Cost of Health-Related Work Productivity Loss among Fly-In Fly-Out Mining Workers in Australia

Sufficient knowledge on the work productivity impact of the health of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers in the mining sector in Australia is lacking. This study examined the impact of health and lifestyle behaviours on the work productivity of FIFO workers in the mining industry in Australia. FIFO workers completed an online questionnaire on health and work productivity loss measures. Linear regressions were used to model annual work productivity losses through absenteeism, presenteeism and total productivity loss. Workers with a high risk for health conditions were, on average, associated with 3.87% more productivity loss (absenteeism: 1.27% and presenteeism: 2.88%) than those with low risk. Workers who had multiple health risks classified as medium (3-4 health conditions) and high (5 or more health conditions) reported 1.75% and 7.46% more total productivity loss, respectively, than those with fewer multiple health risks (0-2 health conditions). Health conditions were estimated to account for an annual additional productivity cost due to absenteeism of AUD 8.82 million, presenteeism of AUD 14.08 million and a total productivity loss of AUD 20.96 million per 1000 workers. FIFO workers with high health risks experience more absenteeism, presenteeism and overall productivity loss. These measures provide strong economic justifications that could support the need for targeted workplace health interventions.

A qualitative study of developers' discussions of their problems and joys during the early COVID-19 months

Many software developers started to work from home on a short notice during the early periods of COVID-19. A number of previous papers have studied the wellbeing and productivity of software developers during COVID-19. The studies mainly use surveys based on predefined questionnaires. In this paper, we investigate the problems and joys that software developers experienced during the early months of COVID-19 by analyzing their discussions in online forum devRant, where discussions can be open and not bound by predefined survey questionnaires. The devRant platform is designed for developers to share their joys and frustrations of life. We manually analyze 825 devRant posts between January and April 12, 2020 that developers created to discuss their situation during COVID-19. WHO declared COVID-19 as pandemic on March 11, 2020. As such, our data offers us insights in the early months of COVID-19. We manually label each post along two dimensions: the topics of the discussion and the expressed sentiment polarity (positive, negative, neutral). We observed 19 topics that we group into six categories: Workplace & Professional aspects, Personal & Family well-being, Technical Aspects, Lockdown preparedness, Financial concerns, and Societal and Educational concerns. Around 49% of the discussions are negative and 26% are positive. We find evidence of developers' struggles with lack of documentation to work remotely and with their loneliness while working from home. We find stories of their job loss with little or no savings to fallback to. The analysis of developer discussions in the early months of a pandemic will help various stakeholders (e.g., software companies) make important decision early to alleviate developer problems if such a pandemic or similar emergency situation occurs in near future. Software engineering research can make further efforts to develop automated tools for remote work (e.g., automated documentation).

Work-life balance and psychological distress: A structural equation modeling approach

BACKGROUND: This paper explored the factors that constitute work-life balance, i.e. work-family conflict, family-work conflict, job satisfaction, family satisfaction, life satisfaction, work autonomy, work overload and its impact on psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to understand the relationship between work-life balance and psychological distress. METHODS: Current study has adopted a quantitative approach, and cross-sectional research design has been used with snowball sampling technique. The sample size consists of 400 employees from the banking sector. SmartPLS3.1 has been used for structural equation modeling to give empirical findings from the responses collected. RESULTS: The current study has checked the direct relationship between work-life balance (WLB) factors and psychological distress. Out of seven variables, psychological distress was explained by three variables, namely; family satisfaction, family-work conflict and work overload. CONCLUSION: The study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the impact factors of work-life balance on psychological distress among banking Sector employees. It also provides empirical evidence to the HR managers in formulating effective HR policy to sustain employees and make their personal and professional lives better.

The conscientiousness-health link in depression: Results from a path analysis

BACKGROUND

This was the first study aiming to develop a theory-based model to analyze the relation between conscientiousness and impaired physical health as well as between conscientiousness and subjective health-related well-being within a large clinical sample with depressive symptomatology. In addition, a mediating effect of health risk behaviors regarding the association between conscientiousness and objectively impaired physical health as well as subjective health-related well-being were exploratory examined.

METHODS

Individuals with depressive symptoms (n = 943) with a mean age of 52 years (ranging between 20 and 78 years) undergoing intensive psychiatric rehabilitation treatment were investigated with the Big Five Inventory-10 as well as several self-report health questionnaires (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, Food-Craving Inventory and lifestyle questions assessing physical inactivity and alcohol consumption). Health-related well-being was measured using the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Assessment and the construct of impaired physical health comprised anthropometric measurements (Body Mass Index, Waist-to-Height-Ratio), blood lipids, and impaired physical performance capacity on the bicycle-ergometric test.

