طب انتظامی (Jan 2022)
Comparison of Job Burnout and Happiness in Shift Workers and Office Workers of the Police Headquarter of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FARAJA) in Ahvaz, Iran
Abstract
INTRODUCTION ... [1, 2]. Job burnout is the final consequence of stress and psychological pressure caused by work, which involves personal, professional, and organizational relationships [3]. Happiness at work is a path in which people grow, flourish, and also overcome their negative emotions [4]. ... [5]. Burnout and lack of happiness lead to employee satisfaction, delays, absenteeism, and leaving the organization, which in addition to many costs, also affects the morale of other employees. Reduction in the quality of work life of employees, reduction in citizenship behavior, and lack of sense of organizational belonging among employees are the most important individual consequences of burnout [6]. ... [7, 8]. Shift work and night work cause disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle, which brings physiological and psychological consequences for shift workers [9-11]. ... [12-15]. Mousavian Asl et al., in their research conducted on 180 shift-working nurses, reported that these people scored higher in job burnout components, especially emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization [16]. Wisetborisut et al., in a study conducted on 2772 healthcare workers, reported that burnout was higher in shift workers than in non-shift workers [17]. Peterson et al., in a study of 3140 North American police officers, reported that irregular work schedules, long shifts of more than 11 hours, shift work, and sleepiness was associated with greater burnout [18]. ... [19, 20]. Vakili et al., in a study they conducted on 210 nurses in Yazd hospitals, reported that one of the factors associated with lower happiness in these people is shift work and night work [21]. Khosrojerdi et al., in a study conducted on 422 nurses to determine the predictors of happiness, reported that shift work can be associated with less happiness [22]. Also, Kaliterna et al., in a study they conducted on 1210 workers with different working hours, reported that the level of happiness in shift workers is lower than other workers [23]. AIM(s) This study aimed to compare burnout and happiness and their components in police shifts and office workers in Ahvaz, Iran. RESEARCH TYPE This descriptive-analytical research is a comparative causal study. RESEARCH SOCIETY, PLACE & TIME The statistical population of the present study included all the shift and office workers of Ahvaz Police in Iran in 2019. SAMPLING METHOD & NUMBER Based on Morgan's table, 50 shift workers and 50 office workers were selected by random cluster sampling. USED DEVICES & MATERIALS Subjects were asked to answer Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Oxford Happiness (OHI) questionnaires. The burnout questionnaire has 22 items that measure emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal inadequacy. The lowest score a person can get on this questionnaire is 22, and the highest score is 132, and higher scores indicate more problems [6]. For the first time in Iran, the validity and reliability of the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire were confirmed by Filian, who reported the reliability coefficient with the test-retest method of α = 0.78 [24]. In the present study, Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the burnout questionnaire was obtained at 0.70. Badri Gargari has also calculated the concurrent validity between Perry Fieldort's burnout questionnaire and job satisfaction in the research, and the inverse relationship has been obtained [24]. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire contains 29 items that measure the five components of life satisfaction, positive mood, health, efficiency, and self-esteem. The highest score that the subject can get on this questionnaire is 87, and the lowest score is zero. People who get low scores have low happiness, and people who get high scores on tests have high happiness. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of this test was 0.93 [25]. In this research, Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the happiness questionnaire, which was obtained as 0.95 for the entire questionnaire. To check the face validity of the questionnaire in their research, Alipour and Noorbala asked ten experts, all of whom confirmed the ability to measure happiness by this test [25]. METHOD After coordinating with Ahvaz Police officials, the research questionnaires were distributed among office and shift workers, and those willing to participate in the research completed and submitted the questionnaires. ETHICAL PERMISSION Written and informed consent was obtained from the subjects, who were assured that the information would remain confidential. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) using SPSS 21 software. FINDING BY TEXT One hundred people (50 shift workers and 50 office workers) aged 21-45 years old with an average age of 29.77±5.46 years participated in this study. The frequencies of variables based on demographic characteristics are given in Table 1. The descriptive findings of this research, including the statistical indicators of average, standard deviation, and the number of sample subjects for all the studied variables, are presented in Table 2. In order to analyze the data related to the difference between the two groups of shift workers and office workers in the components of burnout and happiness, the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used. Before performing the analysis, the most important default of multivariate analysis of variance, i.e., the sameness of the error variance and the homogeneity of the variance-covariance matrices, were measured with Leven's and box's M tests, respectively. Leven's test showed that the default of the same error variance was met in both burnout (F=1.133 and p=0.296) and happiness (F=1.743 and p=0.357). The box's M test results showed that the variance-covariance matrix's default homogeneity was met for the components of burnout (box's M =6.895 and p=0.348) and happiness (box's M =6.438 and p=0.115). Wilks's lambda test was used to determine the significance of the difference between the two groups in burnout and happiness