The Functional State Assessment as the Psychological Safety Marker of the Offshore Production Platform Workers

Abstract

The present study is devoted to the functional states’ identification and description as the psychological safety marker of offshore oil-producing platform workers with the fly-in-fly-out work organization. This will allow identifying an employee's risk group with low psychological safety for the development of measures to improve it, preserve their health and work efficiency. The research was carried out by means of a scientific expedition in April 2019 during the entire fly-in-fly-out visit to the offshore ice- resistant platform in the Caspian Sea. It was attended by 50 employees (average age 36.17 ± 1.064, average work experience on a fly-in-fly-out basis 7.97 ± 0.839, fly-in-fly-out period - 14 days). Research methods are: 1) instrumental psychophysiological methods for assessing the state on the devices «AngioScan» (stress level) and «Psychophysiologist» (operator performance, functional state level, functional reserves level); 2) psychological testing methods are M. Luscher's color test and the "Well-being. Activity. Insistence" questioning. Psychological testing of employee's personality traits. Statistical analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and multivariate methods using the SPSS 23.00 software package. As the study result, all employees were divided into two large groups according to functional states indicators: 1) a group with high performance, since these employees have optimal speed, high quality work performance and good health; 2) a group with low performance, because with a favorable general state of health and the performing tasks speed, employees show a low performance. The relationship between the two groups oil-producing platform employees’ subjective characteristics of efficiency and safety studied. It was found that employees with high performance are adapted to the negative environment impact and are characterized by high psychological safety. The second group representatives with low performance give higher assessments of the professional situations danger and are not satisfied with the work schedule, and therefore belong to the risk group and require additional measures to ensure psychological safety. Personal markers of attribution to groups with different efficiency are independence, cyclothymic character accentuation type, planning and the general level of subjective control.