RESULTS

Structural path analyses revealed that unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity partially mediated the negative relation between conscientiousness and impaired physical health as well as the positive relation between conscientiousness and health-related well-being.

LIMITATIONS

Possible limitations include cross-sectional study design, missing data, assessment of conscientiousness on a global level and self-report assessment of health risk behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the importance concerning the extended inclusion of personality aspects in the treatment of depression in order to improve health.

Impact of psychological contract fulfillment on well-being through the mediation of psychological distress: unveiling the evidences from banking sector

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the content of the psychological contract (PC), i.e. work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work overload (WO) and work autonomy (WA) and its impact on well-being (WB), i.e. job satisfaction (JS), family satisfaction (FS), life satisfaction (LS), through the mediation of psychological distress (PD).

Design/methodology/approach

The current study has adopted a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional research design with a snowball sampling technique. The sample size consists of 400 employees from the banking sector. SPSS and AMOS 20v has been used for structural equation modelling to give empirical findings from the responses collected.

Findings

The current study has checked the relationship between PC and WB through the mediation analysis of PD. WA was not affecting the WB of banking employees. The study found that there was partial mediation. It was also proven that the lower the breach of PC lower the PD, and the higher the WB.

Originality/value

The current study has tried to explain the content of PC among the employees of the banking sector and how that is associated with WB. There was limited work from which showcase the WFC, FWC and WO from the view of PC theory, and it affects different WB, i.e. JS, LS and FS.

Pandemic programming: How COVID-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can help

CONTEXT

As a novel coronavirus swept the world in early 2020, thousands of software developers began working from home. Many did so on short notice, under difficult and stressful conditions.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates the effects of the pandemic on developers' wellbeing and productivity.

METHOD

A questionnaire survey was created mainly from existing, validated scales and translated into 12 languages. The data was analyzed using non-parametric inferential statistics and structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

The questionnaire received 2225 usable responses from 53 countries. Factor analysis supported the validity of the scales and the structural model achieved a good fit (CFI = 0.961, RMSEA = 0.051, SRMR = 0.067). Confirmatory results include: (1) the pandemic has had a negative effect on developers' wellbeing and productivity; (2) productivity and wellbeing are closely related; (3) disaster preparedness, fear related to the pandemic and home office ergonomics all affect wellbeing or productivity. Exploratory analysis suggests that: (1) women, parents and people with disabilities may be disproportionately affected; (2) different people need different kinds of support.

CONCLUSIONS

To improve employee productivity, software companies should focus on maximizing employee wellbeing and improving the ergonomics of employees' home offices. Women, parents and disabled persons may require extra support.

Managing job performance, social support and work-life conflict to reduce workplace stress

Purpose

Workplace stress costs £3.7bn per annum in the UK and in excess of $300bn per annum in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine the existence, strength and direction of relationships between perceptions of social support, work–life conflict, job performance and workplace stress in an Irish higher education institution.

Design/methodology/approach

The selected theoretical framework consisted of a combination of reward imbalance theory, expectancy theory and equity theory. An organizational stress screening survey instrument was used to survey the staff (n= 1,420) of an academic institution. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between the independent variables (social support, work–life conflict, job performance), the covariates (staff category, direct reports, age, gender), and the dependent variable (workplace stress).

Findings

The results showed a negative correlation between social support and workplace stress, a positive correlation between work–life conflict and workplace stress, and a negative correlation between job performance and workplace stress (p< 0.05). The results also revealed significant relationships between the covariates direct reports and gender and the dependent variable workplace stress.

Practical implications

The findings from this research can trigger an organizational approach where educational leaders can enable workplace change by developing and implementing social support and work–life strategies, and potential pathways to reduce levels of workplace stress and improve quality of life for employees and enhance performance.

Originality/value

The examination and establishment of particular relationships between social support, work–life conflict and job performance with workplace stress is significant for managers.

The Clustering of Lifestyle Behaviours in New Zealand and their Relationship with Optimal Wellbeing

PURPOSE

The purpose of this research was to determine (1) associations between multiple lifestyle behaviours and optimal wellbeing and (2) the extent to which five lifestyle behaviours-sleep, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sugary drink consumption, and fruit and vegetable intake-cluster in a national sample.

