Mental health in relation to the labour turnover of unskilled workers in a large industrial establishment.

Study of the relationship between mental health, psychological handicap, and industrial conditions has developed considerably in importance during the last 5 years. Wartime investigations connected with the occupational adaptation of discharged service men were described by Lewis and Slater (1942), Lewis (1943), and Guttman and Thomas (1944), and the findings of Fraser(1947) on the incidence of neurosis in factory populations and its association with absenteeism are well known. The effects of such disability on working efficiency are by no means clear. Studies in factories (Markowe and Barber, 1952; 1953) have not confirmed the widely held notion that individuals who have a neurotic, handicap often produce less than the average worker, though they showed that those with poor intelligence tended to have a lower output. It has frequently been asserted that neurotic workers are more prone to change their job than those enjoying normal mental health. Reasons for leaving employment may, however, be social and economic as well as psychological (Long, 1951). In the present inquiry an attempt is made to relate labour turnover to mental health, by examining the association between length of stay in a new job and the incidence of neurotic disability. The study is based on unskilled workers in two large factories; men and women are considered separately.