The pursuit of organised and safe residential environments is one of the main goals for those who choose to live in collective buildings. However, behind the flawless operation of gates, clean lifts and monitored garages, there is an essential factor that often goes unnoticed by residents in everyday life: the workforce. Doormen, caretakers, cleaning assistants and maintenance technicians form the true mechanism that sustains the routine of these vertical communities. 

Historically, people management in these places was limited to shift control, salary payment and checking the use of conventional personal protective equipment. However, modern social dynamics and the evolution of labour relations in Brazil have begun to require a much broader and more humane approach from administrations. In this transitional scenario, occupational safety is no longer viewed solely from a physical perspective and now encompasses employees’ overall health. Ensuring a working environment that preserves psychological and relational wellbeing is the new challenge facing the management of both large and small condominiums. 

With the update of national regulatory standards, concern for workers’ mental health has gained legal force and requires structural changes in administrative routines. This new milestone, represented by the guidelines of NR-1, obliges condominium managers and management companies to review their leadership practices and adopt strict preventive protocols to avoid significant labour liabilities. Understanding these changes is the first step towards building a truly sustainable, fair and safe community for those who live and work in it. 

What NR-1 is and its role in occupational safety 

To understand the impact of the new legal requirements on the routine of collective housing, it is essential to understand the nature of this regulatory instrument. NR-1 is Regulatory Standard number one of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, serving as the general provisions and legal basis for all other occupational health and safety guidelines in Brazil. It establishes the general principles and responsibilities that all employers must follow to ensure the integrity of their employees. Although many people associate these rules only with industrial or traditional corporate environments, the truth is that building condominiums with an active CNPJ and at least one employee registered under the Consolidation of Labour Laws fully fall within the category of employing organisations. Therefore, the application of NR-1 in these spaces is not optional, but a non-negotiable legal obligation. 

The standard’s main mechanism is Occupational Risk Management, which is materialised through a technical document called the Risk Management Programme, known by the acronym PGR. The PGR works as a detailed inventory of all hazards that may affect the employee, serving as a guide for the administration to adopt preventive and control measures. Failure to prepare or update this document leaves the condominium non-compliant and subject to immediate penalties. In this context, the new NR-1 guidelines stipulate that risk management must be complete and active, requiring management to identify not only mechanical and ergonomic hazards, but also the conditions that affect workers’ mental health and relational balance. Preventive care becomes the central axis of modern and safe labour governance in all contemporary condominiums. 

The evolution of standards and the inclusion of psychosocial risks 

The major innovation that the update of NR-1 brought to the legal framework and to management routines was the explicit and mandatory inclusion of psychosocial risk factors related to work. Previously, PGR inventories were limited to mapping physical, chemical and biological agents and classic ergonomic risks, such as poor posture or repetitive effort. Now, through the wording established by Ministry of Labour and Employment Ordinance No. 1,419, psychosocial factors officially become part of the management scope with the same weight as other risks. This conceptual change recognises that the way work is organised, daily pressures, excessive demands and the atmosphere of coexistence can make an individual psychologically unwell. For condominiums, which are environments where human proximity and interaction between residents and employees are constant, the incidence of these risks is extremely high. Situations involving harassment, verbal violence, deviation of duties and lack of boundaries in daily communications are no longer treated merely as simple personal disagreements and are now classified as real occupational risk factors under NR-1. 

The condominium, represented by the manager, now has the direct responsibility to monitor and mitigate these stressful situations in order to protect the mental health of its employees. Neglect or omission in the face of these harmful relational conditions opens the door to severe administrative penalties and high-impact labour disputes. The evolution of NR-1 therefore reflects a trend towards valuing life in its entirety, forcing a complete readjustment of the internal policies of condominiums. 

Why workers’ mental health must be a priority 

Ignoring teams’ wellbeing conditions in the workplace generates devastating financial and operational consequences for any organisation. Consolidated official statistics show that psychological illness is one of the main causes of professional absences worldwide. In 2025 alone, Brazil recorded the worrying figure of more than 546,000 worker absences caused by mental and behavioural disorders. Depression, severe anxiety and burnout syndrome top the list of diagnoses that result in long periods of medical leave and rehabilitation treatments. 

In the context of condominiums, the temporary loss of a trusted doorman or caretaker due to exhaustion disrupts service rosters, overloads other employees and requires emergency hiring of replacements, increasing the building’s ordinary costs. In addition, high staff turnover harms internal security, since new doormen at the gatehouse do not know residents’ faces and routines, which creates gaps and enables improper access. NR-1 acts precisely to alert managers that promoting mental health is not merely an additional benefit, but a strategy for asset preservation and operational efficiency. 

Employees who work under healthy, respectful and balanced conditions show greater productivity, make fewer operational mistakes and contribute to a peaceful atmosphere throughout the condominium. Caring for the psychological aspect is, therefore, an indispensable governance priority that protects both the worker and the financial health and collective safety of the condominium. 

