Psychosocial Risks and Resources at Work and Employee Well-being in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Time Series of Cross-sections.

Objective: We examined the relationships between psychosocial factors and employee well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Survey data were from Finnish public sector employees from 2018 (T1 = before), 2020 (T2 = during), and 2022 (T3 = after the pandemic) (N= 29,360). Employee well-being was measured with self-rated health, work ability, and recovery from work. The generalized linear models using Poisson distribution were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, obesity, and health behaviors.

Results: Psychosocial factors were associated with suboptimal employee well-being in every timepoint. The association between high effort-reward imbalance and suboptimal work ability was strongest during the pandemic (risk ratio 1.53, 95% confidence interval 1.47-1.59). The association between high job strain and suboptimal recovery from work was stronger during the pandemic (1.49, 1.46-1.52) than postpandemic (1.45, 1.43-1.48).

Conclusions: Job stress had the strongest associations with suboptimal well-being during the pandemic.