• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.119-126
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to examine effects of community gardening on job stress and job satisfaction experienced by public officials in general administration working in a 24-hour shift. The subjects were public officials at the Center for Missing Children in the Department of Women and Adolescents at the National Police Agency. The center receives initial reports of disappearance of missing children, the elderly with dementia, and people with intellectual disabilities, sends out the report to each police station, and clears the report after the missing individual is found. Twelve public officials working at the center in a double shift (full day off after a night shift, four-day interval) were grouped into four teams and total 11 of them participated in the experiment. They engaged in autonomous community gardening activities such as sowing seeds, cultivating plants, harvesting, or cooking in the workplace for five weeks from August 19 to September 22, 2018. The findings were as follows. After five weeks of autonomous gardening activities, job stress of the subjects decreased significantly. Their mean scores of job satisfaction and organizational commitment under organizational effectiveness showed a significant increase after the activities. Finally, there were significant differences in their self-esteem after participating in the gardening activities in the workplace. These results suggest that gardening activities in the workplace can help to manage job stress and quality of work life for shift workers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.292-298
• /
• 2019

Objectives: Presenteeism is currently recognized as a significant global health issue that can potentially cause productivity losses. Hence, many studies have analyzed the relationships between workplace factors and presenteeism. However, few studies have considered non-occupational factors. This study examined the associations between presenteeism and activities outside work, including volunteering, self-development, leisure/sports, and gardening and house repair activities, in Korean wage workers. Methods: This study analyzed the fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey, in which a total of 19 294 wage workers participated. To identify relationships between presenteeism and activities outside work, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used after adjusting for general and occupational characteristics. Results: Self-development and leisure/sports activities significantly increased the odds ratio (OR) of presenteeism (OR, 1.166; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.061 to 1.282 and OR, 1.276; 95% CI, 1.181 to 1.379, respectively). Conclusions: Certain activities outside work, such as self-development or leisure/sports, were related to presenteeism among Korean wage workers. Although many previous studies have emphasized the positive effects of those activities on health, this study documented negative effects of these activities outside work on health.