Abstract
Occupational stress has become a major cause of illness and a major risk to the psychological and social well-being of workers. In this context, the aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of occupational stress in employees of a banking network in the municipal region of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, and its association with sociodemographic variables and work characteristics. This cross-sectional study involved 525 bank employees. Occupational stress was evaluated using the short version of the Job Stress Scale. A multivariate analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between the Karasek quadrants and the independent variables. It was found that most bank employees belonged to the "passive jobs" quadrant (34.4%, n = 179) and were considered to have an intermediate risk of occupational stress. Considering the "low demand jobs" category as the standard, the increased risk of stress was associated with low education levels (odds ratio, 3.69, 95% CI, 1.64-8.28), working in bank agencies (odds ratio, 2.55, 95% CI, 1.36-4.77), a length of employment at the bank of more than five years (odds ratio, 3.32, 95% CI, 1.89-5.81), a daily work period of six hours (odds ratio, 2.72, 95% CI, 1.27-5.81), and, mainly, low social support (odds ratio, 2.57, 95% CI 1.45- 4.56).
Highlights
The processes of productive restructuring and globalization of the market economy have caused significant changes in the organization and management of labor[1]
The classification of employees on the basis of their level of exposure to occupational stress according to the demand-control model indicated that most workers were classified in the “passive” quadrant (34.4%, n = 179), which is considered a category with intermediate exposure to occupational stress, followed by the “low distress” quadrant (26.3%, n = 137), and “active” quadrant (20.5%, n = 107)
The results indicated a balance between the sexes, with 51.4% (n = 268) of male bank employees, a predominance of subjects aged between 30 and 50 years (61.6%, n = 321), and a predominance of subjects with a high level of education, with 74.1% (n = 386) having a university or post-graduate degree
Summary
The processes of productive restructuring and globalization of the market economy have caused significant changes in the organization and management of labor[1]. These processes have been consolidated through a combination of factors, including mass layoffs, automation, outsourcing, business re-engineering with the reduction of the hierarchical levels, job insecurity, and multifunctional tasks[2] All of these transformations have a significant impact on working conditions, employment, and wages[3] and directly affect the health of bank workers[4]. The main organizational stressors identified in the literature include problems of physical origin such as noise, ventilation, and lighting in the workplace; psychosocial stressors associated with work functions, interpersonal relations, and autonomy/control of the execution of tasks; and factors associated with career development[8] Due to this diversity of factors, several approaches , including those proposed by Siegrist[9] and Lipp[10] and the demand-control model developed by Robert Karasek[11], can be used to study occupational stress. The latter has been widely used, and it has provided an important comparative basis for studies in the health- and work-related fields[12] and essential elements for interventions in major international policies on occupational stress[13]
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