Research on the Effectiveness of Modular Post Stations in Improving Conditions for Decent Work in Outdoor Working Environments

Abstract

In the context of decent work being regarded as the eighth goal of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8), unsafe, inconvenient, and uncomfortable outdoor working conditions have gradually highlighted the problem of decent work for outdoor workers. The purpose of this study is to explore the possible methods for providing decent work in outdoor public spaces and to verify the work framework by combining design and psychology. Firstly, by analyzing the current demand of outdoor workers for decent conditions for outdoor working environments, the status of relevant research and actual assistance, as well as the design status and trend of urban public facilities, the shortcomings of the existing research and designs were summarized, and a new design direction was proposed. Secondly, based on modular design theory, urban post stations for outdoor workers were designed to meet their basic needs, such as sunshade, rain protection, temporary rest, and so on. Finally, a structural equation model was constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of the modular post station in improving the sense of decency in the outdoor working environment through the decency scale and the scale of factors affecting it. The results showed that the requirements of the working environment had a significant positive impact on the sense of decency and that different environmental conditions had different significant degrees of impact on it. Therefore, the modular urban post station designed in this study can effectively improve the sense of decency by optimizing the working environment and meeting the basic needs of outdoor workers during work.

1. Introduction

The eighth goal of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8) aims to achieve full and productive employment as well as decent work for all women and men by 2030 [1]. However, with the intensification of global climate change, the working environment of outdoor workers is deteriorating rapidly. The high heat in summer leads to frequent heatstroke. The severe cold, frost, and snow in winter aggravate their work burden. Occasionally, it can be challenging to find a solution in time in the case of rain, injuries, and other emergencies. The changeable outdoor working environment makes it impossible for workers to meet their basic needs, such as getting temporary rest, finding sunshade, or seeking rain protection in real time. Unfortunately, there are some indecent phenomena, such as outdoor workers resting, drinking, and eating on the roadside, which are easily despised by some members of society. Additionally, some studies have found that environmental pressure will lead to a 5.3% decrease in labor productivity [2]. With the rapid development of cities in China in recent years, higher requirements have been put forward for public facilities. Urban services are gradually shifting from traditional supply-oriented models to user-oriented ones. Therefore, it is particularly important to design the proposed urban public space and to provide a decent working environment for outdoor workers [3] which can not only meet the physiological and psychological needs of outdoor workers but also contributes to the economic productivity of the city to a certain extent [4,5,6].

Despite the fact that some public welfare organizations and the government have made some efforts to help them, such as building post stations for outdoor workers in some areas to provide temporary rest areas for them to supplement their physical strength, providing shelter from the sun and rain, providing cold drinks in summer, and providing microwave ovens in winter, challenges remain, such as low quantities, simple equipment, and low utilization rates. Urban public facilities are designed for the public, but very few facilities can meet the specific needs of outdoor workers with certain labor capacity requirements, such as environmental sanitation workers or traffic assistant management. Relevant studies for these special groups also rarely focus on improving the decency of their outdoor working environment [3] but prefer the design of tools and safety protection products, mainly focusing on improving their work efficiency and safety during work. The occasional help with kindness not only lacks the maintenance of their self-esteem but also cannot provide timely help according to the actual situation. Therefore, this study summarized the shortcomings of the existing research and designs by analyzing the current demand of outdoor workers for decent conditions in outdoor working environments, the status of relevant research and actual assistance, as well as the design status and trends of urban public facilities. Using the advantages of modular design, this study explored the design scheme of urban post stations for outdoor workers to improve their working conditions in the outdoor environment by optimizing the latter and meeting their basic needs, such as sunshade, rain protection, and temporary rest during daily work. A structural equation model was constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of modular post stations in improving the conditions for decent work in the outdoor working environment through the decency scale and the scale of factors affecting the sense of decency to explore the possible methods of providing conditions for decent work in outdoor public spaces and to provide some reference for the actual design of outdoor working environments [3]. The research framework is shown in Figure 1.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Status of Demand for Decent Working Environments for Outdoor Workers

