Challenges related to mental health and staff retention are common in the retail industry and were likely accentuated during COVID-19. This study used questionnaire data from Swedish retail employees (N = 388) to investigate whether job demands and resources differed based on occupational status and a crisis like the pandemic. Mean levels and associations with job satisfaction, turnover intention, and burnout were compared between blue-collar and white-collar employees, before and during the pandemic. Blue-collar employees reported greater physical demands, lower levels of resources, and higher levels of burnout. Job insecurity and emotional demands increased during the pandemic, especially for blue-collar employees. Overall, job demands and resources predicted outcomes in line with previous literature, but job insecurity was particularly salient for blue-collar employees, and autonomy for white-collar employees. Crises like the pandemic affect job demands and resources, potentially exposing lower occupational status employees to a higher risk for negative consequences such as burnout.

The retention of front-line staff in retail has proven challenging. Simultaneously, there are high demands for performance, in a working environment that is often characterized as being detrimental to personal wellbeing. In this paper, we test hindering job demands and job resources as predictors of individual well-being and work-related attitudes and behavior. Retail employees may need to manage their own emotions (emotional dissonance) and can even be exposed to threats and harassment in face-to-face interactions with customers. As a sector with high levels of part-time employment, insecurity around working hours may be an important demand within retail that has not received much attention in previous research. We also consider the role of job resources, namely job control, social support from the supervisor, and possibilities for development. We investigate outcomes related to employees’ well-being (exhaustion), thoughts about leaving the job (turnover intention) and job performance through moderated hierarchical regression analyses with interaction terms. Data was collected cross-sectionally by electronic survey using established measures, in collaboration with a large union that operates in the Swedish retail sector. Emotional dissonance predicted all outcome variables, threats and harassment predicted exhaustion, and worktime insecurity predicted exhaustion and turnover intention. All job resources were significantly and directly related to the outcome variables, but job control showed the strongest negative relation with exhaustion, possibilities for development the strongest negative relation with turnover intention, and supervisory support was a strong positive predictor of job performance. The findings mainly confirm that job demands themselves need to be managed actively, and that job resources have to be present to directly protect wellbeing and performance, and prevent turnover intention. However, evidence for moderating effects of job resources in this sample was weak.

Mirroring global trends, there is increasing focus on the mental wellbeing of university students in Sweden. Explanations for deteriorated wellbeing may be found in the study environment, in analogy with research on the work environment. A scoping study (n = 68) was performed of instruments used to assess university students’ study environment. Instruments were analysed thematically against the backdrop of the Study Demands-Resources theory (Bakker & Mostert, 2024). Descriptive results note geographical and education area differences. The theoretical results highlight that study demands were represented to a lesser extent than resources among instrument variables, with organizational demands apparently absent from this literature. These results could be useful for researchers in pedagogics and psychology with a focus on the university student study environment; policy advisors in higher education; and staff working with preventive student health and wellbeing initiatives.

Job insecurity constitutes uncertainty about the future of the current job. Such uncertainty is expected to impact attitudes and behaviors about one’s work and career and how it will progress. The aim of the present study is to meta-analytically consolidate research on the associations between job insecurity and career-related outcomes. A further aim of the study is to explore two methodological moderators: study design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) and type of job insecurity measure (cognitive, affective, or combined). Based on a sample of 237 primary studies, our main results show that job insecurity was positively related to occupational and organizational turnover intention, job search behaviors, and knowledge hiding, and negatively related with career satisfaction, career opportunities, employability, and proactive skill development. In terms of the moderators, the associations were generally stronger in cross-sectional studies compared to longitudinal studies, while the impact of the type of job insecurity measure used was mixed. While our results inform research on job insecurity and career-related outcomes, more studies with a longitudinal design are needed on this research topic. Future research should also further examine how different types of job insecurity measures – cognitive, affective, or combined – are associated with career-related outcomes.