Search Results (18)

Background/Objectives: Obesity is an emerging public health problem in the world, and health professionals are most likely to be exposed to several occupational determinants thereof. These include long working hours, shift work, high job stress, irregular food intake, poor opportunities for healthy eating, and physical inactivity at work. Healthcare workers’ stressful jobs typically lead to poor eating habits and less opportunity for physical exercise, contributing to obesity risk. The primary objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of obesity among healthcare employees and identify unique predictors that contribute to obesity in this population. Material and Methods: Data were collected between 2021 and 2023 from 557 participants through anthropometric measurement and a structured questionnaire using a stratified random sampling technique. Results: The study found that 18.6% of participants were classified as obese or morbidly obese (12.9% and 5.7%, respectively), while 33.8% were overweight. The strong predictors of obesity included older age (>30 years, AOR = 2.404, p < 0.001) and working in nursing services (AOR = 1.999, p = 0.003). Furthermore, 34.3% of respondents had no physical activity, 71.5% slept less than 8 h per day, and 58.5% consumed fast food one to two times per week. A significant association of obesity was found with gender (p < 0.001), females being at higher risk, and type of department (p = 0.002), nursing staff being at higher risk. However, the predictable factors for obesity did not include nationality, family size, hours of TV watching, and fast-food consumption. Conclusions: These findings highlight a significant burden of obesity among healthcare employees, underscoring the need for workplace interventions. The strategy to address obesity among this highly vulnerable population should be directed toward enhancing physical activities, improving eating habits, and managing occupational stress, particularly for older workers and nursing staff. Full article

The recent enhancement of working conditions and social security for domestic service workers in Spain has enabled the integration of this group of female workers into the same legal framework as other employees. Despite the progress already made and the optimistic forecast that the ratification of Convention 189 in 2022 has opened, domestic workers continue to be one of the groups that suffer the most precariousness in Spain. Added to the laxity of the implementation of legislation is the strong presence of the underground economy and a care management model that facilitates the expansion of the deregulated market and the recruitment of irregular migrant women to occupy these precarious labor niches (live-in domestic workers). This article aims to identify the impact of psychosocial working conditions on the physical and mental health of female migrants who are live-in domestic workers in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. The research employs semi-structured, in-depth interviews to understand the representations and experiences in migrant women’s health, by unveiling the meanings of their experiences through a thematic content analysis. The study concludes with a reflection on which psychosocial, legislative, and policy-level interventions are needed to improve the health and well-being of this population of migrant women. Full article

Social interaction, such as voluntary employment, can promote well-being and mental health for older people. Since walking and public transit are two major commuting modes for older adults, understanding the determinants of older employment behavior near metro stations is critical for the government and urban planners to encourage older employment. Using the mobile signaling data of 1,640,145 older employees and other multi-source spatiotemporal datasets in Shanghai, the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) is employed in this study to explore the nonlinear effects of the built environment on older employment near 333 metro stations. Results show that density, diversity, and design variables have a significant contribution on older employment, while distance to the city center, employment density among all age groups, and the number of older residents are the top three important variables. Partial dependence plots reveal that all independent variables have irregular nonlinear impacts on older employment. Each variable needs to reach an associated threshold to maximize older employment, and their nonlinear impacts are only effective when they are within certain ranges. Research findings can promote older employment and benefit mental health among older people by helping the government prioritize urban planning policies or interventions. Full article

In this study, we elucidate the income redistribution effects of the proposal to incorporate the Bend Points mechanism of the U.S. OASDI into the Korean National Pension Scheme (BP-KNPS Proposal) through a micro-simulation analysis using individual data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). In addition to examining the effects of introducing the BP-KNPS Proposal into the current National Pension Scheme (NPS), we also consider the impact of this scheme being combined with the 5th National Pension Comprehensive Plan (Draft), announced by Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare on 30 October 2023. When the BP-KNPS Proposal is introduced into the current NPS, the Mean Log Deviation (MLD) of the net transfer amount (lifetime pension benefits minus lifetime pension contributions) for regular employees decreases from 0.2022863 to 0.1929960. Similarly, the MLD for self-employed and irregular workers decreases from 0.2046127 to 0.1721433, indicating a reduction in income inequality. Furthermore, when the BP-KNPS Proposal is combined with the 5th National Pension Comprehensive Plan (Draft), the effects are mixed. The proposals to increase the pension contribution rate and adjust the rate increase speed via generation lead to a reduction in income inequality compared to the current NPS when combined with the BP-KNPS Proposal. However, the proposals to raise the pensionable age result in increased income inequality, similar to the outcomes under the current system. This finding suggests that the triple burden identified by literature review—the reduction in benefits due to disparities in contribution periods and life expectancy, and the raised pensionable age—has a greater impact on low-income participants than the inequality-reducing effects of the BP-KNPS Proposal. Full article