variables. The results are recorded in Table 3. There was a significant difference in the linear combination of burnout and happiness component scores in office and shift workers shown in Table 3 (p=0.025 and F=3.26). Multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate the difference between the two groups in the components of burnout and happiness. Table 4 shows that there was a significant difference between shift workers and office workers in terms of burnout and emotional exhaustion (p=0.009 and F=7.14) and depersonalization (p=0.008 and F=7.33), but no significant difference was observed in reducing the feeling of individual success (p=0.152 and F=0.208). It was also observed that there was a significant difference between shift workers and office workers in terms of happiness in life satisfaction (p=0.010 and F=6.97), positive mood (p=0.005 and F=8.31), health (0.014 and F=6.23) and efficiency (p=0.006 and F=7.96), but no significant difference was observed in the field of self-esteem (p=0.193 and F=1.71). MAIN COMPARISON to the SIMILAR STUDIES The present study showed that the shift workers group obtained more burnout scores than the office workers group. Although there is not much research in this field, this research was consistent with the findings of Mousavian Asl et al. [16], Wisetborisut et al. [17], and Peterson et al. [18]. Based on this finding, shift workers consider the volume and difficulty of work more and more significant because shift workers find themselves ready to perform multiple and difficult missions, especially during hours of the day and night when even office workers may be less present and they deal with the possible risks of various missions and dealing with criminals. This is despite the fact that although these people expect things such as being appreciated, increasing welfare facilities in the workplace, increasing wages and bonuses, as well as promotions, in reality, they are not provided with such things, or it is much less than what they expect. Based on the Maslach model, many factors play a role in burnout. Among these factors are inappropriate rewards, long working hours, lack of feeling of social support and organizational justice, etc. Since these cases are felt more in shift workers, higher burnout can be observed among them. The significant difference between the two components of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization can cause burnout in shift workers. However, the lack of significant difference in the field of personal inadequacy may be because both groups of office workers and shift workers, despite work problems, consider themselves to have potential abilities and talents that can flourish. However, they consider organizational factors as one of the important reasons for the lack of flourishing of their talents. Also, the results of the present study showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups of shift workers and office workers in terms of happiness (components of life satisfaction, positive mood, health, and efficiency); in such a way that the group of shift workers obtained lower grades in terms of happiness than the group of office workers. Although there are few studies in this field, this research was consistent with the findings of Vakili [21], Khosrojerdi et al. [22], and Kaliterna et al. [23]. It can be said that mainly among the employees of this organization, there is an idea that shift work, for example, night work, requires more physical energy and reduces the efficiency of the person, and issues such as lack of sleep or insomnia may cause occupational stress and threaten the health of shift workers. This causes these people to consider themselves entitled to more salaries and benefits than office workers. However, this difference is not considered in their salaries, job promotion, and bonuses. Among the components of happiness, only self-esteem has yet to be approved. It seems that according to the significance of other components and the total score of the happiness variable, this lack of significant difference is because the employees, both shift workers and office workers, in order to maintain their social status, have tried not to declare the items that indicate high self-esteem to a high level in order to emphasize their civility and positive and simple relationships without pride in dealing with others such as citizens. On the other hand, in the explanation of both mentioned findings, it can be said that many psychological structures are related to sleep problems, such as insomnia or lack of sleep [26,27], and burnout and happiness are not excluded from this issue, and can be affected by these problems. [28-30]; Therefore, since shift work can cause many sleep problems in people, it can increase burnout and decrease happiness. SUGGESTIONS The sample size should be increased in future research to increase the results' generalization power. This research should also be carried out in other cities and communities to obtain more general results. LIMITATIONS The results obtained from the current research were related to the police shift workers and office workers in Ahvaz city in Iran. Therefore, caution should be taken in generalizing the results to other organizations regarding work environment or other individual and organizational characteristics, which may differ from these people. CONCLUSIONS Burnout and happiness are reported more and less in shift workers than in office workers. Considering this result and the important role of these variables in mental health, the necessary preventive and therapeutic psychological interventions in this field and the provision of more welfare services for shift workers must be done by the relevant authorities. CLINICAL & PRACTICAL TIPS in POLICE MEDICINE Mental health experts can use the results of this research to identify occupational and psychological injuries caused by shift work and improve the efficiency of shift workers of the police of the Islamic Republic of Iran. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The researchers thank all those who helped in the implementation of this research. CONFLICT of INTEREST The authors state that the present study has no conflict of interest. FUNDING SOURCES This research did not have any financial support.
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