Outdoor workers include environmental sanitation workers, takeout workers, couriers, drivers, urban management personnel, and others who need to work outdoors for a long time. Targeting this type of group, we conducted simple observations and interviews with six sanitation workers and takeout workers to investigate their current working environments. Unlike those who work indoors, due to the special nature of their work, they lack a fixed and acceptable place to work and rest, and their basic needs, such as drinking water, access to toilets, and temporary rest, are difficult to attain during their work time as shown in Figure 2. In addition, they are vulnerable to the changeable outdoor environment. The high temperature in summer can lead to heatstroke in workers, and the cold wind in winter aggravates their work burden. Occasionally, there is sudden rainy and snowy weather, but there is also a lack of shelter from the wind and rain. Taking the environmental sanitation workers in Beijing as an example, the 2021 Interview Report on the Rights and Interests of the Environmental Sanitation Industry in Beijing [7] revealed that the workers engaged in environmental sanitation work are mainly from other places and that they are aged 40 to 60 years old. Their basic wage is the municipal minimum wage standard, which lags behind the majority of developing and developed regions in the country. They have two work modes: the eight-hour system and the fourteen-hour system. At the same time, the cost of food and accommodation in the urban area of Beijing is extremely high. Most of the environmental sanitation centers are not responsible for providing daily food and accommodation to workers. Therefore, most workers choose to bring their own water and rice, which also makes them face the problem of adding water and heating rice. In addition, due to the relatively low level of implementation of garbage classification in China, outdoor workers may occasionally be stabbed by signs, glass slag, nails, and other sharp items in the process of work, and the wound may not be treated in a timely manner. At the same time, the heavy physical labor also causes them to suffer from occupational diseases, such as lumbago, rheumatism, hyperosteogeny, and so on, making it difficult for them to work for a long time and forcing them to rest temporarily at the roadside. Their exposure to the outdoor working environment greatly reduces the decency of their work. Filippi, M. et al. [8] proposed that improving the conditions of work and life can promote the achievement of the sustainable development goal of decent work for all. Therefore, the current status of poor working conditions in outdoor environments needs to be improved urgently.

Food takeout workers are another example of a typical group of outdoor workers. The average age of this group is about 30 years old, and 75% of them are from rural areas. They face a series of safety issues caused by cycling too fast and also suffer from occupational diseases, such as stomach disease caused by long-term irregular diets along with pain points such as difficulties in finding temporary charging and rest areas. During the waiting period, they even lie on the roadside or their electric bicycle for a short rest, which is also not conducive to the establishment of a decent work image. The daily journey of a food takeout worker is shown in Figure 3. One study found that an appropriate outdoor working environment should be convenient, flexible, and visually attractive for workers [9], which can encourage them to concentrate, establish sensory and physical contact with their work roles [10], and improve labor productivity. Therefore, it is urgent to solve the problem of the indecent working environment for outdoor workers.

2.2. Status of Design Research for Outdoor Workers

Some scholars have conducted a series of relevant design studies on the working status of outdoor workers to solve their requirements in the process of work. For example, based on the multi-dimensional needs of sanitation workers and the utilization of solar energy resources, Ren, X. et al. [11] designed safe, practical, and fully functional intelligent sanitation clothing, which provided physiological safety, convenient communication, and entertainment for sanitation workers and which optimized attendance. Liu, J. et al. [12] designed a sanitation safety storage cart to store sanitation tools, ensuring that workers can access cleaning tools at any time without increasing the burden of carrying them to solve the challenges they face in sorting hazardous garbage. At the same time, a space for storing water cups, drugs, and other daily supplies was added to the design, and safety warning lights were added around the sanitation vehicle, which, to a certain extent, ensured the basic needs of workers and their safety. Jin, Z. et al. [13] optimized takeaway riders’ distribution routes to maximize transport efficiency, particularly during lunch rush hours when large numbers of orders are pouring in. Fazel, S.S. et al. [14] developed a set of evidence-based, expert-approved, and stakeholder-workshopped tailored sun safety messages for outdoor workers to help them reduce the risk of occupational diseases related to ultraviolet radiation. Barthwal, V. et al. [15] assessed the effects of outdoor air pollution and extreme weather events on the health of outdoor workers in Delhi, pointing out that the lack of proper mitigation measures and policies, long working hours, and varying work locations would aggravate their exposure to air pollution and extreme conditions. Elshater, A. [3] proposed that achieving decent work (SDG 8) should focus on both indoor and outdoor contexts, designing better places for outdoor workers.

