Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the number of working hours and psychological health among restaurant services workers compared to office workers in the restaurant industry. Research participants are 1,107 workers in restaurant services. Analyses of variance were performed to test the association of negative emotions, fatigue, and concentration/activity levels, measured by the “subjective symptoms” subscale of the self-diagnosis check list for assessment of worker’s accumulated fatigue, as dependent variables, and occupation (services worker vs. office worker) and number of working hours per day (“8 h or less”, “8 to 10 h”, “10 to 12 h”, or “12 h or more”) as independent variables. There was a significant main effect of the number of working hours on negative emotions and concentration/activity levels, suggesting that long working hours were associated with a high level of negative emotions and low concentration/activity levels. The interaction between number of working hours and occupation had a significant effect on fatigue. Post hoc comparisons in each occupation indicated that the fatigue scores in each working-hour group were significantly different among service workers. Reducing the number of working hours is essential to maintain employees’ health, especially restaurant services workers’ subjective fatigue.

Key words: Working hours, fatigue, negative emotions, concentration/activity levels, restaurant services workers.