Current working conditions of public servants in Greece under the impact of the financial crisis

This thesis is focused on examining, with the usage of the Job Demands – Resources model, the levels of burnout and work engagement that the public servants experience, after the effects of the unforeseen financial crisis that stroke Greece by the end of 2009. The target is to try to investigate how the current working conditions of public servants shape up after the layoffs and wage cuts that occurred, reaching respectively by average 20% and 40% decreases. Further than that using the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) model and the statistical analysis of the obtained data we will try to suggest methods of counter-measuring the crisis-imposed negative situation in accordance to theoretical models. In order to obtain measureable data, an online survey was created with a series of questions and statements the responses of which can help in identifying important statistical measures on the working conditions of civil servants. Two organizations were targeted to participate in our survey: The Elderly Open Care Center (EOCC) KAPI Kalamarias in Thessaloniki and the Local authorities Municipality of Grevena (O.T.A. Grevena). Using two distant local authorities it is purposed to achieve a greater statistical sample variety, compare and cross validate the data results. The online survey was answered by a total 37 of employees in Thessaloniki and 29 employees in Grevena. The statistical analysis that was made on the results revealed that the public servants are currently experiencing lack of motivation due to the crisis-imposed increased workload and work resources restriction to low levels. The statistical analysis proved two hypothesis that we made: a) there is correlation between the crisis-imposed high job demands and burnout and b) the crisis-imposed decreased job resources demotivate employees and disallows them from achieving work engagement and reducing the negative effects of burnout.Michail Digkas : 0046 76 58 29 213 Georgios Baltoglou: 0046 70 225 63 0