However, the current research on outdoor workers is more focused on the design of tools and safety protection products to improve their work efficiency and safety during work, simultaneously paying attention to the health research of urban outdoor workers. Very little attention is given to the design of public facilities aimed at meeting their temporary needs in the work process and to improving the decency of their work environments. At present, some local governments have also taken corresponding assistance measures in response to the aforementioned situations. They have built ‘love post stations’ for outdoor workers as shown in Figure 4. At the same time, they have cooperated with businesses along the street to provide outdoor workers with a place to take a temporary rest and to supplement their physical strength. In special cases, outdoor workers can take shelter from rain and summer. However, limited by space, capital, technology, and other factors, the number of post stations is still small with great distance between them. Additionally, the equipment is simple, and distribution is uneven. Due to the psychological burden of some outdoor workers who are worried about affecting the image of the post station merchants, the limited working place, the tense working rhythm, the unclear post station location, and the long distance from the post station, some post stations still have a low utilization rate.

2.3. Status and Trend of Urban Public Facility Designs

Urban public facilities are the facilities or equipment provided to people by the government or other social organizations to improve their quality of life. At present, the existing public facilities can be divided into six categories: transportation facilities (e.g., transit stops), healthcare facilities (e.g., clinics), educational facilities (e.g., primary schools), landscape spaces (e.g., urban green spaces), recreational facilities (e.g., sports hubs), and commercial facilities (e.g., retail shops) [16]. However, as urban services are gradually changing from being traditional supply-oriented to user-demand-oriented, the deficiencies of existing public facilities are gradually being revealed, mainly in the following aspects: a lack of certain humanistic aspects, which makes them unable to meet the actual needs of some special groups; an inadequate number of facilities and an inadequate regional distribution, which makes them inconvenient to use; a poor design sense and a lack of urban or regional characteristics; limited financing channels; poor maintenance, or a lack of updates [17]; and the lack of an overall system and design integrity.

Facing the contradiction between the rapid development of cities and the inadequacy of public facilities, some scholars carried out a series of studies on smart health, climate change, people-oriented spaces, and other hot areas and proposed to optimize these through modular design, humanized design, sustainable design, inclusive design, intelligent design, and other design methods to further improve the service level of urban public facilities. Each design method does not exist in isolation, and the advantages brought by the standardized features of modular design products greatly assist the application of various design methods, such as sustainable design. The integration of various design methods has greatly promoted the improvement and optimization of public facility designs. The design direction mainly focuses on the hot topics mentioned previously and improves the service quality of urban public facilities by optimizing product design, increasing human–computer interactions, promoting user social interactions, strengthening emotional care, and providing diversified functions [18]. Few scholars have deeply explored new users, new scenes, and new needs, especially the public facilities designed to meet the special needs of outdoor workers. Therefore, solutions to problems such as poor working conditions and the urgent basic needs of outdoor workers can start with urban public facility designs, which can not only ensure the timeliness and convenience of meeting their needs during the work process to improve the decency of their outdoor work environments but can also increase the new direction of urban public facility designs.

2.4. Application and Advantages of Modular Design in the Field of Public Facilities

Modular design is a design method that divides the product into different modules according to its functions and other characteristics and forms new products through module combination in the later stage, ensuring the integrity of the product. Its design principle is to compose as many new products as possible with as few modules or types as possible, and the module structure and the interchange between modules should be as simple and standardized as possible to ensure the high quality, simple structure, and low cost of the final product.

