Fear of being laid off affects employee performance

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): The feeling that one is going to lose their job worsens satisfaction levels in other areas of life, such as family, health, financial circumstances and the work-free time balance, a new study has found.

Furthermore, the study conducted by Spanish psychologists has revealed that the consequences of this insecurity are different according to the occupational group they work in.

Amparo Caballer, co-author of the study, said that as the fear of unemployment increases "the level of work insecurity rises, people are less satisfied with their personal, work and family lives and they are less committed to their work."

Three different groups have been identified - blue collar workers, white collar workers and "professionals".

The first group included people with positions that do not need high qualifications, such as supermarket shelf-fillers or hospital attendants. The second group includes office and administration workers and supermarket assistants and check-out staff. The "professionals" group includes doctors, engineers and nurses.

When there is uncertainty about employment, blue collar workers "are less satisfied with life and they work less productively than the other groups studied", Caballer said.

White collar workers are the ones who display the most dissatisfaction at times of instability.

Upon examining the results of the study, not all employees react to insecurity in the same way. Some groups are more prone to react more negatively to perceiving insecurity at work. Therefore the study authors advise against approaching the problems in the same way as with different groups in the company.

The study's data was collected in the study through 321 worker's answers in a questionnaire. 51.4 percent were people who worked in hospitals, 25.7 percent had positions in supermarkets and commercial distribution companies and 22.9 percent were temporary work agency employees.

The average age of the study participants was 32. 66 percent had a permanent contract and 34 percent had other types of contracts.

"For work insecurity studies, whether the type of contract is temporary or permanent is an important variable," Caballer reports.

In the study, 74.3 percent were women and 25.7 percent were men, which the expert recognises could be because "in these sectors, the majority of workers are women, and therefore the majority of the sample are."

The study has been published in The Spanish Journal of Psychology. (ANI)