This paper describes a German study to evaluate the effect on employees' work performance of their journey to work. Subjects completed a self rating scale concerning their situation and condition before their journey and how comfortable or stressful they found the journey. Further questionnaires assessed the stresses in their work situation and their health and psychosomatic complaints. Subjects were divided into commuters, having longer than 45 minutes travel time, and non-commuters. Commuters reported more health problems and felt worse before starting the journey. Good working conditions caused better feelings at the start of the day. No significant differences were found in the stress of subjects at the end of the working day. The trip to work was found to be more of a resource than a stressor, although the authors warn against drawing general conclusions from these findings. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725 (C 22328 CD-ROM).
Samenvatting