Introduction

The assessment of pleasure and suffering indicators in primary healthcare workers gains relevance due to the complexity of multi-professional working and the close link between community and team. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the pleasure and suffering indicators in primary healthcare workers from a municipality in Southern Brazil.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 218 workers in 34 primary healthcare units. Data was collected from March to August 2015 using the Pleasure and Suffering Indicators at Work Scale (PSIWS) and analyzed through descriptive statistics and association tests.

Results

The factors indicating suffering, professional burnout and lack of recognition were evaluated as critical, unlike those of pleasure, where only professional fulfillment was classified as critical and freedom of expression as satisfactory. Among these indicating factors, the following showed better averages: pride in what I do, cooperation with colleagues, stress and indignation at work.

Discussion

Workers are satisfied and proud of the work they do and feel free to share their thoughts and ideas with the team, although exhausted and little recognized for their actions.

Conclusions

It can be concluded that professional burnout, stress, indignation and lack of recognition are indicators of suffering at work while freedom of expression, pride in what you do and cooperation with colleagues are sources of pleasure.

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