Knowledge plays a pivotal role as a strategic asset for organizations that aim to improve and sustain competitive advantage. Despite the implementation of knowledge management systems to promote knowledge sharing, many employees exhibit knowledge-hiding behavior, deliberately withholding crucial information in the workplace. In this context, the current study aims to investigate the impact of knowledge-hiding behavior on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) within organizations. Specifically, we seek to explore how knowledge hiding influences employees’ inclination towards entrepreneurial behaviors such as innovation, risk-taking, and proactiveness. By examining the potential negative effects of knowledge hiding on entrepreneurial behaviors, we aim to identify barriers to innovation and risk taking in organizations. Furthermore, we examine the mediating role of factual autonomy in the relationship between knowledge hiding and entrepreneurial orientation. Understanding the mediating role of factual autonomy can provide valuable insights into the mechanisms through which knowledge hiding impacts entrepreneurial behavior. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the impact of knowledge hiding on organizational-level outcomes, specifically entrepreneurial orientation, and job autonomy. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted a cross-sectional multilevel study involving 214 employees from 16 different companies in the Romanian business sector, including telecom, banking, retail, services, and IT&C. Our findings reveal that knowledge hiding has a significant impact on job autonomy and entrepreneurial orientation. The proposed model accounted for 45.9% of the variance in entrepreneurial orientation and 37.7% of the variance in job autonomy. These results have important implications for both theory and practice, highlighting the need for further exploration into how knowledge hiding impacts different aspects of organizational work design. The present examination serves as a valuable research platform for understanding the multidimensional irregularities within organizations and highlights the importance of addressing knowledge hiding behavior to foster a culture of innovation and risk-taking in organizations. Full article

Background: The underlying mechanisms of the relationship between stressful life events and obesity among Chinese workers are unclear. Objective: This study aimed to understand the processes and mechanisms involved in stressful life events, unhealthy eating behavior, and obesity among Chinese workers. Methods: From January 2018 to December 2019, a total of 15,921 government employees were included at baseline and they were followed-up until May 2021. Stressful life events were assessed using the Life Events Scale, and unhealthy eating behavior was assessed using four items. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height (m²) using physically measured data. Results: Overeating at each mealtime (OR = 2.21, 95%CI: 1.78–2.71) at baseline led to reports of higher risk of obesity at follow up. Eating before going to bed at night sometimes (OR = 1.51, 95%CI: 1.31–1.73) or often (OR = 3.04, 95%CI: 2.28–4.05) at baseline led to reports of higher risk of obesity at follow-up. Eating out sometimes (OR = 1.74, 95%CI: 1.47–2.07) or often (OR = 1.59, 95%CI: 1.07–2.36) at baseline led to reports of higher risk of obesity at follow-up. Stressful life events were not directly associated with obesity, but unhealthy eating behaviors, including overeating at each mealtime (β = 0.010, 95%CI: 0.007–0.014; β = 0.002, 95%CI: 0.001–0.004, respectively) and irregular meal timing (β = −0.011, 95%CI: −0.015–−0.008; β = −0.004, 95%CI: −0.006–−0.001, respectively), significantly mediated the associations between stressful life events at baseline and obesity at both baseline and follow-up. Conclusions: Unhealthy eating behaviors mediated the relationship between stressful life events and obesity. Interventions should be provided to workers who have experienced stressful life events and unhealthy eating behaviors. Full article

The efficient management of social worker personnel is important since it involves a huge portion in its operations. However, the burnout and turnover rates of social workers are very high, which is due to dissatisfaction with the irregular and unequal schedules, despite the continuous improvement in the treatment of social workers and the enactment of work-related legislation in Korea. This means that changes in policy do not significantly contribute to improving worker satisfaction, which shows the necessity of the strategies to prevent the turnover of workers. Therefore, this study aims to propose a strategy for the staff scheduling of workers that considers the fairness in the shift distribution among workers and the individual preference for shift work by using the linear programming. A survey about the preferences for shift work is conducted that targeted the employees of a welfare facility in Korea to enhance the practicality of the model. The effectiveness and applicability of the developed mathematical model are verified by deriving a deterministic schedule for a worker via the system parameters that were obtained based on the survey and the rules of the welfare facility in the numerical experiment. Compared to the conventional schedule, the derived schedule shows an improvement in the deviations in the number of shifts workers and a reflection of the personal preferences. This can raise the social worker’s satisfaction, which will decrease intention on burnouts and turnover. It will consequently facilitate on managing human resources in welfare facilities. Full article

