Escaping from workplace harassment by changing jobs and subjective well-being: A panel analysis with longitudinal survey data of youth in Japan

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This study questions whether job changes improve the subjective well-being of young Japanese workers exposed to workplace harassment. Workplace harassment is prevalent in Japan as well as in other societies worldwide and can be conceptualised as an interaction emerging from negative social ties. Job change can also be regarded as an action to relocate from negative workmate social networks to better networks. Using unique longitudinal survey data focusing on Japanese youth and fixed effect models with a double-demeaning interaction effect, we investigated whether the harassed employees could improve their subjective well-being after one year through job changes. A series of data analyses revealed that the positive effect of job change on subjective well-being was greater among those harassed at work, and this tendency is more salient for men. Meanwhile, harassment exposure, job changes, and their interaction had no statistically significant effect on monthly income as an indicator of economic attainment. Based on these empirical findings, this study tentatively concludes that the external labour market may facilitate positive youth career formation in contemporary Japan.