Evaluation of open plan office employees' encounters with psychosocial factors and their general health status at A workplace

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the open plan office working order which is preferred extensively in recent years for working environments, an important factor of a healthy working life, as a whole in terms of psychosocial factors and mental health status. The data of this descriptive study was collected by survey forms prepared for each of the 311 office workers in 3 different buildings of a workplace in Ankara. The Swedish Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire-12 were used and the findings were compared between independent groups. Data analysis was performed by using statistical software program on computer. It was found that 59,0% of the research group work in open plan offices where 4 or more people work together and 41,0% work in shared offices with 2-3 people. 49,4% of the employees are in the group of high job strain and 50,6% are in the group of low job strain. Among employees, 22,2% have job stress, which is high job demand and low job control. It was found that 47,4% of the employees had poor mental health and 52,6% were good. When the job strain and mental health status of the employees are compared according to the number of people in the working environment, the office workers with 4 and above have higher job strain level and worse mental health status due to higher GSA score, compared to the employees in the offices with 3 and below. When the satisfaction levels of the employees related to their work environment were examined in terms of job strain and mental health, it was determined that those who were more satisfied with the work environment had lower job strain level and better mental health status and the social support provided to employees is also contributed positively to mental health status as well as reducing the level of job strain. Key Words: Open-Plan Office, General Health Questionnaire, Psychosocial Factors, Job Strain, Occupational Health and Safety.