Editorial: Optimizing psychosocial work environments and experiences for people working in isolated, confined, and/or extreme conditions

Abstract

People who work in isolated, confined, and/or extreme (ICE) environments often work in conditions which are physically and psychologically hazardous and limit access to resources and support beyond those immediately and locally available. These conditions introduce additional hazards and opportunities for worker functioning, productivity, and growth into psychosocial work environments (PWEs), generally by increasing demands on workers and reducing the resources available to deal with them. The seven articles in this Research Topic examine aspects of PWEs in Arctic, space, prisons, long-distance truck driving, fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work and online ICE work environments. They provide new insights into PWEs in ICE work contexts by examining the psychosocial hazards-and the impacts on workers-posed by physical isolation, separation from non-work life, operation in closed work systems, loneliness, and forced proximity to colleagues who both heighten and alleviate the stressors that individuals experience. Five of the articles also advance recent work on the positive impacts of ICE environments on workers' self-efficacy, self-reliance, personal discovery (Blight and Norris, [2]) and resilience (Harrison et al., [3]) by emphasizing how workers create social support for themselves and others in such contexts. [Podgorski et al.]() explored how demands and resources of organizational justice, job dangerousness and job stress impacted job involvement and job satisfaction of Slovenian prison officers working in a closed system work environment. [Unsworth and Seivwright]() examined how FIFO workers navigate the necessity of managing multiple and separate identities at home and away on work sites. [Bell et al.]() examined how long-term isolation, confinement and support source impacted the perceived social support (PSS) of crewmembers in five spaceflight analog missions. They found PSS declined over time and was more impactful when provided by other crew members, highlighting the criticality of support from peers in ICE work.