METHOD

A national sample of New Zealand adults participated in a web-based wellbeing survey. Five lifestyle behaviours-sleep, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sugary drink consumption, and fruit and vegetable intake-were dichotomised into healthy (meets recommendations) and unhealthy (does not meet recommendations) categories. Optimal wellbeing was calculated using a multi-dimensional flourishing scale, and binary logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the relationship between multiple healthy behaviours and optimal wellbeing. Clustering was examined by comparing the observed and expected prevalence rates (O/E) of healthy and unhealthy two-, three-, four-, and five-behaviour combinations.

RESULTS

Data from 9425 participants show those engaging in four to five healthy behaviours (23 %) were 4.7 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 3.8-5.7) times more likely to achieve optimal wellbeing compared to those engaging in zero to one healthy behaviour (21 %). Clustering was observed for healthy (5 %, O/E 2.0, 95 % CI 1.8-2.2) and unhealthy (5 %, O/E 2.1, 95 % CI 1.9-2.3) five-behaviour combinations and for four- and three-behaviour combinations. At the two-behaviour level, healthy fruit and vegetable intake clustered with all behaviours, except sleep which did not cluster with any behaviour.

CONCLUSION

Multiple lifestyle behaviours were positively associated with optimal wellbeing. The results show lifestyle behaviours cluster, providing support for multiple behaviour lifestyle-based interventions for optimising wellbeing.

What are the Facilitators and Obstacles to Participation in Workplace Team Sport? A Qualitative Study

Working age adults are failing to meet physical activity recommendations. Inactive behaviours are increasing costs for diminished individual and organisational health. The workplace is a priority setting to promote physical activity, however there is a lack of evidence about why some employees choose to participate in novel workplace activities, such as team sport, whilst others do not. The aim of this study was to explore the complexity of facilitators and obstacles associated with participation in workplace team sport. Twenty-nine semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with office workers (58% female) (36 ± 7.71) from manufacturing, public services, and educational services. Data was analysed through template analysis. Five sub-level (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, organisational, community and societal influences) facilitate participation or create obstacles for participants. Participants were challenged by a lack of competence, self-efficacy, negative sporting ideals and amotivation. Unhealthy competition, an unstable work-life balance and unsupportive colleagues created obstacles to participation. An unsupportive organisation and workplace culture placed demands on workplace champions, funding, facilities and communication. Healthy competitions, high perceptions of competence and self-efficacy, and being motivated autonomously enabled participation. Further, relatedness and social support created a physical activity culture where flexible working was encouraged and team sport was promoted in accessible locations within the organisation. Researchers should consider accounting for complexity of these influences. A participatory approach may tailor interventions to individual organisations and the employees that work within them. Interventions whereby autonomy, competence and relatedness are supported are recommended. This may be achieved by adapting sports and training workplace champions.

Teachers' wellbeing and depressive symptoms, and associated risk factors: A large cross sectional study in English secondary schools

BACKGROUND

Teachers have been shown to have high levels of stress and common mental disorder, but few studies have examined which factors within the school environment are associated with poor teacher mental health.

METHODS

Teachers (n=555) in 8 schools completed self-report questionnaires. Levels of teacher wellbeing (Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale-WEMWBS) and depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-PHQ-9) were measured and associations between these measures and school-related factors were examined using multilevel multivariable regression models.

RESULTS

The mean (SD) teacher wellbeing score (47.2 (8.8)) was lower than reported in working population samples, and 19.4% had evidence of moderate to severe depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 scores >10). Feeling unable to talk to a colleague when feeling stressed or down, dissatisfaction with work and high presenteeism were all strongly associated with both poor wellbeing (beta coefficients ranged from -4.65 [-6.04, -3.28] to -3.39 [-5.48, -1.31]) and depressive symptoms (ORs ranged from 2.44 [1.41, 4.19] to 3.31 [1.70, 6.45]). Stress at work and recent change in school governance were also associated with poor wellbeing (beta coefficients=-4.22 [-5.95, -2.48] and -2.17 [-3.58, -0.77] respectively), while sickness absence and low student attendance were associated with depressive symptoms (ORs=2.14 [1.24, 3.67] and 1.93 [1.06, 6.45] respectively).

LIMITATIONS

i) This was a cross-sectional study; causal associations cannot be identified ii) several of the measures were self-report iii) the small number of schools reduced study power for the school-level variables

CONCLUSIONS

Wellbeing is low and depressive symptoms high amongst teachers. Interventions aimed at improving their mental health might focus on reducing work related stress, and increasing the support available to them.