Indoor service work can be tougher than outdoor maintenance work in the heat of summer

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-10-12 14:45

Australia; WA

Photo by Ümit Yıldırım on Unsplash

Australians working indoors in the busy service industry could be having a rougher time during the hot summer days than maintenance workers who spend much of their day outside, according to Australian research. The team compared the experiences, hydration and fatigue levels of 24 mining workers; 12 doing cleaning jobs predominantly indoors and 12 doing maintenance work predominantly outdoors. The outdoor workers were given the option to self-pace their work, while the indoor workers had a set amount of work that needed doing in their shift. The researchers say the outdoor workers were less dehydrated and reported less fatigue and discomfort, but there were no differences in physical or brain function between the two groups. They say this means more consideration should be given to the potential health risks of fixed-schedule work.

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conference: PLOS ONE

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Organisation/s: The University of Western Australia

Funder: This study was funded by Compass Group Australia. Funding was received by ST and KW. There was no grant number. URL: https://www.compass-group.com.au/ The funders assisted in finding a suitable location for ST to conduct the data collection and are supportive of the decision to publish. They did not play any role in study design or preparation of the manuscript.

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