Saga Graduate School of Medical Science, Japan.
Department of the Community Futures, Saga Women's Junior College, Japan.
Occup Med (Lond). 2017 Dec 2;67(8):648-651. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqx135.
One approach to reducing occupational stress during an economic recession is to share work amongst employees. This may include reducing employees' working hours to avoid redundancies.
To examine whether work-sharing influenced the psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms encountered by Japanese employees, and to determine which psychosocial factors predict employees' mental health during an economic recession.
A survey was performed in a Japanese manufacturing company at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of a 6-month period during the 2008 economic recession using the validated Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS).
Three hundred and thirty-six male employees completed the questionnaire. Twenty-four per cent of participants showed depressive symptoms at T1. Despite reductions in employees' working hours and job strain (P < 0.001), SDS scores showed no change after 6 months. Logistic regression analyses showed that low social support between the two surveys was associated with depressive symptoms at T2 after adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, workplace factors, scheduled working hours and depressive symptoms at T1.
Reductions in job strain did not affect employees' depressive symptoms. Employees with low social support during the study had a significantly higher risk of having depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that social and emotional support within the workplace is important during the work-sharing period.
在经济衰退期间，减少职业压力的一种方法是在员工之间共享工作。这可能包括减少员工的工作时间以避免裁员。
研究工作分担是否会影响日本员工的心理社会工作环境和抑郁症状，并确定哪些心理社会因素可以预测经济衰退期间员工的心理健康。
在 2008 年经济衰退期间的 6 个月期间，在一家日本制造公司进行了一项调查，使用经过验证的工作内容问卷（JCQ）和自我评定抑郁量表（SDS）在开始（T1）和结束（T2）时进行。
336 名男性员工完成了问卷。24%的参与者在 T1 时出现抑郁症状。尽管员工的工作时间和工作压力（P < 0.001）减少，但 6 个月后 SDS 评分没有变化。逻辑回归分析表明，在调整人口统计学、生活方式、工作场所因素、计划工作时间和 T1 时的抑郁症状后，两次调查之间的社会支持低与 T2 时的抑郁症状相关。
工作压力的减轻并没有影响员工的抑郁症状。在研究期间社会支持较低的员工患抑郁症状的风险显著增加。这些发现表明，在工作分担期间，工作场所的社会和情感支持很重要。
