal aggression], Premières Informations Premières Synthèses, No. 15.1, April 2007 (results of the SUMER survey).
For further information on the findings of the 2003 SUMER survey, see FR0704029I and also the 2006 EWCO review of working conditions in France.
Anne-Marie Nicot, ANACT