A Contextual Understanding of Work-Related Stress Among Hong Kong Police Officers: Qualitative Interviews with a Timeline Approach

Police work-related stress has been found associated with impaired work performance. Therefore, police officers working under a stressful environment could hardly secure the safety of citizens and society. Although a great volume of quantitative studies has examined the prevalence, factors, and consequences of police stress in the era of COVID-19 pandemic, qualitative inquiry on this topic has been scant. In particular, a clear contextual understanding of how police officers experienced and responded to work stress in different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic was absent. To fill this void using a timeless qualitative interview method, this study captures the context, process, scenario, and subjective experiences of work-related stress among police officers. Based on 16 interviews with 8 male officers and 8 female officers coming from diverse work units, qualitative data of this study generated the themes related to the police officers’ work-related stress, namely, five demands (more work and longer hours of duty, unusual duties, hostility from the public, worry of infection of the COVID-19, and work-family conflict), five resources (supervisory and collegial support, fair treatments and clear instructions from supervisors, instrumental support from the organizations, personal resources, and family social support), and changes of demands/resources (an increase in workload, a difference in job nature, a decrease in hostility from the public, and an improved internal procedural justice, i.e., clarity of instructions/policies from supervisors) across the three time phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to enriching the understanding of police work stress in different phases of the era of COVID-19 pandemic, results of this study shed light on policies and practices relevant to alleviate police work-related stress during a challenging time.