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StressCafé |
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Promoting healthier, happier, safer,
and more productive work environments |
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About StressCafé
This is a unique portal for gathering and sharing important information about workplace stress associated with different occupations in Australia and overseas. Our aim is to develop understanding of this important and growing feature of working life and to assist in the evolution of workplace conditions which minimise worker stress and injury. The StressCafé has something for everyone; workers, academics, professionals and researchers. 
Latest News
Recent Media Activity
e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed on ABC TV News by Kirsten Aiken about the concept of ‘always working’ and email use at home (15/07/2021).
e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed on the radio by Toby Hemmings on The Daily, the radio morning current affairs program on 2SER 107.3FM in Sydney (15/07/2021).
e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed by Emily Day from The Age. The article was published in both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers on ‘What could be so bad about answering a few emails in the evening? (15/07/2021) e-stress project work was featured in the India Times, New Atlas, Shortpedia, Channel NewsAsia and seventeen other international outlets from 15- 19/7/21. e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed by Victoria Allen, Science Correspondent for the UK Daily Mail. The resultant newspaper article was published ‘Answering emails could be bad for your health’ (15/7/21) and in Australia as ‘Step away from the smartphone: Answering emails out of hours increases your risk of stress, emotional exhaustion headaches and back pain, experts warn’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9792209/Answering-emails-hours-increases-risk-stress-experts-warn.html e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed by Trine Solberg, a journalist from the Norwegian newspaper, Nettavisen, (14/07/2021). e-stress project team member, Dr Amy Zadow, was interviewed by Matt (Matthew) van Wyk on the Monday Breakfast program on 2SER 107.3FM, a community radio station in Sydney (26/07/2021) Link to interview recording - https://2ser.com/the-creep-of-workplace-digital-communications/ e-stress project work was featured on HRM (The news site of the Australian HR Institute)(24/08/2021) https://www.hrmonline.com.au/employee-wellbeing/leaveism-presenteeism-wellbeing/ Australian Laureate Fellow (ALF), for building world class research teams and outputs and establishing the new Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) Observatory research platform.
The PSC Observatory is a proposed new ALF research platform that will lead to ground-breaking, interdisciplinary, international, research. It will bring together world class researchers, will inspire and conduct rigorous research on PSC, and will collect, collate, analyse, synthesise and publish PSC data and informatics at the global, national, and corporate level, with the potential to change workplace policy-making world-wide.
Leading WHS expert calls for psychosocial safety climate KPIs
A leading safety and organisational psychology expert has called for psychosocial safety climate (PSC) to be adopted as a company KPI for ethical management, because of its effectiveness in preventing worker mental ill-health and absenteeism.
PSC measures how much an organisation values and prioritises the psychological health of workers, compared to "productivity imperatives" like downsizing and lean structures, Professor Maureen Dollard, one of the researchers who developed the PSC theory, told the Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting in Adelaide last week. Dollard is the director of the University of South Australia's Asia Pacific Centre for Work Health and Safety, and was involved in developing the PSC-12 scale that was used in the Australian Workplace Barometer project funded by Safe Work Australia. Please click here to read more. 
Working conditions Global working conditions: Australia Working conditions in a global perspective Mikaela Owen, Tessa Bailey, Amy Zadow and Maureen Dollard, University of South Australia This report uses the Australian Workplace Barometer Survey (AWB; 2009-2015) to describe working conditions in the labour market in Australia. The AWB focus on employees. The AWB gathers detailed information over time on a broad range of issues relating to working conditions (including exposure to physical and psychosocial risks), work organisation, work–life balance, and health and well-being. It covers all industries and occupational groups including the public and private sectors. NZ workplace study shows more than quarter of employees feel depressed much of the time
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the workplace can be a positive force for improving mental health. But many workers are exposed to work environments that are damaging to their psychological health and leave them burnt out. As the nature of work changes – including technological advancements, reduced job security, and blurred work/non-work boundaries – psychosocial harm is likely to increase. Despite their popularity, many wellness initiatives directed towards “stressed” workers simply help people to cope a little longer with a toxic and damaging environment. The underlying risks remain. The New Zealand Workplace Barometer (NZWB) seeks to understand the causes of psychosocial risks - factors that encompass mental, emotional, social and spiritual dimensions of what it means to be healthy. Please click here to read more.
Maureen Dollard and Daniel Neser wrote an invited think piece for the ILO to celebrate its 100 year anniversary with discussion on the future of work.
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LinksPhD Students Research Project
The role of Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) is demonstrated as an important ingredient in organisational intervention. It is crucial to understand how employers and the organisation could nurture and improve better PSC at their workplaces and the appropriate strategies to translate the theory into practice. For more details, please download the PDF file below.
Current Honours Research ProjectsEvaluating the Effectiveness of
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Our Projects
E-STRESS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES
This project aims to advance our theoretical and practical understanding of the well-being of staff and the impact of digital communication and competitive pressures faced by universities. An overarching goal of this project is to test the integration of Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) and new Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory.
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THE AUSTRALIAN WORKPLACE BAROMETER
The Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB) project aims to provide science driven evidence of Australian work conditions and their relationships to workplace health and productivity, through a national monitoring and surveillance system.
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SCHOOL LEAVERS STUDY
From 2002-2012 , this survey gathered information from young people about their transition from adolescence to adult life. As it spanned a long time period, we explored how important aspects of young peoples lives changed over time and are related to their overall health and well-being.
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Pathways to active citizenship
The study will explore education and employment outcomes among young people from refugee backgrounds aged between 15 and 24 years. The study will also identify the facilitators and barriers to successful transition from school into further education and employment, assess the extent of youth and family awareness of education, training and employment pathways, and identify available support systems.
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FrontLine Healthcare Project
This study develop theoretical and practical understanding of how workplace physical and psychosocial facets combine to influence workplace health and safety healthcare industry.
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Future Industries Institute Project
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Tranquillising Work Stress: Corporate Climate and Antidepressant Use
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This national project will investigate the plausible link between distress at work and Australia’s high levels of antidepressant use, through creative linkage of data from the Australian Workplace Barometer (10-year longitudinal study) to antidepressant medication data (via the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme). The project advances theory by probing the role corporate climate plays in work design, distress, mental health problems and antidepressant use. It will determine if antidepressant use has led to an underestimation of work stress effects. It will estimate the $AUD cost of work related antidepressant use. The project will yield evidence to stimulate corporate climate change to protect worker psychological health and wellbeing.
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How to cite this website:
Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX) (2019) StressCafé [Promoting healthier, happier, safer, and more productive work environments]. Retrieved from https://www.stresscafe.com.au/ Website Editor: Prof. Maureen Dollard Publication officer: Dr Ali Afsharian |