Psychology: Well Being and Health in the Work Place

The authors of this article received the information based on their writings on a conference concerning occupational well-being and health. Throughout this article the authors cover various topics that are relevant to a workers well-being in the work place both mental and physically. The main topics covered that relate to workplace well-being are the following: bullying/sexual harassment, sick (physically)-at-work employees, workers who commute to work, disaster responder employees that are untrained, personal communication, Working parents, and Flexible schedules.
The authors reported that bullying, rather than sexual harassment, was a bigger factor in worker-well being, whether or not someone will quit their job, and overall job satisfaction. Although sexual harassment does create a negative working environment, it is much easier to report to a superior that it sexual harassment is taking place rather than bullying. On In the next topic covered, sick-at-work employees, it was found that more than half the time an employee will come into work if they are sick which goes against the usual thought that employees are not as bad off as they let on that take sick days. Concerning employees that commute to work, “erratic commutes” (i.e. unpredictable weather, transit systems, unreliable transportation) were related to the highest rates of “worker strain.” On the contrary employees that had a reliable commutes actually contributed the ride to their well being and less stress at work. Personal communication between employee and employer was also shown to have a positive effect on workplace well-being. Employees that were able to talk to their supervisors about personal goals or personal problems in private, were much more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. Parents in the workplace were more likely to become stressed out when their children were out of school. The women ,however, seemed to worry the same no matter what hours their spouse worked, where as the men’s worrying increased the longer their spouses hours were. Finally, concerning flexible work hours, employees that worked mandatory overtime were higher stressed than employees with flexible work hours. Interestingly it was found that the majority of women that used their flexible work schedules in order to be more productive rather than using their flexibility for family/children management.
This article is important and interesting in that all topics portrayed by the authors give insight into how employers and/or employees can improve their overall work well-being. Any employer or employee that has a more positive attitude in the work place will stay around longer and become more productive as result. I found this article to be applicable and realistic to improving workplace environment and well-being.