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from the beatings-shall-continue-until-morale-improves dept.
American workers who have more flexibility and security in their jobs also have better mental health, according to a study of 2021 survey data from over 18,000 nationally representative working Americans.
The study, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, may not be surprising to those who have faced return-to-office mandates and rounds of layoffs amid the pandemic. But, it offers clear data on just how important job flexibility and security are to the health and well-being of workers.
[...] Overall, the study's findings indicate "the substantive impact that flexible and secure jobs can have on mental health in the short-term and long-term," the researchers conclude.
They do note limitations of the study, the main one being that the study identifies associations and can't determine that job flexibility and security directly caused mental health outcomes and the work absence findings. Still, they suggest that workplace policies could improve the mental health of employees.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Tork on Wednesday March 27 2024, @10:49PM (4 children)
Less reliance on supervision because experienced workers know their job.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 28 2024, @01:50AM (3 children)
>Less reliance on supervision because experienced workers know their job.
You must be thinking about skilled labor, the US economy has as much skillet labor (food and hospitality services) as it does skilled, at least in headcount.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday March 28 2024, @02:48AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2024, @10:15AM (1 child)
It's ALL skilled labor, of one kind of another, but far be it from me to rank by importance. I have worked with all sorts of things and know that the failure of any part will screw up the whole thing.
If the organization is going to be successful, all parts have to be working right. Yes. All of them. All this ranking crap just foments office politics, strife, and dissent. The successful teams I have had the pleasure of working with were pretty self-governing, that is it was downright embarrassing to be seen as being a drag to everyone else. Whatever you did, you did it right. I still remember that rubber chicken we had that was ceremoniously passed around to document someone who let the team down. It was known as the "Pullet Surprise" and the recipient had to display it until someone else earned it. I got it a couple of times. Taught me to be more careful to detail.
Even the girls who did janitorial work were eligible for the award, but I never heard af any of them winning it. It was mostly for engineers, techs, or some support function. One of the girls would have got it if they didn't do their job right, but they always did. Of the entire group, they had the most spotless record. And everyone knew it.
The worst high stress unpleasant, take-everything-out-you-job for me was in working under people who had these quickie motivational-seminar skills where they were mostly led by flow charts, no technical skill needed. All they seemed to contribute was a say-so on one's continued employment in the company.
I considered it "malicious compliance" to obey, and "insubordination" to not obey. That paradigm generated much more stress in me than the work did. I am typical engineer. Trained in technical things, but lacking in people skills to deal with egos. The guy on top, the one having "organizational skills" put me in that position. So, do I help take down the company by going along? Or do I take down myself by "not being a team player"?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 28 2024, @12:12PM
>do I help take down the company by going along? Or do I take down myself by "not being a team player"?
That's when judicious use of door number 3, marked Exit, is in order - lateral within the company if it makes sense, but there is a rather broad job market out there, from time to time.
When I say "skillet labor" I'm more referring to walk-on jobs that require little or no training or experience. Most successful business seem to fill themselves with these low cost highly fungible cogs. It's not that the employees lack education, experience, talent, etc. it is more that the successful business models avoid paying for those things as much as possible.
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