Healthy Work Strategies for a “Coronanormal” Society: Addressing Economic Insecurity, Stress, Sleep Deprivation, and Fatigue

Details

• Personal Author:
  Nigam JAS ; Ray TK ; Tamers, Sara L.
• Description:
  The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major alterations in the workplace and work, with notable implications for the well-being of the U.S. workforce. Its effects underscore what NIOSH has recognized for a long time: holistic workplace and work policies, programs, and practices are vital to ensuring the overall welfare of the workforce, as well as the long-term health and continuity of organizations and businesses. Yet even with this knowledge, strategies supported by decades of evidence-based research and advocated for by NIOSH programs, such as Healthy Work Design and Well-Being and Total Worker Health, have not been widely instituted. Implementation of these strategies will help employers prepare their workplaces for a future that will not only include emergency and disaster preparedness and response but also critical and interwoven foci such as changes in workforce demographics, expansion of nonstandard work arrangements, blurring of the work and nonwork interface, and complex human-technology interactions. Over the last several years, the hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have awakened many people outside the occupational and environmental health and safety profession to the fact that work and the workplace profoundly impact the workforce and have ramifications for the general population. It is vital for the OEHS profession to leverage this momentum with calls to action and contributions from experts and leaders in the field, especially at a time when return-to-office implementation has been underway in the U.S., to finally apply the tangible and widespread changes needed to address age-old but largely preventable issues that present risks to workers. This commentary highlights four long-standing, overlapping, and consequential workforce safety, health, and well-being risk factors: economic insecurity, stress, sleep deprivation, and fatigue. These risks were pervasive before the COVID-19 pandemic, became especially pronounced during the worldwide public health emergency, and are predicted to persist. Evidence-based healthy work design suggestions drawn from NIOSH can help employers better safeguard members of their workforces as they work and live in the new "coronanormal" present. Applying the practices suggested here may alleviate the issues associated with these four risk factors by providing employers with policies, programs, and practices necessary to address and raise awareness of what are often considered to be individual-level factors or responsibilities but which are, in reality, predominantly employer- or organizational-level concerns. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communicable Diseases Economics Fatigue Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Sleep Sleep Initiation And Maintenance Disorders Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  COVID-19 Economic Consequences Job Stress Mental Health Sleep Deprivation Total Worker Health TWH Work Organization
• ISSN:
  1066-7660
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director ; DSI - Division of Science Integration
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  30-34
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069157
• Citation:
  Synergist 2023 Nov; 34(11):30-34
• Email:
  sltamers@gmail.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  The Synergist
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4eddfa0edce72aebc6dbd93d687e5d321c89c4eb8d6d47b8152151c6794324666ed95bd3d666241334f71d59a83b64df616bd4f155e7b7c6b72cfbc159481464
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/207691/cdc_207691_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 588.37 KB ]