As technology advances in a new era, the emergence of modular design with standardized features caters well to diverse social needs [19]. Modular design has been applied to furniture, transportation, public facilities, and other fields with its unique advantages, but the results are inconsistent. For example, in the field of home furnishing, although the modular design of furniture can meet the personalized needs of users to a certain extent, there are certain requirements for users’ design, aesthetic, hands-on, and other specifications that may become user-unfriendly in some cases of the assembly of furniture modules, hindering the widespread implementation of modular design in the field of home furnishing. However, in recent years, modular design has been applied widely in the field of public facilities. The main reasons for this trend are that modular design brings social value to the city and experience value to the users. In addition, it brings economic value that surpasses its investment cost. Even if modular design products are eliminated, their modular units can continue to be used, which meets the concept of sustainable design [20]. Its specific application advantages in the field of public facilities are shown in Figure 5. Therefore, more and more scholars have begun to carry out modular design research for urban public facilities. For example, Mulyono, G. et al. [21], aiming at the problem of heavy and immovable public facilities made of concrete materials in the park, designed a modular green facility through a series of processes, including an analysis of problems, design iterations, and so on, which can not only resist tropical humidity and hot weather but also has a certain degree of mobility. Mo, H. et al. [22] proposed the design concept of a single module division and a matching combination of charging facilities in combination with the modular design concept given the problems of the existing charging facilities, such as rigid modeling and difficulty in finding.

Therefore, the application of modular design in the design of public facilities for outdoor workers not only helps solve the pain points during the work of outdoor workers in a low-cost and high-quality way, but it also reduces the construction difficulty and later maintenance costs by using the flexible and convenient characteristics of modular structures. Managers can flexibly choose their preferred combination method to meet the needs of different users.

3. Design

3.1. Design Goals

The design practice in this study was mainly aimed at outdoor workers with relatively poor conditions in their working environment. This group had the following characteristics:

• They worked for a long time in a certain outdoor area with fixed work rhythms;
• The working environment was relatively poor;
• Most of them came from other places with low salaries and had a psychological burden due to not wanting to trouble others;
• The heavy physical labor caused them to suffer from occupational diseases, and accidental injuries may not be treated appropriately in time.

At the same time, based on previous analysis, the problems in the existing post station design were summarized as shown in Figure 6. To address these issues, the following design functional objectives were proposed:

• An urban post station, especially for outdoor workers, meets their basic needs, providing them with more safe, comfortable, and convenient service places;
• The small modular post station design is convenient for flexibly adjusting the number and location of post stations at any time according to the needs of a certain region while saving construction costs;
• Different functions are assigned to different modules to appropriately increase or decrease the corresponding function modules according to the different needs of various users across multiple locations.

3.2. Design Iteration

Based on the design objectives proposed above, several rounds of design iterations were carried out as shown in Figure 7. Each iteration plan was designed and optimized in terms of combination, functional distribution, and appearance design.

3.3. Design Display

Finally, the design renderings of the modular urban post station are shown in Figure 8. The design advantages are summarized into the following five aspects:

• The design of a green roof increases the greening area of the city and optimizes the microclimate of the interior space of the post station to a certain extent;
• The use of a large glass wall and space gap makes the post station more secure and transparent;
• The use of solar panels to collect and supply electricity meets the requirements of sustainable development;
• Providing users with rest seats, drinking fountains, toilets, and other functional facilities as well as books, newspapers, and other daily necessities meets the users’ needs for nearby rest, emergencies, shelter from the sun and rain, and so on. The design details are shown in Figure 9;
• The modular split design of each function of the post station allows one to flexibly adjust the corresponding number of each function module according to the number of users in a specific region and their related needs. Each module can be flexibly installed on the street side, which has low requirements for the construction site. At the same time, the production and replacement of a single module also reduce the pressure of capital investment in the post station to a certain extent.

The design of the modular urban post station not only improves the comfort, safety, and convenience of the working environment for outdoor workers but also increases the social interaction opportunities for users, which helps to promote social integration and the physical and mental health of users.

