The impact of workplace safety and customer misbehavior on supermarket workers' stress and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Work-Related Factors Associated With Psychological Distress Among Grocery Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery workers experienced new (in addition to existing) work-related stressors that put them at risk for psychological distress. This study uses the job demands-resources theory to identify and describe the job demands and resources associated with grocery worker distress.

Methods

This study analyzed data from 75 90-minute interviews focusing on grocery workers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the interviews, participants also answered questions associated with the Patient Health Questionnaire 4, a validated measure of psychological distress.

Results

Overall, the study found that 36% of study participants exhibited mild to severe psychological distress at the time of their interviews, and a greater proportion of young, female, and White participants reported mild to severe psychological distress than did participants in other subgroups. Qualitative data suggest that the prevalence of psychological distress among participants was likely higher at the beginning of the pandemic and resulted from fear of SARS-CoV-2 exposure, conflict with customers, workplace discrimination, increased workload, and designation as an essential worker. Although about half of the participants in the sample said that their employers provided support to improve workers' mental health, the interviews suggest that more could be done.

Conclusions

These findings may lead to opportunities to improve worker well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare for future public health emergencies. Proposed strategies include implementing public health measures as advised by infectious disease experts; offering information and training; providing sick leave, long-term hazard pay, higher wages, and mental health benefits; and better distribution of workloads.

Unmet Mental Health Needs Among California Workers Since the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

We sought to identify worker groups with high prevalence of unmet mental health needs to inform employer benefits programs and outreach to increase access to care.

METHODS

We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study to understand unmet mental health needs among workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic using the California Health Interview Survey data from 2013 to 2021.

RESULTS

In 2021, 23.4% (confidence interval: 22.4 to 24.4) reported unmet mental health needs, an absolute increase of 3.9% from 2019. Relative increases were highest among workers in the information industries (prevalence ratio: 1.89, confidence interval: 1.4 to 2.5) and older workers (prevalence ratio: 1.27, CI: 0.9 to 1.8). Increases in needing help were not met with comparable increases in seeking care.

CONCLUSIONS

Unmet mental health needs increased for California workers during the pandemic. Employers should dedicate resources and implement strategies to increase access to care and promote worker well-being.

Changes in mental distress among employees during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

OBJECTIVES

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the future of work sustainably and led to a general increase in mental stress. A study conducted during the second and third pandemic wave with a retrospective survey of the first wave among 1,545 non-healthcare workers confirmed an increase in anxiety and depression symptoms and showed a correlation with the occupational SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. This online follow-up survey aims to examine changes in mental distress as the pandemic progressed in Germany and to identify factors influencing potential changes.

METHODS

Longitudinal data from 260 subjects were available for this analysis. Mental distress related to anxiety and depression symptoms, assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), and occupational risk factors were solicited at the end of 2022 and retrospectively at the fifth wave. Categorized PHQ-4 scores were modelled with mixed ordinal regression models and presented with odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).

RESULTS

A previous diagnosis of a depressive or anxiety disorder was a strong risk factor for severe symptoms (OR 3.49, 95% CI 1.71-7.11). The impact of occupational SARS-CoV-2 infection risk on mental distress was increased, albeit failing to reach the formal level of statistical significance (high risk OR 1.83, 95% CI 0.59-5.63; probable risk OR 1.72, 95% CI 0.93-3.15). Mental distress was more pronounced in those with a previous diagnosis of anxiety and depression. Confirmed occupational risk factors were protective measures against occupational SARS-CoV-2 infection perceived as inadequate, chronic work-related stress, overcommitment, reduced interactions with fellow-workers, and work-privacy conflicts.

CONCLUSIONS

The pandemic had a negative impact on anxiety and depression symptoms among the studied non-healthcare workers, particularly early in the pandemic, although this effect does not appear to be permanent. There are modifiable risk factors that can protect workers' mental health, including strengthening social interactions among employees and reducing work-privacy conflicts.

Stopping the Spread: How Blame Attributions Drive Customer-to-Customer Misbehavior Contagion and What Frontline Employees Can Do to Curb It

Service encounters nowadays are increasingly characterized by customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions where customers regularly become targets of other customers' misbehavior. Although previous research provides initial evidence of the contagiousness of such C2C misbehavior, it remains unclear whether, how, and why C2C misbehavior spreads when frontline employees (FLEs) are involved and what FLEs can do to curb it. Two online and one field experiment in the context of co-working and transportation services reveal that FLE-directed blame attributions drive the spread of C2C misbehavior while perpetrator-directed blame attributions reverse it. These blame attributions are greater the more severely customers judge other customers' misbehavior. Findings further rule out alternative contagion mechanisms (social norms and emotional contagion) and show that contagion spills over to C2C misbehavior unrelated to the initial transgression. By specifying how contagion unfolds and by explicating the central role blame attributions play in C2C misbehavior contagion, this research uncovers its social dynamics, thus extending existing theory on customer misbehavior and attribution theory in multi-actor settings. Managerially, this research provides FLEs with explicit guidance on what they should do (personalized FLE interventions delivered either in person or remotely) and avoid doing (disapproving looks, FLE service recovery) when faced with C2C misbehavior.

After the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Perceptions, experiences, and effects on well-being in Italian people

Background

Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent measures of containment, multiple studies have been conducted aimed at assessing the impacts on people's psychophysical well-being; however, few studies have investigated the general population's perceptions, experiences, and effects by adopting a mixed-method approach.

