Maladaptive Working Time Strategies and Exhaustion: A Daily Diary Study on Violating Breaks, Working Faster, and Working Overtime

The benefit of proactive work behaviors for performance-related outcomes has been well established. However, this approach to studying proactivity has not yet acknowledged its potential implications for the actor's well-being. Drawing on the fact that resources at work are limited and that the workplace is a social system characterized by interdependencies, we proposed that daily proactivity could have a negative effect on daily well-being. We furthermore proposed that this effect should be mediated by work overload and negative affect. We conducted a daily diary study (N = 72) to test the potential negative effects of proactivity on daily well-being. Data was collected across 3 consecutive work days. During several daily measurement occasions, participants reported proactivity, work overload, negative affect, and fatigue. They also provided 4 saliva samples per day, from which cortisol was assayed. Based on the 4 samples, a measure of daily cortisol output was produced. Multilevel analyses showed that daily proactivity was positively associated with higher daily cortisol output. The positive association of daily proactivity with bedtime fatigue was marginally significant. There was no support for a mediating effect of work overload and negative affect. Implications for theory-building on the proactivity-well-being link are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

In Mexico, academic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic were conducted from home for over 2 years. Especially during the initial months of the pandemic, the lockdown conditions necessitated a reorganization and a new understanding of social dynamics. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the perceptions of university students and teachers regarding emerging psychosocial factors that either encouraged or hindered work and/or study from home during confinement, as well as their perceptions of work overload. Furthermore, the differences between students and teachers in the studied variables were analyzed. A predominantly quantitative, cross-sectional, and correlational study was conducted with 108 participants (42.6% university teachers; 57.4% graduate or postgraduate students) who filled out an online questionnaire encompassing two open-ended inductors to identify the positive and negative aspects of working or studying from home and their frequency of perceptions, the COVID-19 Work Overload from Home Scale (ESTC-COVID-19), and questions about the hours per day devoted to different activities. The open responses were categorized by two independent groups of the research team; the emerging categories were then consensually agreed upon and further transformed into dummy and continuous variables. These variables and the results of the ESTC-COVID-19 were analyzed with SPSS 19 using Pearson's correlation coefficient, the Chi-squared test, and Student's t-test. The results identified 9 positive and 10 negative emerging psychosocial factors attributed to at least 10% of the sample's open answers. In addition, work overload correlated negatively with the emerging factor of "Making better use of time" and positively with "Work, school, and/or domestic activities overload;" moreover, students perceived more work overload than teachers. Differences between students and teachers were observed in the following psychosocial factors: "Self-management," "Comfort," and "Enjoying home" (as positive factors) and "Domestic work" and "Interruptions, distractors, noise" (as negative factors), with students generally reporting more discomfort than teachers. The study analyzes these differences in relation to the demands and nature of the study and work activities undertaken by both groups, as well as the previous training of the skills and the resources required to carry them out.

ABSTRACTIn this diary study with N = 348 employees, we examine whether the contagion effect of workplace incivility transfers beyond one work day that is whether the experience of workplace incivility is related to showing rude behaviours towards others the next day. Additionally, we examine whether ruminating in the evening of a work day and building an intention for revenge behaviour mediate this relationship, and explore whether a serial mediation process exists where experienced incivility triggers ruminative thoughts, which, in turn, increase the likelihood of intending to act, which transfers into actual rude behaviour the next day. Using a multilevel path analysis, our results confirmed a lagged relationship between workplace incivility one day and rude behaviours towards others the next day. Between-persons’ workplace incivility was also related to showing rude behaviour towards others. Neither rumination nor revenge behaviour intent proved to be mediators of this relationship. Additionally, the serial mediation process was not confirmed; however, parts of the process—namely the relationship between experienced workplace incivility and ruminating about work in the evening—received support. Importantly, the reverse relationship (i.e., showing rude behaviour one day leads to experiencing workplace incivility the next) was not supported in our analysis. By adding a new, daily time perspective, our study suggests that participants do not intentionally provoke episodes of incivility, but rather react to others’ incivility.

