The Health and Safety of Retail and Service Workers during COVID-19: The Role of Safety Leadership

We examined how safety leadership behaviours ("speaking about safety" and "role modeling safety") predicted retail workers' symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and safety behavior during a health and safety crisis and the mediating role of workers' health and safety-related fears. During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March and April 2020), we surveyed retail workers in the U.S. and Canada, measuring fear of COVID-19 infection, symptoms of PTSD, self-protective safety behaviors (e.g., handwashing), and perceptions of their leaders' safety behaviors at three time points (n1 = 505, n2 = 326, n3 = 218). In an observed variable path analysis, leader modeling of safety related directly to greater self-protection behaviors in time two only. Leader "speaking about safety" was associated with increases in employees' fear of infection. Fear, in turn, promoted greater self-protective safety behaviors. Speaking about safety was directly and positively related to symptoms of PTSD among employees, suggesting that, during times of crisis, the benefits associated with leaders' safety behaviors may need to be balanced with the potential for mental-health related costs. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.