Work-related Stressors and Mental Health Among LGBTQ Workers: Results From a Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals experience high rates of adverse mental health outcomes due to the stressors they experience in families, communities, and society more broadly. Work and workplaces also have the potential to influence these outcomes given the substantial amount of time spent at work, and the ability of work to further influence social and economic wellbeing in this already vulnerable population. This study aims to identify how sociodemographic characteristics and characteristics of work, including industry, work environment and degree of precarity, influence self-reported mental health among LGBTQ people in two Canadian cities.Methods: Self-identified LGBTQ workers ≥16 years of age (n = 531) in Sudbury and Windsor, Ontario, Canada were surveyed. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) to evaluate differences in gender identity, age, income, industry, social precarity, work environment, and substance use among workers who reported poor or neutral mental health, compared with a referent group that reported good mental health.Results: Compared with a referent group with good mental health, LGBTQ workers with poor or neutral mental health had greater odds of: being cisgender women or trans compared with being cisgender men; being aged <35 years compared with ≥35 years; working in low-wage service sectors compared with blue collar jobs; earning <$20,000/year compared with ≥20,000; working in a non-standard work situation or being unemployed compared with working in full-time permanent employment; feeling often or always unable to schedule time with friends due to work; feeling unsure or negative about their work environment; and using substances to cope with work.Conclusions: LGBTQ workers reporting poorer mental health had higher odds of being unemployed or working in jobs that were more precarious and less supportive of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Impact of Psychological Distress on the Occupational Well-Being of Sexual and Gender Minorities

“…All models were negative and significant. These results corroborate previous studies and others conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic that found a negative relationship between psychological distress and the occupational well-being of LGBTQIA+ people [28,29,[79][80][81]. Burnout seems to have the greatest impact on occupational well-being, followed by depression and anxiety, consecutively.…”

“…Studies carried out in Portugal and Brazil point to higher levels of psychological suffering, depression, anxiety, stress, and fears of losing wages or positions among LGBTQIA+ workers during this period [25][26][27], in addition to a worsening in work-related quality of life and occupational well-being [28]. In a qualitative study with 65 Brazilian and Portuguese LGBTQIA+ people, mental health problems were mentioned 78 times by the participants, and more than a quarter of the sample reported problems at work related to the pandemic context and their LGBTQIA+ identity [29].…”

Customer Abuse and Aggression as Labour Control Among LGBT Workers in Low-Wage Services

“…Data for this study were collected as part of a community-engaged mixed methods study on the work, health and community experiences of LGBT workers in Windsor and Sudbury, Ontario ( Mills et al, 2020 ). Windsor and Sudbury are two mid-sized Canadian cities—with populations of 329,144 and 164,689, respectively ( Statistics Canada, 2017a , 2017b )—that are characterized by their industrial histories.…”

“…The study began with a community e-survey, administered between 6 July and 2 December 2018, that garnered 673 responses. Customer abuse and aggression emerged as a widespread issue facing LGBT workers: half of the 204 workers in the low-wage service sector reported experiencing abuse and/or aggression from customers, and workers who were transgender and/or racialized as people of colour reported customer abuse and aggression at significantly higher rates than those who were cisgender and/or racialized as white ( Mills et al, 2020 ). As a result, the authors sought to explore customer abuse and aggression in the qualitative phase of the study.…”

An Inquiry to the Working Environment Inclusivity among LQBTQ Members: A Multi-Level Mixed Design Models

“…They are also more likely to rate their work environment as unfavorable for LGBTQ employees or to be unsure about it. Because they are more prone to turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with their jobs, LGBTQ employees who report having poor mental health are also more likely to lack adequate coping mechanisms (Mills et al, 2021). All of these were confirmed by a study conducted by Jayawardana and Priyashantha (2019) in Sri Lanka, who noted that the more diverse an organization's workforce is in terms of age, gender, educational level, job experience, and attitude, the better its employees' performance.…”