Although public management and human resource management research has extensively investigated the motivational effects of organizational rules, the original utility of organizational rules—uncertainty reduction—has remained overlooked. This study takes a cognitive perspective by examining how organizational rules relate to uncertainty experiences of public professionals. In this study, we provide a dynamic perspective on the relationship between organizational rules and uncertainty through a 2-week daily online diary study among 65 public professionals in the Netherlands. The results indicate that the amount and consistency of rules are related to professionals’ daily uncertainty experiences. Moreover, within-person experiences of rules and uncertainty are highly variable over time. We argue that a cognitive perspective of uncertainty reduction can broaden our understanding of the consequences of organizational rules in managing people, and that the dynamic nature of organizational rule experiences cannot be a mere footnote in future public administration and human resource management research.

To capture the dynamic nature of frontline employees’ subjective well-being (SWB) and turnover intention in the hotel industry, this study used Affective Events Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and the unfolding model of employee voluntary turnover (Lee & Mitchell, 1994) to argue the short-term variability in SWB and turnover intention. Using the job demandsresources model (JD-R model) as the framework, this study examined the role of daily jobdemands (challenge stressors, hindrance stressors, and emotional dissonance) and the role of daily job resources (supervisor support, coworker support, and job autonomy). Given that hotel employees work with different supervisors and co-workers and face various guest situations during each shift, these employees may face high work stress and workload. Furthermore, employees in this industry are often requested to perform non-routine tasks. Therefore, their work is highly associated with high job demands and resource variability. Moreover, the study results stress the importance of the moderating role of day-level job resources and the multilevel moderating effects of employees’ individual levels of resilience and self-efficacy. The design of the study employed an experience sampling method. Participants were employees who are in guest-facing positions from food & beverage and front office departments in full-service or luxury hotels in the United States. Sixty-five participants completed a one-time baseline survey and a daily diary study twice per day for at least five working days, resulting in a total of 416 day-level observations. The data structure is day nested within each person. The multi-level data was analyzed by using multilevel linear modeling. In summary, this study shows that SWB and turnover intention may not always be stable phenomena among hotel employees due to the daily influences of job demands and job resources. In addition, both personal resources and daily job resources were found to mitigate the negative daily influences of job demands. This study helps managers to better understand employees’ feelings on a daily basis and apply strategies for daily management of employee SWB and turnover intention.

Previous research on women has focused on the influence of the overall work- or family-role experiences rather than on the specific characteristics of each role. Using multidimensional measures of work- and family-role experiences, this study first examined (Time 1) the additive cumulative contributions of role experiences in the prediction of women's well-being (happiness and symptoms of psychological distress). While work overload significantly predicted distress at Time 2, none of the family-role variables were related to well-being. Second, as the sample was made up of two groups of women who differed in occupational status (secretaries and professional women), it was possible that the effects of overload on distress might be conditioned by occupational status. The group X overload interaction term was found to be highly significant (p < .007); high occupational status moderated the negative effects of work overload. By contrast, secretaries were adversely affected by work overload. These results are discussed in relation to the existing literature, with reference to women's work and family roles in relation to well-being, and the effects of occupational status on health outcomes.

This research, which is addressed within the framework of social support, field theory, social exchange theory and JD-R model, was conducted on 4 and 5-star hotel chefs in Ankara to examine the relationships between colleague support, work overload, presenteeism and work engagement. The data were collected and analyzed from 387 chefs through a survey technique. As a result of the study, work overload was found to be negatively correlated with work engagement and colleague support, while it was positively correlated with presenteeism. Moreover, work engagement was found to be positively correlated with colleague support and negatively correlated with presenteeism. In the study, it was stated that the work overload has a decreasing role in work engagement, and it was also proved that work engagement is a variable that reduces presenteeism. It was also concluded that work engagement has a mediating role in the effect of work overload on presenteeism. Further, it was revealed that colleague support moderates the relationship between work overload and work engagement. Finally, colleague support was found to have a moderating role in the indirect effect of work overload (through work engagement) on presenteeism.