4. Methods

4.1. Questionnaire Survey

The sense of decent work is the subjective perception of individuals. The Chinese version of the decent workload scale (C-DWS), verified by Yin, Ma et al. [23] to measure the sense of decent work in China, includes five levels of influencing factors: working environment conditions, access to medical care, appropriate work remuneration, appropriate rest time, and a matching degree of organizational values and family and social values. As one of the influencing factors, the working environment may affect workers’ sense of decency to a certain extent, especially for outdoor workers; the impact of the outdoor changeable working environment is more obvious. Therefore, this study aimed to study the impact of various factors in the working environment on the sense of decency in the working environment and to verify whether the design of modular post stations can effectively improve the sense of decency of outdoor workers by meeting their actual needs during the work process. The research method was mainly based on questionnaires. Each questionnaire included two scales. The first was the sense of decency scale, which involves four aspects in the C-DWS: safe working conditions (2 measurement items, e.g., feeling physically safe when interacting with others at work), access to medical care (2 measurement items, e.g., receiving good healthcare benefits), appropriate work remuneration (2 measurement items, e.g., being rewarded fully for work), and appropriate rest time (2 measurement items, e.g., taking timely breaks during work). It mainly measures the sense of decency in the work environment. The second was the scale of factors affecting the sense of decency, which involves five evaluation items: complete sunshade and rainproof facilities, convenient toilet facilities, well-stocked medicine boxes and other emergency supplies, abundant drinking water and other daily necessities, and comfortable seats in rest places. It is used to summarize the impact of various environmental factors on the sense of decency.

The questionnaire of this study was prepared and distributed using Questionnaire Star (www.wjx.cn (accessed on 26 January 2023)), one of the online survey platforms in China. We ensured the privacy of the participants by maintaining their anonymity and informing them of the objectives and process of the study through informed consent. All participants received a written description of the study from the authors and signed informed consent. They could also withdraw at any time throughout the entire research process.

The whole test questionnaire was designed in the form of logical selection, including the basic information of the respondents, their sense of decency in the working environment, and the impact intensity of various environmental factors on decency. The quantitative data on the sense of decency in the work environment and the impact intensity of various environmental factors on the sense of decency were collected through a Likert five-point scale, so the survey subjects (including outdoor workers and non-outdoor workers) were required to select their subjective evaluation of the working environment conditions (5 items) and the sense of decency (8 items) in the current work environments according to the Likert five-point scale of 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree).

4.2. Data Processing

Questionnaires were distributed and then collected. Firstly, we removed the invalid questionnaires, which did not affect this study. They were of two types: one with no response to question 1 (whether you have participated in work or have any work experience) and one with careless answers (such as omitting responses or selecting the same answer for all scale questions). Westland, J.C. [24] mentioned in their paper that a good rule is to have at least ten times as many subjects as variables in SEM estimation. Therefore, the 318 valid questionnaires that we ultimately collected from outdoor workers met the sample size requirements (at least 130). Then, the 318 valid questionnaires were coded and imported into the SPSSPRO Statistical Platform for analysis. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weight of each evaluation item of the sense of decency in the work environment and to calculate the value of the sense of decency separately. The factor analysis method was used to verify the reliability and validity of the scale data. The structural equation model was constructed, and the goodness of fit of the structural equation model was verified from the independent and dependent variables. Additionally, the correlation between the independent and dependent variables was also studied to judge the effectiveness of modular post stations in improving the sense of decency in the outdoor work environment. The structural equation model is shown in Figure 10.

5. Results

5.1. Descriptive Statistical Analysis

A total of 367 valid questionnaires were collected in this survey of which 318 were from outdoor workers and of which 39 were from non-outdoor workers. First, this study calculated and compared the average scores of two types of questionnaire data from different subjects as shown in

Table 1. The average scores of working environment conditions and sense of decency.

Factor	Variable	Outdoor Workers	Non-Outdoor Workers
The working environment conditions optimized by post stations	Your working environment provides complete sunshade and rainproof facilities	2.393	3.469
	Your working environment provides convenient toilet facilities	2.340	3.429
	Your work environment provides a wealth of emergency supplies, such as medicine boxes, rain gear, etc.	2.443	3.286
	Your working environment provides plenty of daily necessities, such as drinking water and charging	2.428	3.347
	Your working environment provides comfortable rest places, seats, etc.	2.349	3.388
The sense of decency in the working environment	Safe working conditions	2.379	3.398
	Access to medical care	2.414	3.337
	Appropriate work removal	2.400	3.400
	Appropriate rest time	2.385	3.276

. The results indicate that the average scores of various items in terms of working environment conditions and the sense of decency of outdoor workers were lower than those of non-outdoor workers. Additionally, the average scores of outdoor workers were lower than the middle level (3), whereas the average scores of non-outdoor workers were higher than the middle level (3).

