PUP415 Occupational Health Assignment Sample

PUP415 Occupational Health Assignments

The term work-life country refers to the occurrence of incompatibility demands between work and life activities which cause participation in these roles more difficult. Conflicts are created for this imbalance in the work life interface. Work life conflicts are also associated with enhanced job stress, pertaining job performance, and decreased health. Workaholism is correlated with work to life countries since a person's priority of job can interfere with their personal life commitments. There are several ways in which work-life conflicts can be presented such as work responsibilities may be interfered with by life offing the job. On the other hand, work responsibilities can also interfere with private life. During COVID 19 the working conditions such as working from home negatively spill over two personal life of many educators. It has also been analysed that the rate of engagement with personal life during covid-19 worlds negatively spills over the work life of educators.

Definition

• Life to work conflict: As per the view of Schieman et al. (2021), when the demands of life hamper the activities associated with a job role it is defined as life to work conflict.
• Work to life conflicts: As stated by Mok Ku & Yuda (2021), when the demands of the job role hamper the day-to-day activities of life, it is referred to as work to life conflicts.
• The characteristics of the work-life country have been described below.

Characteristics

• Decreased employee well-being: As per the view of Wilson et al. (2020), during the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic different challenges were faced by primary and secondary school teachers in their daily working life such as shifting time informing and loading working hours number salary and wages issues, working nature and time constants. The physical and mental health of teachers was affected during the pandemic due to the shifting of configuration. As per the view of Arop, Owan & Akan (2018), working shifts have a direct impact on the sleeping process of a person. The teachers during the pandemic were exposed to help out the students at any time. This post sleep also resulted in an increased rate of illness among the teachers.
• Increased psychological stress: As stated by Idowu et al. (2018), in extreme cases most of the teachers during the pandemic suffer from depression for tiredness, poor sleep, poor appetites and low mode. On the other hand, it also had a negative impact on their work output. The lack of face-to-face interaction with students demotivated the educators to enhance their performance and analysed their gaps in performing life activities and job activities.

Health problems for work life conflicts

Conflicts between work and life created different mental health issues among teachers such as anxiety and stress. During the pending people are unable to share their experience and job activities which also enhanced their stress level. Imbalance in work and life resulted in a lack of optimism and energy, serious headaches, fatigue, as well as sleep disorders. It has also been reported that several health issues such as eating disorders and substance abuse reached a peak level during the outbreak of this pandemic. According to Gisler et al. (2018), besides psychological health such as low life satisfaction and depressive symptoms, different physical symptoms such as low exercise behaviour was also observed for work-life conflicts. According to the conservation of resource theory, personal health, financial assets, tangible family and self-discipline are the major resources of an individual which can be gained through effective performance in both life and work activities. musculoskeletal disorders, burnout, and sickness absence were major causes of poor educational quality during the pandemic.

Importance of this topic

This topic is important to analyse the importance of work-life balance among people. The aim of this essay is to analyse the impact of work life imbalance among educators and teachers during the outbreak of the pandemic. This topic is important in the case of teachers as work-life conflicts in teachers have a direct impact on society as they are the backbone of this society. Analysing work-life conflicts among teachers can help to enhance the effectiveness of the education system and the well-being of both teachers and students.

Analysis

Work life conflicts pre and post COVID 19 for primary and secondary teachers

As per the view of Zainal Badri & Wan Mohd Yunus (2022), the development of inactive teachers' student ratio was the major reason for work life in the country among teachers before the pandemic. Teachers in society were continuously burdened with different new tasks added to their job roles. In this way, job satisfaction among teachers deteriorated and there was also a negative impact on institutional commitment to maintain educational quality. Extra workload lets the teachers work for long hours even in their homes also.

On the sites teachers were responsible for various duties including assisting with all administrative tasks of schools handling discipline, engaging with students in their extracurricular activities, evaluating homework of students and monetary attendance of the students. On the other hand, Mikkonen et al. (2019), stated that out of their working hours they were also responsible to attend these staff development programmes even at the weekends which hampered their personal life. In order to smoothly run the plans of the educational department, they work during the holidays to make effective lesson plans.

High work demand

• Post COVID 19: As stated by Bezliudnyi et al. (2019), high working demand, especially increased rate of working timing, also causes the teachers to face difficulties in balancing their day to day life roles and job roles. The pressure of conducting online exams and preparing notes for students led them to invest more time in online platforms. The use of ICT and teachers' dependency on it to educate students during the pandemic increased their tension to connect with students effectively and decreased their job satisfaction. Moreover, the behaviour of students to adapt new knowledge through the online medium was changed during the pandemic which was also a reason for concern among the teachers.
• A form of work overload: It has been found that female persons were more vulnerable to developing the symptoms of depression as the pressure of housework always remains greater on them. As per the view of Orel (2019), organising the whole work on a computer rather than the site is quite more difficult to be completed on time. The conflict between work and life arises due to the long working hours of people who feel pressure in both their family and working roles. Furthermore, during the pandemic due to social restrictions, social life conflicts arise as people are unable to get social support which acts as a key factor to reduce stress and balance the demand of life and work. As the line between non-working lives and working lives became blurred during the pandemic the level of anxiety enhanced among people.