Background: The growing need for nursing care is offset by a shortage of nurses, who are exposed to high physical and psychological demands in their daily work and have above-average absences that vary between different care settings. Based on the data on sick days, the question arises: What are the subjective work-related health burdens of nurses in acute care hospitals, inpatient care facilities, and outpatient care services? Methods: Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in different care settings between May and September 2021. Questions about the professional career, everyday working life and personal health, violence in the workplace, and organizational framework conditions were asked. Results: The experiences of the nurses highlighted that health-related burdens have varying manifestations in different care settings. This was reflected in three main categories: health, everyday working life, and experiences of violence. In particular, the different structural framework conditions that trigger stress and the occurrence of violence are important from the perspective of the nurses. Conclusions: The results of this exploratory study can serve as a baseline for obtaining further setting-specific quantitative data that can contribute to the development, implementation, and evaluation of target group-specific health promotion programs.

Objective: Burnout is stated as a major problem for nurses. The relationship between work overload and burnout, another problem experienced by nurses, has been examined by different authors. However, the effect of mediation and moderation mechanisms that may affect the relationship between work overload and emotional exhaustion in nurses has yet to be clarified to a great extent. This study aims to fill this research gap by examining the mediating role of compassion fatigue and moderating role of emotional contagion in the relationship between work overload and emotional exhaustion. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Istanbul, Turkey, with the participation of 330 nurses. The research model was tested with Hayes' PROCESS macro. Results: The result shows that the indirect effect of work overload on emotional exhaustion through compassion fatigue is positive and significant (b = 0.335, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) = (0.243, 0.430)). Also, the indirect effect was found to vary depending on emotional contagion (Index of moderated mediation (IMM) = 0.076, 95% CIs = (0.029, 0.132)). In this context, the effect of work overload on emotional exhaustion through compassion fatigue is stronger in nurses with high emotional contagion levels. Conclusions: The study's findings revealed that emotional contagion and compassion fatigue variables are important mechanisms for clarifying the relationship between work overload and the emotional exhaustion of nurses.

Background Work is an occupation of great concern for younger stroke survivors. Given the high rate of people not working after stroke, there is a need to explore work after stroke from a long-term perspective, including not just an initial return to work, but also the ability to retain employment and how this may affect everyday life after stroke. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore experiences relating to work and to work incapacity among long-term stroke survivors. Method This study used thematic analysis on data gathered through individual semi-structured interviews with long-term stroke survivors. Results The analysis resulted in four themes that together comprised the main theme ‘The centrality of work in everyday life’, containing descriptions of how everyday life was affected by aspects of work both for those who did work and those who did not return to work after stroke. Conclusion and significance The results highlight the importance of addressing return to work not just as an isolated outcome but as part of everyday life after stroke. The results indicate a need for a more flexible approach to supporting return to work that continues past the initial return.

Although previous works have examined how work overload affects the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of members in an organization, those studies have paid insufficient attention to the mediating and contingent factors in the work overload–turnover intention link from the perspective of positive psychology. Considering the theoretical and practical value and importance of positive psychology, studies that use it to investigate underlying processes are needed. Also, existing studies on work overload have focused on the moderating role of individual-level variables to reduce the negative effects of work overload, mostly ignoring the importance of organizational-level moderators. To resolve those issues, we hypothesize that the meaningfulness of an employee’s work mediates the relationship between work overload and turnover intention. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices could moderate the association between work overload and the meaningfulness of work. Using a three-wave data set gathered from 356 currently working employees in South Korea, we reveal not only that the meaningfulness of work mediates the work overload–turnover intention link, but also that CSR activities play a buffering role in the work overload–meaningfulness of work link. Our findings suggest that, from the perspective of positive psychology, the degree of meaningfulness of work (as a mediator) and CSR activities (as a moderator) function as intermediating mechanisms in the work overload–turnover intention link.

