Ergonomists have long been interested in human error and the role of high work demands due to poor equipment design and excessive workload. The CFQ measures attentiveness in daily life and is shown to have excellent psychometric properties that make it suitable for use in both laboratory and field studies as a trait measure of attentiveness in daily life.

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This study aimed to identify work-related and personal factors associated with occupational stress in submariners. Work and well-being questionnaires were distributed to 219 male submariners (mean age 34 years), as part of a larger cohort study involving a stratified sample of 4951 Royal Navy (RN) personnel. The stress rate in submariners was 40%; significantly higher than the stress rate in the general RN, although once demographic factors were controlled for in a matched control sample, this difference was no longer significant. A summary model accounted for 49% of the variance in submariner stress, with key differences emerging between the occupational factors associated with stress in submariners and in the general RN. The longitudinal nature of this study permits stress in submariners to be monitored over 5 years, which will provide valuable insights into the chronicity of stress in this specialised occupational group. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: This paper contributes to the current literature on the negative impact of working in isolated conditions. It is demonstrated that occupational stress in submarines can be partially explained using current theories of stress in the workplace. However, the constraints of a restricted environment introduce additional factors which can also be associated with occupational stress.

The cognitive task demands of office workers and the self-control demands of their work roles were measured in a sample of 196 employees in two different office layouts using a self-report questionnaire, which was circulated electronically. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that both factors were associated with mental well-being, but not with physical well-being, while controlling for exposure to psychosocial stressors. The interaction between cognitive task demands and self-control demands had the strongest association with mental well-being, suggesting that the deleterious effect of one was greater when the other was present. An exploratory analysis revealed that the association was stronger for employees working in a large open-plan office than for those working in smaller offices with more privacy. Frustration of work goals was the cognitive task demand having the strongest negative impact on mental well-being. Methodological limitations and scale psychometrics (particularly the use of the NASA Task Load Index) are discussed. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Modern office work has high mental demands and low physical demands and there is a need to design offices to prevent adverse psychological reactions. It is shown that cognitive task demands interact with self-control demands to degrade mental well-being. The association was stronger in an open-plan office.

This study was conducted on a population of seafarers serving in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), the organisation providing support at sea to the Royal Navy. An investigation into work-related fatigue in RFA personnel onboard ships was carried out following changes to the regulations concerning maximum retirement age, to determine whether age was associated with recovery from work demands. A total of 322 personnel aged from 19 to 61 years were interviewed onboard seven RFA ships. The Need for Recovery scale was used to measure fatigue and work demands exposure was measured using the Baecke questionnaire and the NASA Task Load Index. It was found that older personnel did not have higher work-related fatigue than younger personnel. A measure of frustration at work was found to be most strongly related to work-related fatigue, even in seafarers who carried out physically demanding jobs. Work-related fatigue was found to accumulate over time in personnel who continued to be exposed to work demands onboard a ship. Finally, a relatively high level of work-related fatigue was found in the RFA sample as a whole, which may hold implications for management interventions. It was concluded that older personnel in the RFA can cope with the day-to-day demands of working life as well as younger personnel, possibly due to a 'survivor effect', whereby those personnel who do not cope as well with work demands leave and find a different job, leaving only those who successfully deal with the demands of working life at sea. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: In order to manage work demands in seafarers, it is important to identify the most fatiguing demands. Age is of interest because of the demographic ageing of the workforce. Age was not associated with a higher need for recovery. Psychological work demands had a greater effect on need for recovery than physical work demands.

The Naval Service Stress Study (2007-2012) is investigating job strain, its characteristics, causes and distribution in the Service. Data from phases I, II and III of the study (January 2007, June 2007 and January 2008) were analysed to determine the relationship between General Health questionnaire scores and a score on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) completed at phase III. Of 791 personnel who completed questionnaires at all phases, 43.6% had no job strain at any phase, whereas 9.9% had strain on all three occasions ('chronic strain'). 27% had strain at one of the three phases and 19% had strain at two of the three phases. The particular phase at which job strain was experienced was not related to CFQ score at phase III, whereas the total strain experienced over the period was related. High strain over the year was the strongest predictor of high CFQ score. A 'strain dose' variable, which combined both the amount of strain exposure and the timing of the exposure, explained little additional variance in CFQ score. The findings might be interpreted to indicate that a high CFQ score is a vulnerability factor for adverse reactions to work stress. The hypothesis that recent job strain elevates CFQ score was not supported. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Current models of occupational stress focus on psychosocial factors and much of the advice about stress management in organisations is centred on the identification and control of psychosocial risk factors. The present paper provides evidence that cognitive factors are also important and suggests that support for those with poor executive function should be part of stress management in complex environments.

The survey provides evidence for both the demand control and ERI models-components of these models contribute independently to strain. High levels of commitment to the organization were associated with lower strain and exposure to SLEs to higher strain.

Submariners were not more likely to suffer from occupational stress than surface fleet controls in the RN. However, the psychosocial predictors of stress were significantly different for this RN specialist group, demonstrating the importance of developing individual models of stress for different occupational groups.