Working during a Pandemic between the Risk of Being Infected and/or the Risks Related to Social Distancing: First Validation of the SAPH@W Questionnaire

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led the worldwide healthcare system to a severe crisis in which personnel paid the major costs. Many studies were promptly dedicated to the physical and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 exposure among healthcare employees, whereas the research on the other working populations has been substantially ignored. To bridge the current lack of knowledge about safe behaviors related to the risk of COVID-19 contagion at work, the aim of the study was to validate a new tool, the SAPH@W (Safety at Work), to assess workers’ perceptions of safety. Methods: A total of 1085 participants, employed in several organizations sited across areas with different levels of risk of contagion, completed an online questionnaire. To test the SAPH@W validity and measurement invariance, the research sample was randomly divided in two. Results: In the first sub-sample, Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated the adequacy of the SAPH@W factorial structure. In the second sub-sample, multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that the SAPH@W was invariant across gender, ecological risk level, and type of occupation (in-person vs. remote working). Conclusions: The study evidenced the psychometric properties of the SAPH@W, a brief tool to monitor workers’ experiences and safety perceptions regarding the COVID-19 risk in any organisational setting.

Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers

“…The Covid-19 pandemic brought about many changes in how and where work is done, and many of these changes will remain in the future (e.g., work from home or mobile work). Research on work from home during the pandemic indicates comparable effects on stress and work-family conflict as we found in our CW sample (e.g., Converso et al, 2021;Galanti et al, 2021). Therefore, there may be parallels in mechanisms between our CW sample and workers who had to work from home during the pandemic and faced jobs that were sparsely regulated in terms of ergonomics and work hours.…”

Smart Working and Well-Being before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

“…Additionally, considering the relationship between organizational actors to achieve well-being outcomes, communication is essential in the service of the organizational process and its containment function for internal users [ 76 ]. Communication could help to reduce the sense of isolation and insecurity experienced by employees, especially when remote working is the only possible option, as in the emergency period [ 77 ]. Communication is also part of organizational culture [ 78 ].…”

The Perceived Risk of Being Infected With COVID-19 at Work, Communication, and Employee Health: A Longitudinal Application of the Job Demands-Resources Model

“…Communication is a central element of a good team work that refers to the exchange of good-quality (e.g., effective, clear and honest) information and feedbacks across team members (i.e., colleagues and supervisors) [6][7][8][9]30]. In this study we conceived communication as a job resource.…”

“…Hence, to promote more sustainable working conditions aimed at fostering employees' health and wellbeing during the ongoing pandemic, work-related factors that may lead to both physical and psychological consequences related to COVID-19 risk (e.g., contracting COVID-19 and psychophysical symptoms associated to work-related stress, respectively) need to be thoroughly considered and addressed. In the light of this scenario, in this longitudinal study we investigated the association over time between two work-related factors linked to COVID-19 risk, namely the perceived risk of being infected at work (PRIW) with COVID-19 [6] and communication among team members [7][8][9], on the one hand, and psychophysical strain, in terms of psychophysical symptoms related to work-related stress (WRS), on the other [10,11]. More specifically, building on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model [12,13] applied to safety at work [14][15][16], we conceptualized PRIW as a job demand (i.e., a risk factor for WRS), which may have negative consequences on employee's health and well-being over time.…”