Give it up as a bad job

The conventional wisdom that having any job is better than having no job at all has been turned on its head by recent research by researchers at ANU.
We've all had jobs where you felt you had little job security and that the rug could be pulled out from beneath you at any point, or where the sheer weight of work was overwhelming. You may even be in one now.

But at least you've got a job, right? And at least having that job means that your mental health is likely to be better than if you didn't have a job, right? Because you've at least got an income, and at least have something productive to do with your time, right?

Well, no. Not right. In what could be a vindication for anyone who has ever felt that they hated their job so much that they could barely pull themselves out of bed in the morning, ANU researchers have found that, from a mental health viewpoint, you may be better off being in no job at all than being in a bad job.

According to an article by Martyn Pearce for the ANU Reporter, the work was undertaken by researchers from the Centre for Mental Health Research and led by Dr Liana Leach. Using data from the 20-year Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project, the team looked at the mental health effects of being in a 'bad job' - a job with low security, high stress and little control.

The research had two main findings. First, they found that those in poor quality jobs had poorer mental health than those in good quality work with people in bad jobs five times more likely to be categorised as depressed and twice as likely to be categorised as anxious than those in good quality work.
Second, over time, those who moved from being unemployed into poor quality work actually experienced a greater decline in their mental health than those who remained unemployed.

The study defined a poor quality job as one where people perceived their job was insecure, they had high job demands or a heavy workload, and they didn't have much control over how they managed that workload. They also felt that it would be difficult to gain another similar job, suggesting they felt trapped in their current workplace.

The results indicate that, for employers, one of the keys to happy and mentally healthy employees is to keep an eye on these negative factors and work with staff to find solutions.

"The study suggests it would be best for employers to be open to negotiation with employees about their work conditions - making sure employees have reasonable workloads and some control over how they manage this workload is likely to produce employees with better mental health," says Leach. "Everybody has moments in their jobs where it's difficult and you're not enjoying what you're doing, but we hope this study helps to improve people's workplace environments so that we can improve their mental health too," says Dr Leach.

Read the full article in ANU: Read more from ANU here.