When CDPs teach people the importance of finding work that aligns with their values, interests, skills, and other characteristics, do they do so just so clients’ work will be enjoyable or are there bigger things at stake? Is it really a problem for people to not prefer the work they do or the employment situation in which they do it? This study indicates that being in nonpreferred work and/or in a nonpreferred workplace is related to poor health outcomes. Many people don’t connect with CDPs prior to finding work and some end up with undesirable work and/or workplaces and do not know how to or feel they cannot move to desirable work.
Sweden’s Gunnar Aronsson, Marina Taloyan, Hugo Westerland, and Per-Olof Östergren’s study of over 11,000 workers investigated the relationships between being unsatisfied with one’s work/workplace and well-being (physical health and psychological well-being) as well as between feeling stuck and well-being.
About 2/3 of the surveyed workers reported being in a preferred occupation and workplace. (An aside: According to Eurostat, the percentage of workers with a high level of job satisfaction dropped between 2017 and 2021 more in Sweden than any other European country.)
About 1/5 reported being in an undesirable workplace and occupation – Aronsson et al. referred to these individuals as “double locked-in” whereas individuals in either an undesirable workplace or occupation were labelled “locked-in.” Here’s what they found:
- Whereas sub-optimal health was reported by 23% of the respondents, it was reported by 31% of double locked-in workers.
- When adjustments were made in the analysis to account for background variables and job strain, both types of locked-in workers were also more likely to report sub-optimal health than non-locked in workers.
- Odds ratios[1] for both types of locked-in workers and double-locked in workers were calculated as well. For the double locked-in group, here are the ratios:
- 1.72 for sub-optimal health (or, the odds of sub-optimal health being reported are 72% higher for double locked-in workers compared to others)
- 2.17 for sub-optimal psychological well-being (or, the odds of sub-optimal psychological well-being being reported are 117% higher for double locked-in workers compared to others).
Implication: This study shows a relationship between nonpreferred work and workplaces and lowered physical and mental health, but it does not show causality. So, from this study alone, CDPs should not claim “Being in nonpreferred work lowers physical health.” They can, however, safely say “Being in nonpreferred work is related to lower physical health” and “Being in nonpreferred work is related to lower psychological well-being.”
[1] An odds ratio (OR) is “a measure of association between an exposure and an outcome” (Szumilas, 2010). When OR = 1, exposure does not affect the odds of an outcome. Exposure is linked to higher odds of an outcome when OR is greater than 1 and lower odds when OR is less than 1. OR = 2 means there is 100% increase in the odds of an outcome with a given exposure. This is more complicated than it looks. If you’re curious, check out Clay Smith’s blog.
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