What effectively changes for condominium employees 

The practical application of the updated NR-1 profoundly changes the rights and daily routine of operational staff in collective buildings. Under this new regulatory protection, doormen, caretakers, cleaners and security guards gain the right to carry out their activities in an environment free from hostility and abusive demands. The legislation recognises that condominium workers often deal with multiple “bosses”, namely the residents, which can create an intolerable stress burden if there are no clear rules of conduct. With the new NR-1, employees now have robust legal support to report situations of disrespect or embarrassment without fear of retaliatory dismissal or internal persecution. 

The main mapped psychosocial factors that will now be tackled in these employees’ work routine are: 

• Verbal aggression and humiliation: Situations involving disrespect or insults from residents dissatisfied with deliveries or rules; 

• Intrusive informal demands: Residents demanding private tasks from employees outside the scope of their role or after working hours; 

• Accumulation and deviation of duties without support: Requiring complex activities for which the employee has not been trained; 

• Lack of active listening channels: Absence of safe routes through which employees can express their perception of risk and stress. 

This change in attitude supported by NR-1 raises the professional dignity of the categories that operate at the base of condominiums. By actively participating in risk perception consultations, employees feel welcomed, reducing absenteeism and ensuring that their mental health remains preserved in their professional day-to-day lives. 

What effectively changes for the manager’s routine 

For administrators and condominium managers, the update of NR-1 imposes a series of practical duties and a far more analytical and active leadership approach. The manager is no longer merely the inspector of the building’s physical infrastructure and assumes joint responsibility for the quality of the relational working environment. The first practical change lies in the need to hire accredited occupational safety professionals or companies to update the condominium’s PGR, mandatorily including the assessment of psychosocial risks. This requires the use of scientific tools and climate surveys that measure teams’ stress levels, guaranteeing participants’ anonymity to avoid retaliation. In addition, the manager of every condominium must establish extremely strict and formal communication processes, eliminating direct and informal contact between residents and doormen for complaints or service orders. Every complaint or request must necessarily go through the administration or official app, protecting the employee from undue pressure at their post. 

Another obligation of the manager supported by NR-1 is the maintenance of a book or digital system for recording electrical and physical incidents and relational friction, generating documentary evidence that proves the administration’s diligence in the event of inspections or legal disputes. The manager who ignores these new processes puts the condominium’s financial health at risk and may be personally liable for omission in cases of proven employee illness. Preventive management focused on mental health thus becomes the new standard of excellence in building administration. 

Immediate impacts: what administrations already need to pay attention to 

The entry into force of the new guidelines requires condominiums and their respective advisers to act quickly to avoid regulatory non-compliance and immediate liabilities. Although many administrations were used to postponing labour decisions for the long term, the educational inspections promoted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment have already begun to guide and map the situation of companies and buildings throughout the country. 

In this transition scenario for NR-1, the first step requiring immediate attention is to carry out a complete situational diagnosis of wiring, power boards, lifts and the psychological conditions of work posts. It is necessary to review all contracts with outsourced cleaning, concierge and property security companies, requiring these providers to document the adequacy of their respective PGRs to the new mental health protection standards. The condominium retains joint liability for these outsourced teams that provide daily services in common areas, which requires strict control of labour safety documentation by the administration. 

Another immediate action required by NR-1 is the creation of internal awareness campaigns aimed at residents, explaining the limits of the concierge teams’ duties and the penalties set out in the internal regulations for acts of disrespect or moral harassment. This set of initial measures legally shields condominiums against unexpected penalties and lawsuits, demonstrating the manager’s good faith and diligent conduct in preserving collective occupational wellbeing. 

Future impacts: the inspection and litigation scenario 

The implementation schedule for the new occupational health and safety rules precisely dictates the dates that managers of all condominiums must keep in mind to avoid severe losses. MTE Ordinance No. 1,419 of 2024 established the guidelines for including psychological illness risks, while MTE Ordinance No. 765 of 2025 extended the start of full validity and the application of punitive fines to 26 May 2026. This means that the educational inspection period without punitive character is coming to an end, and from that date, any condominium that does not present an adequate PGR or ignores continuous employee stress may be fined immediately. 

The amounts of administrative penalties, regulated by NR-28, vary according to the seriousness of the infraction and the number of employees exposed to risk, and may seriously compromise the building’s ordinary accounts. However, legal specialists warn that the greatest future impact of NR-1 does not lie in the fines themselves, but in the substantial increase in litigation before the Labour Court. The absence of a psychosocial risk inventory in the PGR will make it much easier to prove employer fault in cases involving burnout, occupational depression or induced chronic anxiety. The reversal of the burden of proof may be applied in favour of the ill employee if the condominium does not demonstrate robust preventive actions supported by reports, resulting in heavy awards against the collective budget. This is a reality that requires condominiums to undertake financial and operational planning focused on long-term preventive safety, ensuring the protection of operational teams’ mental health. 