Change in hazards due to COVID 19

1. Source: As stated by Capnary, Rachmawati & Agung (2018), different types of hazards inside the schools can include biological hazards, organic hazards, chemical hazards, psychological hazards, environmental hazards and physical hazards. Classroom management lesson evaluation and instructional delivery were effective to manage psychological hazards in schools which became easy during the pandemic as physical contact was restricted. As a result, the level of violence and bullying among students decreased in this period.

2. Occurrence: In Australia the rate of risky alcohol consumption among youth between 15 to 18 enhanced by 18.8% (Statista, 2022). On the other hand, the level of bullying decreased during the pandemic. Other psychological hazards such as anxiety disorder stress disorder depression suicide atoms early ageing autonomy absent muscular skeletal and loss of dignity enhanced due to the outbreak of this pandemic and restricted social connections.

3. Impact: As psychological hazards among teachers and students enhanced, the rate of absence in the classes increased during the pandemic.
4. Outcomes: As the rate of production of different school hazards decreased the teachers and educators in these sectors gained the ability to invest most of their time in preparing the lesson plans effectively.

Difference between situational work-life conflicts

Private vs public schools

It has been analysed that the roles of teachers in private and public scrolls are more or less similar. However, the teachers of private schools are more responsible for the efficient and effective performances of the students. On the other hand, Hakyemez-Paul, Pihlaja & Silvennoinen (2018), stated that during the outbreak of the pandemic the education process was totally dependent on technological devices. It has been analysed that the students of the public schools were barely able to afford all the technological devices that were necessary for their education.

Thus, the stress level of teachers in this school was higher and they faced more problems in managing balance in work and life as they needed to invest more time to connect with the students. On the other hand, Al Rahmad (2021), stated that the teachers of the private schools were responsible for managing the classes of the students on the digital platforms which the students were also able to afford. In this way, the work-life conflicts among private and public-school teachers were higher in the case of public-school teachers.

Primary Vs secondary school

According to Mazerolle et al. (2018), elementary teachers experienced pressure basically because of the understudy's trouble making and their psychological prosperity was impacted by the responsibility and orientation. Female educators with huge responsibilities have lower emotional wellness status.

As stated by Walger et al. (2020), secondary school teachers saw more pressure on all factors which are compatibility with guardians, affinity with an associate, responsibility, time compel, understudy mentality, acknowledgement and backing and absence of assets than elementary teachers.

Risk for teachers

Technological advancements

As per the view of Schieman et al. (2021), different learning technologies such as Augmented Reality, Robotics, Virtual Reality, and Adaptive Learning Algorithms. Most of the teachers in the scrolls are not aware of the use of these technologies. In this case, failure to use these technologies leads them to face difficulties to conduct online classes for which they spent more time on it. On the other hand, the gap in these technologies also enhanced the risk of unethical practices among students.

Generational changes

Covid (COVID-19) pandemic has without a doubt carried a debacle to humanity, yet, a light of trust should be visible in the obscurity brought by this emergency. It gives an open door to investigate the future, uniquely, to explore the potential open doors for the eventual fate of training. As stated by Mok, Ku & Yuda (2021), the instructive area is no exemption; accordingly, a cutting-edge instructive model is required which can experience the antagonistic impacts of such circumstances on the training. Computerized reasoning and Cloud based processing administrations are the future and as fast as it is acknowledged in the training area, the better it will be for the future.

Changing the nature of jobs or employment

It has been analysed that most of the jobs during the pandemic shifted to work from home to prevent the spread of COVID 19. However, in 2020, the Covid pandemic resulted in the loss of 490,300 positions in Australia, especially in New South Wales alone (Statista, 2022). The rate of job insecurity was also enhanced during this pandemic. The risks of job loss, pay cuts, and enhanced working hours were also faced by teachers and educators of different institutions. The rate of employment in the teaching sectors in Australia dropped by 57% in 2020 due to the outbreak of the pandemic (Statista, 2022).

Changing family structure

During the outbreak of the pandemic, the most seen family structure includes nuclear families and Single-parent families. During the pandemic, grandparents were the most vulnerable people to this disease. However, as the most affected person in the families were these age groups the occurrence of nuclear families enhanced in this period. On the other hand, Arop, Owan & Akan (2018), stated that single parent families were also observed when there is only a single parent affected by this pandemic. 