BackgroundMultimorbidity is common in patients living in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and is associated with poor quality of life, but the reasons behind this are not clear. Exploring the ‘everyday life work’ of patients may reveal important barriers to self-management and wellbeing.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between the management of multimorbidity and ‘everyday life work’ in patients living in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation in Scotland, as part of a programme of work on multimorbidity and deprivation.DesignQualitative study: individual semi-structured interviews of 14 patients (8 women and 6 men) living in deprived areas with multimorbidity, exploring how they manage. Analysis was continuous and iterative. We report the findings in relation to everyday life work.ResultsThe in-depth analysis revealed four key themes: (i) the symbolic significance of everyday life work to evidence the work of being ‘normal’; (ii) the usefulness of everyday life work in managing symptoms; (iii) the impact that mental health problems had on everyday life work; and (iv) issues around accepting help for everyday life tasks. Overall, most struggled with the amount of work required to establish a sense of normalcy in their everyday lives, especially in those with mental–physical multimorbidity.ConclusionsEveryday life work is an important component of self-management in patients with multimorbidity in deprived areas, and is commonly impaired, especially in those with mental health problems. Interventions to improve self-management support for patients living with multimorbidity may benefit from an understanding of the role of everyday life work.Journal of Comorbidity 2014;4:1–10

Research generally shows that autonomous forms of motivation are associated with higher performance and job satisfaction, whereas controlled forms of motivation are linked to worse outcomes. These relationships are largely based on between-persons data from cross-sectional studies or longitudinal studies with few measurement points. However, motivation quality, performance, and job satisfaction can vary considerably from day to day and from task to task. It is unclear whether and how these experiences and behaviors covary over time within individuals at work in daily life. The present study assessed this using a diary approach. With a default protocol of 30 working days, an ecological momentary assessment application prompted 19 white-collar workers five times a day to report their autonomous and controlled motivation for work tasks and their productivity and job satisfaction at the end of each day. Fourteen participants gathered sufficient data to compute within-person relations and individual networks. At the between-person level, results were somewhat in line with prior survey-based research, whereas results at the within-person level present more nuanced findings and demonstrate that these will not inherently align with previous between-person findings. Individual network analyses indicated considerable interindividual heterogeneity, especially in the relationships between motivation and job satisfaction. In conclusion, these findings point to significant variability in the observed relations between task-related motivation, performance and job satisfaction in everyday life, and highlight the added value of a within person approach and individual networks in addition to between-persons approaches. The implications of these findings for occupational wellbeing research are discussed.

Although formal mentoring programs can provide considerable supports for proteges, they may still perceive some aspects of the mentoring to be ineffective. Different from previous research explaining ineffective mentoring outcomes in light of individual or program characteristics, the current study focuses on the work overload felt by formal mentors. We empirically investigate the effects of mentors' work overload on mentoring effectiveness in terms of the satisfaction toward mentoring, career functions, and psychosocial functions reported by their proteges. To test the hypotheses, data were collected using a sample of 108 mentor-protege dyads participating in a formal mentoring program offered for nurses in a general hospital. The results indicate that the work overload felt by formal mentors negatively affects their proteges' satisfaction toward mentoring and psychosocial functions, whereas mentors' work overload as perceived by their proteges was not significant in predicting mentoring effectiveness. This study highlights the implications of workload in the operation of formal mentoring program in health care organizations.

Work overload is often inevitable in the workplace and is known to have a negative impact on employees' attitudes and behaviors. In this study we explored the mechanism through which work overload is negatively related to employees' affective commitment and how the negative effect of work overload could be mitigated. Using data obtained from 269 employees in South Korea, our results show that positive psychological capital and work engagement serially mediated the negative relationship between work overload and affective commitment. In addition, the negative relationship between work overload and affective commitment was moderated by the extent to which an employee experienced compassion at work. Our findings extend knowledge of how work overload is associated with employees' affective commitment and shed light on the importance of helping employees experience compassion at work to alleviate the negative impacts of work overload. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.