Sources of Occupational Stress among Office Workers—A Focus Group Study

Abstract

Workplace stress remains a major interest of occupational health research, usually based on theoretical models and quantitative large-scale studies. Office workers are especially exposed to stressors such as high workload and time pressure. The aim of this qualitative research was to follow a phenomenological approach to identify work stressors as they are perceived by office workers. Six focus groups with office workers of different occupations were conducted in Belgium and Slovenia. A total of 39 participants were included in the study. We used the RQDA software for data processing and analysis and the seven job-quality indices of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) to structure our findings. The results show that work intensity and social environment proved to be main stress categories, followed by skills and discretion, prospects, and working time quality. The physical environment and earnings were not covered in our results. We created organisational (structural/process-oriented and financial) stressors and office workers’ physical health as two additional categories since these topics did not fit into the EWCS. While our findings mainly confirm data from existing occupational stress literature and emphasise the multi-level complexity of work stress experiences, this paper suggests that there are relevant stressors experienced by office workers beyond existing quantitative frameworks.

Effect of Workload, Perceived Organizational Support, and Time Management on Academic Procrastination with Work School Conflict as a Mediating Variable

“…It is this imbalance of roles that allows academic procrastination to occur. This is in accordance with research conducted by Bolliger et al, (2022), Kurniawan and Rahayu (2022) and Mardelina and Muhson (2017). With a high workload, it will trigger conflicts in the imbalance of roles as student.…”

“…Academic procrastination is a deliberate delay to start completing academic tasks that are carried out repeatedly by preferring to carry out other activities that do not need to be done and will usually be done close to the dateline of the task collection limit (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984, as cited in Abriliah, 2022. Work that does not look at the working hours and workload of each employee causes the employee to only have time to focus on their work and not meet their demands or obligations in lectures, with this imbalance of activities allowing them to procrastinate the academy This is in accordance with research conducted by Bolliger et al, (2022) and Dinata & Supriyadi (2019) which found that workload has a positive influence on academic procrastination.…”

The association between day-to-day stress experiences and work–life interference among office workers in academia: an ecological momentary assessment study

“…The participating office workers reported that decision latitude—a subscale of job control of the Job Demand-Control-Support model (Karasek et al 1998 )—was of high relevance to them in their work experiences, providing freedom and the liberty to make their own decisions. However, it was also reported to be very stressful when work limits were not set (Bolliger et al 2022 ). A second focus group study confirmed that high responsibility can result in self-doubt, insecurity, or even burnout (Ironside et al 2019 ).…”

Effects of virtual reality natural experiences on factory workers’ psychological and physiological stress

“…Workers in the manufacturing industry become stressed as a result of high job expectations, lengthy and irregular working hours, and tough work shift patterns in order to reach production objectives and maintain customer satisfaction. Constant work stress and pressure result in both physical and mental exhaustion, a lack of work-life balance, and decreased employee productivity ( Bhui et al, 2016 ; Bolliger et al, 2022 ; Kim and Jung, 2022 ). Hopelessness, not feeling useful, and feeling depressed in the work environment are considered factors associated with symptoms of work-related stress among factory workers ( Sznajder et al, 2022 ), highlighting the need for interventions to alleviate poor mental health symptoms among workers in high-pressure occupational environments.…”