In a recent review by van der Noordt et al. (2014), aimed at systematically summarize the literature on the health effects of employment, strong evidence was found for a protective effect of employment as such on depression and general mental health. Another review by Lindberg & Vingård (2012), aimed at systematically review the scientific literature and search for indicators of healthy working environments, defined as working environments that not just have a lack of detrimental factors at work but also yield a positive return in the form of rich job content, job satisfaction, social participation and personal development (Swedish Work Environment Authority 2010). The authors found 23 studies that either investigated employee´s views of what constitute a healthy workplace or were guidelines for how to create such a workplace. The most pronounced factors, considered as important for a healthy workplace were: collaboration/teamwork; growth and development of the individual; recognition; employee involvement; positive, accessible and fair leadership; autonomy and empowerment; appropriate staffing; skilled communication; and safe physical work (Lindberg and Vingård 2012).

The knowledge in the field is still rather vague concerning what creates, promotes and sustains health and wellbeing at work among managers and employees and what factors might be the most important. In order to take action we need to further explore and understand these underlying factors, the “healthy work factors”. The aim of this study was therefore to explore how a sample of Swedish blue- and white collar workers describe healthy factors at work as well as understand the concept of wellbeing at work.