This poster aimed to investigate the role of COVID-19 safety climate on employees’ fatigue, performance, and mental health. We found that enactment of COVID-19 preventative behaviors in the workplace predicted higher COVID-19 fatigue only at lower levels of safety climate. In turn, fatigue predicted lower performance, but not lower mental health.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the trucking industry emerged as essential and like many other industries, strived to maintain operations and keep workers safe without an established roadmap for navigating such an emergency. Following the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP; Mead & Rimal, 2014) framework, we interviewed nine local/short haul stakeholders to learn about their public health information seeking and work experiences during the pandemic. Findings reveal that there was a lack of consistency in approaches to information seeking, satisfaction with the information available varied, worker mental health was not prioritized, and employee input was not sought. Industry stakeholders emphasized the importance of flexibility and using this experience to be ready for future possible emergencies. Findings will inform public health messaging and the industry?s emergency preparedness efforts.
The present study aimed at understanding the challenges to the mental health and safety of fire service-based Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, while investigating the role station safety climate. We showed that safety climate can buffer the effect of burnout on depression. Station safety climate is an important organizational resource to safeguard employee safety and health in crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.