Working time control (WTC) and working time variability (WTV) are two important dimensions of working times, especially with regard to the dynamics of irregular working hours in a changing world of work. Both dimensions are closely related, and the terms are sometimes used synonymously. However, a high degree of WTC does not automatically lead to variable or irregular working hours. On the contrary, WTV is often imposed by the employer and does not necessarily occur in conjunction with high WTC. This article gives an overview of different European WTC and WTV regimes using a typological approach. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2015 (EWCS, n = 27,607), four employee groups are compared: those with (1) high WTC and high WTV, (2) high WTC and low WTV, (3) low WTC and high WTV, and (4) low WTC and low WTV. Firstly, the analyses aim to assess whether WTC and WTV vary across European countries due to different working time regimes and in different occupational sectors, i.e., hospitality, retail, and health and social work. Secondly, multi-level analyses are used to describe correlations with health (self-rated health, psychosomatic complaints), sleep (sleep problems), and well-being (WHO-5-Scale). The analyses suggest that WTC and WTV differ between European countries: in the northern countries, high WTC/high WTV is most prevalent, whereas low WTV/low WTC is more common in the other countries. As far as employee health and sleep are concerned, high WTV is associated with poor health, i.e., a greater number of psychosomatic health complaints, worse self-rated health status, and more sleep problems. However, the correlation appears to be weaker for psychosomatic health complaints when employees have high WTC. Significant correlations could not be found for WTC. Low WTC and high WTV is more common in occupational sectors in hospitality, retail, and health and social care; however, these occupational sectors show the same correlations regarding health, sleep, and well-being. The analyses indicate that it is crucial to consider WTV and WTC together in order to understand the dynamics of irregular working hours and health. Full article

Participatory shift scheduling for irregular working hours can influence shift schedules and sickness absence. We investigated the effects of using participatory shift scheduling and shift schedule evaluation tools on working hour characteristics and sickness absence. We utilized a panel data for 2015−2019 with 16,557 hospital employees (6143 in the intervention and 10,345 in the control group). Difference-in-differences regression with ward-level clustered standard errors was used to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated coefficients relative to timing of the intervention with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Using participatory scheduling tool increased long working hours and weekend work and had delayed effects on the short (1–3 days) sickness absences. Increased effects were observed: 0.2 [95% CI 0.0−0.4] days for the second, and 0.8 [95% CI 0.5−1.0] for the third year after the onset of intervention. An average increase of 0.5 [95% CI 0.1−0.9] episodes on all sickness absence episodes was observed for the third year. Using the shift schedule evaluation tool with the participatory shift scheduling tool attenuated the adverse effects. To conclude, participatory shift scheduling increased some potentially harmful working hour characteristics but its effects on sickness absence were negligible, and further attenuated by using the shift schedule evaluation tool. Full article

The Korean government implemented a 52-h workweek policy for employees’ welfare. Consequently, companies face workforce availability reduction with the same number of employees. That is, labor-dependent companies suffer from workforce shortage. To handle the workforce shortage, they increase irregular employees who are paid relatively less. However, the problem of ‘no-show’, due to the stochastic characteristics of irregular employee’s absence, happens. Therefore, this study aims to propose a staff scheduling strategy considering irregular employee absence and a new labor policy by using linear programming. By deriving a deterministic staff schedule through system parameters derived from the features and rules of an actual company in the numerical experiment, the practicality and applicability of the developed mathematical model are proven. Furthermore, through sensitivity analysis and simulation considering the stochastic characteristics of absences, various proactive cases are provided. Through the proactive cases, the influence of the change of the average percent of irregular employees’ absences on the total labor costs and staff schedules and the expected number who would not come to work could be given when assuming the application in practice. This finding can help decision-makers prepare precautious measures, such as assigning extra employees in case of an irregular employee’s absence. Full article

This study aimed to investigate trajectories of night shift work in irregular shift work across a 12-year follow-up among hospital employees with and without sickness absence (SA). The payroll-based register data of one hospital district in Finland included objective working hours and SA from 2008 to 2019. The number of night shifts per year was used in group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM). The results indicate that, among those who had any sickness absence episodes, the amount of night work decreased prior to the first SA. In general, trajectories of night shift work varied from stably high to low-but-increasing trajectories in terms of the number of shifts. However, a group with decreasing pattern of night work was identified only among those with sickness absence episodes but not among those without such episodes. To conclude, the identified trajectories of night work with or without sickness absences may indicate that, among those with sickness absence episodes, night work was reduced due to increasing health problems. Hence, the hospital employees working night shifts are likely a selected population because the employees who work at night are supposed to be healthier than those not opting for night work. Full article