Moreover, the expectations and values of individuals keep on changing when they experience financial and social changes locally as well as provincially around the world. With the headways of the Internet and data innovation, individuals across the globe were able to adapt to the changes for social help conveyance. Consequently, strategy learning and strategy moves additionally added to the development and reorganization of education systems across various pieces of the globe.

Gender differences, Dependent children and Uncertainties

It has been analysed that the risks of obesity, anxiety and fatigue were higher among the female teachers. As per the view of Idowu et al. (2018), the teachers having dependent children were also vulnerable to developing illness for exposure to hazards as the transmission rate of this disease was higher in incase of children. The main uncertainty associated with the pandemic was higher education and getting a desired position in the competitive world.

Health or productivity impact on WLC

According to Gisler et al. (2018), healthier teachers and educators are able to engage and focus on the teaching process. On the other hand, healthy educators are also able to improve quality of life and reduce absenteeism. In this way, enhanced productivity helps to complete work on time and maintain work and life balance.

As stated by Zainal Badri & Wan Mohd Yunus (2022), planning virtual research centres reproducing genuinely logical cycles does not just save assets and establish a safe virtual climate yet additionally emphatically affect the accomplishment of the learning result than the conventional labs. It is apparent that involving re-enactment for research facilities and labs has affected the learning results decidedly.

Recommendation

Create WL facilitation and work-life balance during covid 19

As per the view of Mikkonen et al. (2019), effective Time management is the best practice to improve work-life balance among educators. On the other hand, the government also needs to take some initiatives to make the resources available to the educators to help them to conduct online classes. Appropriate training and development programs also need to be conducted by the educational department of the countries to make the teachers of these sectors aware of the use of the technologies. The teaching process needs to be improved so that the teachers will be motivated to enhance their performance and enjoy the teaching process. As stated by Bezliudnyi et al. (2019), effective relationships must be fostered among the teachers and students to nurture the relationship and attract students to the learning process and give their full effort. Moreover, regular exercise is also important for educators to reduce their stress levels and spend a healthy life.

Equal division of household works

According to Orel (2019), as life turned out to be more home-focused in 2020 contrasted with any time in the past few ages, homegrown work expanded. The gendered division of family work seems to have crawled toward more prominent fairness during this early time of isolation, remote work, remote tutoring, and social separation. In this context, equal division of work among males and females will help to balance the pressure of household work and professional work.

Conclusion

In the study, the concept of work-life conflicts and their characteristics have been discussed. Though associated health problems with work life completely have been highlighted in this study the impact of these health problems on productivity and performance has not been highlighted. During the discussion of the importance of this topic in the context of educators, different theories and their relevance in the modern education system could also be evaluated. Discussion of work life, country post and pre pandemic could also be based on the experience of teachers of a particular school.

The discussion of the reasons for different stress levels among secondary and primary school teachers could also be emphasized based on their job responsibilities. The study could also analyse the learning situations in primary and secondary as well as private and public schools using some examples from Australian schools. Discussion of gender differences and their impact on work-life balance has not been evaluated effectively. The vulnerability of teachers to exposing themselves to hazards could be critically explained by comparing the family pressure and roles of teachers.

Perspectives

Based on the above study it can be stated that the main reason for the work-life imbalance among educators was the equal division of housework between men and women. On the other hand, the responsibilities of female teachers towards handling their children are greater than their male parents. Work life balance helps to enhance employee will being and marriage psychological stress among them. In the education sector, the teacher faced different health problems such as anxiety and musculoskeletal disorder due to inappropriate working hours. In order to mitigate the risk of technological advancement, the government should initiate a learning and development program for teachers to educate them with different advanced technology which they can easily implement in their teaching process.

