Job quality, the foundation of good working lives

[Celerity]

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and live. To avoid long-term scarring effects and promote good working lives, a comprehensive policy agenda must deliver job quality, together with measures supporting individuals through the life course, and a fair and inclusive labour market.



https://progressivepost.eu/job-quality-the-foundation-of-good-working-lives/

Covid-19 was a critical event in everyone’s working and daily lives. The longer-term effects on health and well-being, future earnings, work motivation and career prospects are still uncertain. The extent and quality of policy answers will be critical in limiting the negative impact of the pandemic on the workforce and its capacity to engage in work and experience a positive working life. Two main topics emerge: the health of the workforce, and a gender-friendly work-life balance. The European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), a high-quality probability survey covering 36 European countries via interviews of 70,000 workers and conducted in 2021, provides evidence on both topics.

The health of the workforce

Health and well-being were dominant topics during the pandemic. Learning about the risk of possible exposure to the virus at work helped to shed light on the complex relationships between work and health. EWCTS data confirms that, indeed, health issues affect a significant proportion of the workforce. In the 2021 survey, upper limb pains were reported by 57 per cent of workers, followed by backache (54 per cent), headaches (51 per cent), muscular pains in the hip or lower limbs (35 per cent) and anxiety (30 per cent). Physical exhaustion was reported by 23 per cent, chronic illness by 20 per cent, and combined physical and emotional exhaustion (a key factor of burnout) by 13 per cent. Almost a quarter of workers in Europe are at risk of depression.

In line with pre-pandemic empirical research, workers experiencing job strain reported more health problems. Job strain is characterised by a situation where a worker is exposed to a higher level of job demands (the parts of a given job that require effort and increase a worker’s risk of poorer health and well-being, like exposure to posture-related demands, intensive work, long working hours, violence at work, discrimination, and job insecurity) than job resources (the parts of a given job that support workers, like social support by colleagues, training, autonomy, influence on important decisions, being able to use one’s skills in work, being able to do quality work). Almost a third of workers (32 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men) experienced job strain during the pandemic.

Strained jobs are also associated with poorer mental well-being. While people in good quality jobs, where the resources that are available to the worker outnumber the demands of the job, reach an average score of 74 on a well-being scale of 0-100, workers in extremely strained jobs reach only 47 on average. This confirms the relevance of measures supporting the mental and physical health and well-being of workers through the design of quality jobs. It is also a requirement considering the high share of workers experiencing health problems. Their needs must be considered in the design of workplaces and work organisations to maintain or reintegrate them into the workforce.

Gender inequalities and work-life balance.........

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