Erika Sabbath
New BC Social Work Assistant Professor Erika Sabbath has been awarded a major grant for research into the economic and health effects of psychosocial workplace exposures.
According to a report in The Boston College Chronicle, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) grant is part of a program designed to support early-career scholars. Sabbath is the first BC Social Work professor to receive such a grant.
“The purpose of the research is to give the employer evidence of how work stress can affect their bottom line,” Sabbath told the Chronicle. “For example, if you show the effect of bullying in the workplace costs the hospital ‘X’ amount of dollars due to lost productivity and health issues, the employer may be more motivated to address those stressors, which would benefit not only the employer, but also the worker’s health and wellbeing – a win-win.”
The grant, worth $324,000, will cover three years of research. Once it’s finished, Sabbath hopes to develop interventions to help employers address evidences of stress in their workers.
Sabbath comes to Boston College from the Harvard School of Public Health. This past spring, Time magazine wrote about her study into the long-term cognitive effects of exposure to common solvents used in the workplace.