Reference list

Journals

• Arop, F. O., Owan, V. J., & Akan, E. M. (2018). School Hazards Management and Teachers’ Job Effectiveness in Secondary Schools in Ikom Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria. Arop, FO, Owan, VJ, & Ekpang, MA (2018). School hazards management and teachers’ job effectiveness in secondary schools in Ikom Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Evaluation, 4(9), 38-49. https://philpapers.org/archive/AROSHM.pdf
• Bezliudnyi, O., Kravchenko, O., Maksymchuk, B., Mishchenko, M., & Maksymchuk, I. (2019). Psycho-correction of burnout syndrome in sports educators. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 19(3), 1585-1590. https://efsupit.ro/images/stories/septembrie2019/Art%20230.pdf
• Capnary, M. C., Rachmawati, R., & Agung, I. (2018). The influence of flexibility of work to loyalty and employee satisfaction mediated by work life balance to employees with millennial generation background in Indonesia startup companies. Business: Theory and Practice, 19, 217-227. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/247942/1/1667924184.pdf
• Gisler, S., Omansky, R., Alenick, P. R., Tumminia, A. M., Eatough, E. M., & Johnson, R. C. (2018). Work?life conflict and employee health: A review. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 23(4), e12157. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexandra-Tumminia-2/publication/329965547_Work-life_conflict_and_employee_health_A_review/links/5fd0f05545851568d14f0e42/Work-life-conflict-and-employee-health-A-review.pdf
• Hakyemez-Paul, S., Pihlaja, P., & Silvennoinen, H. (2018). Parental involvement in Finnish day care–what do early childhood educators say?. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 26(2), 258-273. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sevcan-Hakyemez-Paul/publication/341472913_Parental_involvement_in_Finnish_day_care_-_what_do_early_childhood_educators_say/links/5fb6339b458515b79750f3c3/Parental-involvement-in-Finnish-day-care-what-do-early-childhood-educators-say.pdf
• Idowu, A., Aremu, A. O., Olumide, A., & Ogunlaja, A. O. (2018). Substance abuse among students in selected secondary schools of an urban community of Oyo-state, South West Nigeria: implication for policy action. African health sciences, 18(3), 776-785. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ahs/article/view/176228/165627
• Mikkonen, K., Koskinen, M., Koskinen, C., Koivula, M., Koskimäki, M., Lähteenmäki, M. L., ... & Kääriäinen, M. (2019). Qualitative study of social and healthcare educators’ perceptions of their competence in education. Health & Social Care in the Community, 27(6), 1555-1563. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/66111/2/Mikkonen%2520et%2520al%25202019_Qualitative%2520study%2520of%2520social%2520and%2520healthcare.pdf
• Mok, K. H., Ku, Y. W., & Yuda, T. K. (2021). Managing the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and changing welfare regimes. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 14(1), 1-12. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17516234.2020.1861722
• Orel, M. (2019). Supporting work–life balance with the use of coworking spaces. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marko-Orel/publication/333675441_Supporting_work-life_balance_with_the_use_of_coworking_spaces/links/5d07b3a292851cfcc61ee131/Supporting-work-life-balance-with-the-use-of-coworking-spaces.pdf
• Schieman, S., Badawy, P. J., A. Milkie, M., & Bierman, A. (2021). Work-life conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. Socius, 7, 2378023120982856. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2378023120982856
• Wilson, J. M., Lee, J., Fitzgerald, H. N., Oosterhoff, B., Sevi, B., & Shook, N. J. (2020). Job insecurity and financial concern during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with worse mental health. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 62(9), 686-691. https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10221592
• Zainal Badri, S. K., & Wan Mohd Yunus, W. M. A. (2022). The relationship between academic vs. family/personal role conflict and Malaysian students’ psychological wellbeing during COVID-19 lockdown. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(1), 76-88. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Siti-Zainal-Badri-2/publication/349737562_The_relationship_between_academic_vs_family_personal_role_conflict_and_Malaysian_students'_psychological_wellbeing_during_COVID-19_lockdown/links/603fcb5e299bf1e078542ac0/The-relationship-between-academic-vs-family-personal-role-conflict-and-Malaysian-students-psychological-wellbeing-during-COVID-19-lockdown.pdf

Online Journals

• Al Rahmad, A. H. (2021). Several Risk Factors of Obesity Among Female School Teachers and Relevance to Non-Communicable Diseases During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Amerta Nutrition, 5(1), 31-40. https://www.e-journal.unair.ac.id/AMNT/article/view/20448
• Mazerolle, S. M., Pitney, W. A., Goodman, A., Eason, C. M., Spak, S., Scriber, K. C., ... & Simone, E. (2018). National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement: facilitating work-life balance in athletic training practice settings. Journal of athletic training, 53(8), 796-811. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc6188079/
• Walger, P., Heininger, U., Knuf, M., Exner, M., Popp, W., Fischbach, T., ... & Simon, A. (2020). Children and adolescents in the CoVid-19 pandemic: Schools and daycare centers are to be opened again without restrictions. The protection of teachers, educators, carers and parents and the general hygiene rules do not conflict with this. GMS hygiene and infection control, 15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc7273848/

Websites

• Statista. (2022). Number of jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in 2020, by state and territory. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1117356/australia-jobs-lost-during-coronavirus-crisis-by-state/
• Statista. (2022). Share of young people aged 18 to 24 exceeding the risk guidelines for drinking alcohol in Australia from 2007 to 2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1209779/australia-prevalence-of-risky-drinking-in-youth-2019/