5.2. Statistical Analysis

Firstly, an exploratory factor analysis was carried out on all the survey data to analyze the validity and reliability of the data. As shown in

Table 2. KMO test and Bartlett’s test.

KMO Test and Bartlett’s Spherical Test
The KMO test value		0.972
Bartlett’s spherical test	Approximate chi-square	3353.092
	df	36
	P	0.000 ***

*** represents a significance level of 1%.

, the KMO test value of the model was 0.972 (>0.6), with good reliability [25]. Bartlett’s spherical test value was 0.000 *** (<0.05), with significance [26]. The analysis showed that the scale items in the questionnaire were suitable for a factor analysis. A reliability analysis of the survey data was also conducted. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.970 (>0.7), indicating that the scale in the questionnaire had high reliability.

Furthermore, a confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on all the survey data. This study took the working environment condition factors (complete sunshade and rainproof facilities, convenient toilet facilities, abundant emergency supplies such as medicine boxes, abundant daily supplies such as drinking water, and comfortable rest area seats) as the independent variables and the sense of decency in the working environments as the dependent variable, and it verified the goodness of fit of the structural equation model using the independent and dependent variables. As shown in

Table 3. Index of model fitting.

χ2	df	P	CMIN/DF	GFI	RMSEA	RMR	CFI	NFI	NNFI
-	-	>0.05	<3	>0.9	<0.10	<0.05	>0.9	>0.9	>0.9
27.566	26.000	0.380	1.060	0.992	0.014	0.016	1.000	0.992	0.999

, CMIN/DF was 1.060, which is less than 3 (standard). GFI was 0.992, which is more than 0.9 (standard). CFI was 1.000, which is more than 0.9 (standard). RMSEA was 0.014, which is less than 0.1 (standard). Most fitting indexes meet the standard of general SEM research.

Additionally, a convergent validity test was also carried out on all the survey data. The model evaluation is shown in the

Table 4. Model evaluation.

Factor	AVE	CR
The working environment conditions optimized by post stations	0.752	0.938
The sense of decency in the working environment	0.838	0.954

. The AVE values of both factors were higher than 0.5, and the CR values were both higher than 0.7, indicating a high aggregation validity.

5.3. The Analysis of the Impact of Various Environmental Factors on the Sense of Decency in the Outdoor Working Environment

The results of the analysis of the impact of various environmental factors on the sense of decency in the outdoor working environment are shown in

Table 5. Model regression coefficient table.

Factor	Variable	Unstandardized Coefficient	Standardized Coefficient	Standard Error	Z	P
The working environment conditions optimized by post stations	The sense of decency in the work environments	1.032	0.997	0.048	21.670	0.000 ***

*** represents a significance level of 1%.

. The analysis indicates that the working environment conditions optimized by post stations had a significant positive impact on the users’ sense of decency in the work environments (p < 0.05). The standardization coefficient was 0.997.

Additionally, the factor load coefficients of each variable are shown in

Table 6. Factor load coefficient table.

Factor	Variable	Unstandardized Load Coefficient	Standardized Load Coefficient	Z	S.E.	P
The working environment conditions optimized by post stations	Complete sunshade and rainproof facilities	1	0.828	-	-	-
	Convenient toilet facilities	1.047	0.872	19.953	0.052	0.000 ***
	A wealth of emergency supplies, such as medicine boxes, rain gear, etc.	1.059	0.885	20.429	0.052	0.000 ***
	Plenty of daily necessities, such as drinking water and charging	1.105	0.871	19.905	0.056	0.000 ***
	Comfortable rest places, seats, etc.	1.085	0.876	20.104	0.054	0.000 ***
The sense of decency in the work environments	Safe working conditions	1	0.921	-	-	-
	Access to medical care	0.987	0.917	28.730	0.034	0.000 ***
	Appropriate work removal	1.021	0.916	28.603	0.036	0.000 ***
	Appropriate rest time	1.001	0.909	27.998	0.036	0.000 ***

