occupational stress and mental health of employees of a petrochemical company before and after privatization

background: many countries make many of their governmental sectors private. this transition, however, may affect their employees in numerous ways. objective: to determine the level of occupational stress and mental health of employees of a petrochemical company in isfahan, central iran, before and 3 months after privatization. methods: out of the 700 employees of the studied company, using a stratified random sampling technique, 140 persons were selected. we used steinmetz occupational stress and ghq-28 questionnaires to determine the level of stress and mental health status of participants. results: the reliability of the questionnaires used was acceptable (chronbach alpha coefficients: 0.85 and 0.86, respectively). job stress level was significantly increased 3 months after privatization; the mean±sd job stress score before and after privatization were 22.9±10.43 and 28.3±12.25, respectively (p<0.001). the mean±sd mental health score after privatization (17.57±11.63) was also significantly (p<0.001) higher than that before the privatization (13.8±6.0). there was a significant (p<0.001) positive correlation between the mental health status score and job score (r=0.476). conclusion: after privatization, the job stress of employees increased significantly. this increase was associated with a decrease in mental health. to lessen the side effects of privatization, the process should be performed cautiously.