Methods

A total of 855 Italian participants completed an online survey, conducted in the period following the first lockdown in Italy. Psychological well-being, perceived stress and COVID-19-related fears were assessed by standardized questionnaires (Psychological General Well-Being Index-Short version, Perceived Stress Scale 10, and Multidimensional Assessment of COVID-19-Related Fears). The process of sense-making of the experience during the lockdown period was also evaluated by means of an open-ended question.

Results

Participants reported a lower level of general well-being, and a higher level of both perceived stress and COVID-19-related fear during the lockdown period compared to the time of the survey (1 month after the resumption of activities). The thematic analysis of responses to the open-ended question revealed two factors and five clusters, which explain the thematic variance among the narratives: the first factor refers to the type of experience (emotional states and feelings vs. objective descriptions of daily activities), while the second concerns positive or negative connotations of the experiences reported.

Conclusions

This study explored the psychological impact of the first lockdown on people's well-being, and described the process of making sense of the experience during the lockdown 1 month after going back to previous habits. Results highlighted the effectiveness of the mixed-method approach for an in-depth and exhaustive investigation of people's psychological condition during and after the first lockdown.

Exploring the linkage between workplace precaution measures, covid-19 fear and job performance: The moderating effect of academic competence

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has created emerging mental health challenges around the world. Like other countries, Pakistan is also confronted with covid-19 calamities. The aim of the study is to examine the impacts of workplace measures (WM) on the job performance (JP) and covid-19 fears (CF) along with the moderating role of academic competence (AC) based on the organizational support theory (OST) and job demand and resources (JDR) theory. A quantitative approach was applied to collect data from 333 banking employees in Gujranwala (Pakistan), and the hypothesis were tested via structural equation modeling using SPSS and AMOS. The study findings indicate that workplace measures significantly affect covid-19 fears except for individual preventive measures (IPM). Similarly, workplace measures significantly impact on job performance apart from information about the pandemic (IAP). Moreover, academic competence insignificantly moderates between workplace measures and covid-19 fears, but a significant moderation is found between information about pandemic (IAP) and covid-19 fears. Meanwhile, academic competence significantly moderates between workplace measures and job performance instead of a relationship between information about pandemic and job performance. However, this study was limited only to the banking sector of Pakistan. So, it will open the doors for future researchers to investigate other cultural contexts and sectors. This research gives a holistic understanding of workplace measures and contributes to the body of knowledge by enlightening the moderating role of academic competence in the banking sector of Pakistan. These useful insights would enable practitioners and policy makers to develop more efficient strategies and workplace measures to enhance job performance and reduce the fears of covid-19 among employees.

Psychosocial health and activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major cause of stress at work.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the effect of self-management and self-control skills on perceived stress of employees in the COVID-19 period.

METHODS

The study's self-administered survey included demographics and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Self-Control and Self-Management Scale (SCMS). Associations with PSS were determined using a multiple variable linear regression analysis.

RESULTS

Scores for stress (28.45±7.82) and self-management (55.73±12.15) were moderate for employees. Of the 181 employees, 41.43% had a mild, 52.48% had moderate, and 6.07% had severe stress levels. Stress was significantly associated with lower self-management level. A negative relation was found between SCMS and PSS (p = 0.000, r = -0.320). Employees with high self-management skills had low stress levels. Employees also reported negative changes to physical activity, income and sleep. Gender, occupation, income category, compliance with COVID-related rules and self-management were associated with levels of stress (p < 0.05). The regression model explained 24.8% of the variance in stress perception (R2 = 0.248, F = 11.452, p = 0.000). Multiple linear regression analysis showed gender (β = 5.089, 95% CI: 2.820 to 7.358, p = 0.000) compliance with COVID-related rules (β = 2.274, CI: 0.066 to 4.483, p = 0.044), a decrease in income (β = 2.051, CI: -0.64 to 4.166, p = 0.057) and self-management (β = -0.173, CI: -0.258 to -0.087, p = 0.000) were significantly associated with lower scores in the stress perception.

CONCLUSION

Self-control and self-management were associated with a decline in mental health. Health-promotion strategies directed at adopting or maintaining positive self-control and self-management-related behaviors should be utilized to address increases in psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leading Predictors of COVID-19-Related Poor Mental Health in Adult Asian Indians: An Application of Extreme Gradient Boosting and Shapley Additive Explanations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in poor mental health among Asian Indians was observed in the United States. However, the leading predictors of poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Asian Indians remained unknown. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to self-identified Asian Indians aged 18 and older (N = 289). Survey collected information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics and the COVID-19 burden. Two novel machine learning techniques-eXtreme Gradient Boosting and Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were used to identify the leading predictors and explain their associations with poor mental health. A majority of the study participants were female (65.1%), below 50 years of age (73.3%), and had income ≥ $75,000 (81.0%). The six leading predictors of poor mental health among Asian Indians were sleep disturbance, age, general health, income, wearing a mask, and self-reported discrimination. SHAP plots indicated that higher age, wearing a mask, and maintaining social distancing all the time were negatively associated with poor mental health while having sleep disturbance and imputed income levels were positively associated with poor mental health. The model performance metrics indicated high accuracy (0.77), precision (0.78), F1 score (0.77), recall (0.77), and AUROC (0.87). Nearly one in two adults reported poor mental health, and one in five reported sleep disturbance. Findings from our study suggest a paradoxical relationship between income and poor mental health; further studies are needed to confirm our study findings. Sleep disturbance and perceived discrimination can be targeted through tailored intervention to reduce the risk of poor mental health in Asian Indians.