*** represents a significance level of 1%.

and Figure 11. The results indicate that the provision of a wealth of emergency supplies, such as medicine boxes, rain gear, etc. (0.885), had the most significant impact on the sense of decency in the work environments followed by comfortable rest places, seats, etc. (0.876); convenient toilet facilities (0.872); plenty of daily necessities such as drinking water and charging (0.871); and complete sunshade and rainproof facilities (0.828). Meanwhile, working environment conditions mainly affected safe working conditions (0.921) followed by access to medical care (0.917), appropriate work removal (0.916), and appropriate rest time (0.909).

6. Discussion

In the face of the current problem of the indecent working environment of outdoor workers, this study aims to improve the sense of decency in the outdoor working environment through the design of urban post stations. In the whole design process, due to their different work types, their work rhythm, the work content of outdoor workers, and the different number and types of outdoor workers in different areas of the city, how to flexibly adjust the location, number, and function of the post station has become a problem. Therefore, this paper introduced the modular design theory in the field of public facility research in the design process. The modular split design of each function of the post station not only meets the relevant temporary needs of users nearby but also flexibly adjusts the corresponding number of functional modules according to the number of users in a specific area and their relevant needs. The advantages of modular design, such as rapid disassembly and erection, flexible combination, and low production and maintenance costs, were fully applied to the whole post station design.

In addition, to evaluate the effectiveness of modular post stations in improving the conditions for decent work in outdoor working environments, the impact of various working environment conditions on the sense of decency in the working environment was studied. The results indicate that the working environment conditions optimized by post stations have a significant positive impact on the sense of decency in the work environment. Therefore, the modular post stations can optimize the outdoor working environment by meeting the basic needs of most outdoor workers, such as rest and shelter from the sun and rain, thereby effectively improving the sense of decency in the outdoor working environment, solving the problem of the indecent working environment of outdoor workers, improving their work enthusiasm, and contributing to the construction of modern cities. However, due to the varying degrees of impact of different environmental conditions on the sense of decency in the working environment and the varying environmental conditions in different regions, to improve the sense of decency in the working environment, the optimization of the working environment should be based on the actual situation in a certain area and the actual needs of workers. This study may provide some references for optimizing working environment conditions. For example, based on the research results mentioned previously, due to the fact that the provision of a wealth of emergency supplies has the most significant impact on the sense of decency in the work environment, relevant departments could focus on optimizing the outdoor work environment from this aspect by providing more safety guarantees and user-friendly items for outdoor workers, such as medicine boxes and rain gear.

7. Conclusions

With the intensification of global climate change in recent years, the working environment of outdoor workers has deteriorated. Unlike the indoor office environment, the outdoor working environment is more vulnerable to the impact of high temperatures, cold, wind, frost, rain, and snow, but access to emergency supplies is also more inconvenient. At the same time, the behavior of resting and eating in the exposed environment has greatly reduced the decency of their working environment, which is not conducive to the maintenance of the overall civilized image of the city, and contributes to a negative perception of outdoor workers.

A decent work environment enables workers to work more efficiently and comfortably. Therefore, this study aims to respond to the sustainable development goal of decent work and to improve the sense of decency in the outdoor working environment through the design of modular post stations. The evaluation results indicate that the requirements of the working environments have a significant positive impact on the sense of decency in the working environments and that different environmental conditions have different significant degrees of impact on it. Therefore, the optimization of the working environment should consider the priority of each environmental condition and the actual needs of users. For example, the design of modular post stations should pay attention to the provision of a wealth of emergency supplies, such as medicine boxes, rain gear, etc., thereby improving the emotional and physical safety of workers when working outdoors. Other important factors to consider also include providing comfortable rest areas, convenient toilet facilities, and access to daily necessities such as drinking water and charging outlets. In short, this paper may provide accurate focus points for optimizing outdoor working environments to a certain degree.