Background: Long working hours are detrimental to physical and mental health. However, the association between long working hours and psychosomatic symptoms have remained controversial, possibly because of the existence of mediators between working hours and psychosomatic stress responses. We hypothesized that lifestyle habits, regarding sleep and mealtimes, act as mediators, and analyzed the associations between long working hours, sleep duration, mealtime regularity, and psychosomatic stress responses in office workers. Methods: From April 2017 to March 2018, an online cross-sectional survey regarding overtime work hours, work-related stress, sleep, and eating habits was conducted with employees of 17 companies located in Tokyo, Japan. Answers were obtained from 3559 employees, and 3100 provided written consent for the academic use of their answers, and were included in the analysis. A path analysis was conducted to assess the effect of overtime work on psychosomatic stress via shortened sleep or irregular mealtimes. Results: Overtime work hours had no direct effect on psychosomatic stress responses and depressive symptoms. However, overtime work hours affected sleep duration and the regularity of mealtimes. The effects of overtime work hours on psychosomatic stress responses and depressive symptoms were completely mediated by sleep duration and the regularity of mealtimes. Conclusion: Long working hours do not affect mental health directly; however, shortened sleep duration and irregular mealtimes mediate the effect of long working hours on psychosomatic stress responses and depressive symptoms. Full article

One of the common causes of a heart attack is fibrillation, a condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. There is scientific evidence that the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest patients who are rescued with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) is significantly increased. Despite the recommendation that automated external defibrillators should be installed in the workplace, along with a proper management system and training for employees on how to use the device, less than 70% of non-residential areas have an AED installed. The situation is even worse in residential areas, with less than 30% having an AED installed. This research concerns the development of a medical drone managing system that can deliver an AED in case of emergency. An application was developed that can be installed on the mobile phone and/or tablet of the patient or the accompanying person. In the event of a heart attack, the patient or the accompanying person can call a medical drone by sending coordinates to the drone station and a notification to medical staff. The drone station administrator can respond by sending the drone, which automatically lands at the patient’s location. After being tested in a simulation situation, the operational field test yielded satisfactory results. The medical drone can land within 1.5 m of the destination. The designed AED drone can be used not only to deliver AEDs, but also first aid kits and prescribed drugs suitable for medical care. Such a system is especially useful in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

The purpose of this study was to explore the adaptation process of female Ph.D. holders working in universities who shifted from being irregular employees to regular employees. The study adopted a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews to investigate participants’ experiences and discover any inconsistencies, as well as how they are alleviated. The basic findings of the study indicate that the adaptation process is more feasible when the gap between the personal aspect of job adaptation and the organizational environment and satisfaction with it decreases. The participants in the study joined the labour union to convert to regular jobs. However, after transitioning to full-time positions, the participants did not realize the structural aspect of the contracts they had signed. Although they expected to make their unfair situation more fair through the transition of their job positions, they still faced structural discrimination. As the participants were women with doctoral degrees, their professionalism was considered a cardinal value, and their job satisfaction varied according to the degree of matching between their work and their expertise. Moreover, during the evaluation period, they began to establish themselves as legitimate members of their teams through the employee evaluation procedure of full-time employees, which is conducted mutually rather than unilaterally. Through its in-depth interviews with transitioning university staff, this study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how female faculty adjust to changes in their life and position in the organization following a change in their status. These findings prove that higher education institutions need focus on career development for female students as well as their faculty and staff members. Such a focus also requires more active actions by university and college members. Full article

Academic research specifically focused on employee-related disclosure practices is needed to enhance understanding on CSR reporting. This paper aims to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in research on employee-related disclosure, analyzing the characteristics of the scientific production on this topic. A bibliometric analysis is conducted on the papers specifically focused on employee-related disclosure published from 2000 to 2019 in journals indexed on the Web of Science database. The findings show that relatively few studies specifically focused on employee-related disclosure have been published over the last two decades (63 papers). Most articles were published during the last 8 years (93.6%), although the highest interest in the study of employee-related disclosure among scholars concentrates on a short period around 2017. Six journals concentrate 31.75% of the publications on the subject. Most papers are empirical studies, using the content analysis technique to analyze corporate reports. Papers are spread over three research subtopics: (1) extent, quality and drivers of human resource disclosures, (2) occupational health and safety disclosures, human rights disclosures and employee-related disclosures as a legitimization tool, and (3) diversity reporting. In all research subtopics, most of the papers have been published during the last four years, confirming that employee-related disclosure is a topic of current interest to researchers. The studies found that the overall level of employee-related disclosure is low, with an increasing or irregular tendency over time. Furthermore, not all items/categories got the same attention by firms. It can be concluded that this research subject is still far from reaching the level of research on environmental reporting and important issues remain to be resolved, both theoretically and empirically. Full article