The greatest adaptation difficulties for management teams 

Mapping the new occupational risks and implementing the adjustments required by NR-1 reveals cultural, managerial and budgetary challenges that residential condominiums frequently face. The greatest barrier to adaptation lies in the cultural resistance of a portion of residents, who still hold the outdated view that building employees are private servants obliged to meet individual whims and orders. Breaking this habit requires persistent awareness meetings led by the manager, demonstrating that inappropriate interference at the concierge desk creates psychosocial risks that generate high labour costs for all residents. 

Another practical obstacle concerns the lack of confidential and safe communication channels for receiving reports of harassment or internal persecution, forcing many condominium management teams to operate in an analogue and non-transparent manner. In addition, hiring specialised occupational safety engineering consultancies to issue ergonomics reports and PGRs involves significant costs that weigh on ordinary building cash flow. Managers under intense pressure to reduce ordinary fees face enormous difficulty in justifying these new preventive contributions at the meeting, which ultimately delays the adaptation of risers, electrical panels and mental health standards required by law. Overcoming these operational and financial difficulties requires administrators to have a sharp analytical vision, seeking creative budget-saving alternatives in order to make investments in safety and modern labour practices viable and efficient. 

Practical guidelines for implementing the new rules in the condominium 

Structuring a healthy working environment that complies legally with NR-1 requires method and continuous planning by modern condominium management teams. It is not enough to keep reports and documents filed away in the administrative office; actions must be lived and applied in the practical routine of coexistence among operational teams. Labour inspectors, when carrying out visits to work posts, usually question doormen and caretakers directly to check whether the procedures described on paper are real. 

To ensure labour compliance efficiently and without administrative friction, adopt the following internal adaptation roadmap in the condominium: 

• Hire OSH technical support: Carry out the inventory of physical, mechanical and psychosocial risks with a report issued by a registered engineer; 

• Update the PGR annually: Adapt the programme to the building’s reality whenever there are changes to facilities or processes; 

• Establish an official communication channel: Prohibit direct orders from residents to employees, centralising records in apps; 

• Promote training and development: Instruct concierge and cleaning teams on rights, safety duties and conflict management; 

• Formally record incidents: Document insults, threats or conflicts to demonstrate active monitoring by management. 

By following this simplified operational checklist, the administration can reorganise internal relations, reducing the chances of illness caused by moral harassment or managerial disorganisation. Tackling psychosocial risks through clear processes promotes professional respect and improves team productivity, generating peace of mind for the manager and residents. Active prevention focused on mental health is the key to responsible governance in all contemporary condominiums. 

NewSun Partner: financial stability and budget predictability 

Ensuring strict compliance with the requirements of NR-1, updating the PGR with psychosocial risk reports, modernising concierge communication systems and periodically training employees requires resources from the collective budget. For professional managers and condominium administrators dealing with constant pressure to reduce fixed expenses and balance families’ ordinary fees, finding extra capital to invest in mental health and team safety may seem an insurmountable financial challenge. To solve this bottleneck sustainably and at no cost, NewSun Energy Group developed NewSun Partner. 

This innovative, commission-based partnership helps transform the management of energy costs in common areas into a value-generation platform for the condominium. By referring buildings from their network to our clean energy subscription service, administrators and managers gain access to a digitalised alternative that helps stabilise electricity bills and bring predictability to the condominium’s budget. This continuous relief on electricity bills for common areas — one of the building’s most significant fixed costs — allows precious resources to be reallocated to safety adaptations, hiring OSH support and structural improvements in coexistence, without the need for extra assessments. In addition, the partnership rewards the manager with recurring automatic rebates and commissions of up to 5% on contracts, strengthening governance and cash flow sustainably. 

Take advantage of this strategic opportunity to transform your community’s budget into a driver of innovation, safety and respect for labour standards! Visit the official NewSun Partner page. 

Conclusion: comprehensive safety as a legacy of value enhancement 

Care for common facilities and the health of employee teams are two sides of the same administrative coin in the pursuit of asset appreciation and neighbourly peace. When the administration ignores the requirements of NR-1 and fails to monitor the risks affecting the mental health of concierge and cleaning teams, the danger of conflicts, absenteeism and high labour liabilities becomes real. The proactive manager who is alert to regulatory innovations must view compliance with these safety guidelines as a continuous strategic investment that protects people and professionalises the management of condominiums. By reconciling operational labour care with intelligent solutions for optimising fixed common expenses, co-ownership achieves long-term stability and predictability. The correct adaptation of the PGR and absolute respect for occupational dignity standards are the solid foundation for consolidating a harmonious, modern, prosperous residential community that is fully prepared for the management challenges of the future.