The Investigation Relationship between Mental Workload and Occupational Fatigue in the Administrative Staffs of a Communications Service Company

Mental workload reflects the level of attention resources required to meet both objective and subjective performance criteria, which may be affected by task demand, external support and past experience. Mental workload and occupational fatigue have been commonly cited as a major cause of workplace accidents. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between workload and occupational fatigue in the administrative staffs of a communications service company in Tehran. In this study, 94 employees of the administrative service (69 female and 25 male) were provided with a demographic characteristics questionnaire including age, body mass index (BMI), level of education and work experience. Then the Swedish occupational fatigue inventory questionnaire was used to determine the job fatigue. The NASA-TLX mental workload questionnaire used for assessing mental workload. Finally, Data were analyzed by SPSS Version 20, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test and ANOVA test. Results showed that NASA-TLX mental workload in female (59.14) is more than from male (54.56). Also result showed Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory (SOFI) in female (30.12) is more than from Male (28.12). Also, the Pearson correlation test showed that there is a significant correlation between NASA-TLX and SOFI (r = 0.76, P<0.0001) as the mental workload increase, occupational fatigue increased. In other words, as the mental workload increase, occupational fatigue increased. The result of a recent study showed the significance correlation between the mental workload and occupational fatigue in the administrative staff that with mental workload increase, occupational fatigue increased.