A scholar of workers’ health and quality of life issues, Angelo Soares, a professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada, will be at UFMG as a guest of the FUNDEP-IEAT Chairs program in August.

During the visit, the professor will lead a series of academic activities open to the public, including the Grand Conference “The Densification of Work Time,” which will be held on August 12, 2025, at 2 p.m., in the auditorium of the Health Technology Center of the UFMG School of Medicine. Registration for the event must be made through the Even3 platform. Certificates of participation will be issued.

The densification of working time

The temporalities of work occupy a central place in the “Worlds of Work,” as they influence the structuring of social life. Working time is not limited to professional activity, as it interacts with the different phases of the life cycle, shaping the relationships between social time and work time.

During the conference, Angelo Soares will explore the three dimensions of working time, which are the fruits of his research. First, the dimension that refers to the place of work in the life cycle and its articulation with other social temporalities. Second, working time itself, related to the evolution of legislation, (in)formal norms, and practices governing work duration. Finally, working time, which concerns the pace, intensification, and densification of work.

According to the professor, time management at work is rigid, marked by quantifying management practices aimed at maximizing questionable efficiency. “The intensification (more tasks in less time) and densification (fewer breaks, reduced autonomy) of work aim for a “fully useful” work time, a “pure” time, without interruptions, without impurities, in which the body remains focused on its task at all times,” highlights Angelo Soares in the submitted synopsis.

Based on the results of various research projects conducted, the following question will be explored: how much work fits into a working hour? To this end, the intensification, acceleration, and densification of work will be discussed, including their consequences for physical and mental health, as well as for quality of life at and outside of work.

Conferences explore the relationship between health and work

On August 18, Professor Angelo Soares will be at the UFMG School of Medicine to deliver the conference “The State of Knowledge on Emotional Labor.” The event will take place in the Amílcar Vianna Auditorium, Room 062, at the UFMG School of Medicine, starting at 6:30 p.m.

On August 19th, he will give the conference The Many Faces of Care Work, starting at 2 pm, in the Bicalho Auditorium of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences (Fafich) at UFMG.

To conclude the lecture series, on August 20th, Professor Angelo Soares will return to the UFMG School of Medicine to deliver the conference “Gender-Based Violence and the Workplace.” The event will take place in the Amílcar Vianna Auditorium, Room 062, at 6:30 p.m.

The conferences are open to the general public upon registration. Certificates will be issued to those who register through the Even3 platform and sign the attendance list on the day of the events. The activities are promoted in partnership with the Fafich Graduate Program in Sociology and the Graduate Program in Health Promotion and Violence Prevention at the UFMG School of Medicine.

About the professor

Angelo Soares is a full professor in the Department of Organization and Human Resources at the École des Sciences de la Gestion at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), Canada. His research interests include workplace bullying and violence, emotions, care work, and mental health at work. He is a labor sociologist (Ph.D.) and completed his postdoctoral studies at UQAM. He teaches courses on organizational behavior, workplace violence, and critical work situations. He was invited as an expert to the Interministerial Committee on Workplace Bullying (2001, Ministry of Labor of the Province of Quebec); and to the Senate Standing Committee on Social Aspects of Science and Technology – Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Drug Addiction (2005, Senate of Canada). He is a member of the UQAM Institute of Health and Society. He is a research associate at the CNRS (France) in the Gender, Work, and Mobility (GTM) laboratory. In June 2008, he chaired the 6th International Conference on Workplace Bullying. He has been a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo, PUC-SP, UnB, UNESP-Botucatu (Brazil), Paris-8 (France), Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí (Mexico), and the University of Economics – International School of Business (Vietnam).