Observing Negative Events at Work and Their Relationship to Job Stress and Well-Being

Abstract

Although changes in employment status have long been recognized as important life events in relation to psychological well-being (e.g. Holmes & Rahe, 1967), there has historically been a deficit in research on additional work events. In 2012, Kanfer and her graduate students developed a scale, the Work Events Inventory (WEI), in order to assess work events individually. This study built upon the WEI in order to include observed events as well as direct events, and examined the relationship between experience of these events and different work-related outcomes, specifically job stress and well-being. Results indicated the potential of the WEI to be used as a tool for investigating work events and the importance of taking vicarious experiences into account in these investigations.