Off-work Hours Research Articles

Epidemiology of Diseases and Mortality in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Qazvin, Iran

Background: Depending on the level of care and the availability of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) facilities, the mortality rate of acutely ill children varies in PICUs. Referral of patients from other medical centers, admission during working or off-work hours, and nosocomial infections are the most important risk factors for the high mortality rates in PICUs. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics and factors related to the risk of mortality in pediatric patients admitted to the PICU of a pediatric hospital in Qazvin, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on children admitted to the PICU of a pediatric hospital in Qazvin, Iran, between June 2017 and June 2020. During this period, a total of 1504 children, aged one month to 13 years, were admitted to the PICU, and 106 cases expired. The patients’ clinical data (ie, demographic characteristics, underlying disease, cause of death, and length of hospital stay) was extracted from their medical records. A prolonged length of stay was defined as more than 28 days of PICU admission. Results: A total of 106 children, with a mean age of 3.89 ± 3.23 years, expired during the study, with 41 (38.7%) cases being male. Among the investigated cases, 61 (57%) were < 2 years, 18 (17%) were 2 - 5 years old, and 27 (26%) were ≥ 6 years. In these patients, sepsis (13/82, 15.85%) and pneumonia (10/82, 12.19%) were the main causes of death. Other mortalities (14/106) were due to infectious diseases (gastroenteritis, influenza, and coronavirus disease) and non-infectious diseases (aspiration, anaphylaxis, and electrocution). The majority of children with a prolonged length of stay were < 2 years (17/23, 74%). The length of PICU stay was shorter in children with a lower weight percentile (P = 0.016). Conclusions: Following infectious diseases, congenital abnormalities and genetic disorders were the most common causes of pediatric mortality. Chronically ill children were more likely to be underweight and develop nutritional disorders, leading to the deterioration of their condition.

Smartphone Use for Work during Personal Activities: An Investigation into Work-Life Conflict

This quantitative study investigates the impact of smartphone use for work and time-based work interference with leisure (WIL) on work-life conflict among 123 private-sector workers in Kuching, Sarawak. Analyses of Pearson Correlation Coefficients were carried out. The findings support previous research which suggests using smartphones for work after hours can lead to conflicts between employees' work and personal lives. Furthermore, the findings show that work-life conflict is compounded by time-based work interferences with leisure (WIL). These findings have ramifications for policies and procedures surrounding work-related smartphone use and the amount of time spent on specific tasks during off-work hours, which could negatively impact employees' work-life balance.

Smartphone use after work mediates the link between organizational norm of connectivity and emotional exhaustion: Will workaholism make a difference?

Using smartphone for work in off-work hours has been associated with negative employee outcomes. We postulate that: (1) organizational norm of connectivity precedes employees' work-related smartphone use after work, which predicts emotional exhaustion among employees; and (2) this process is moderated by employees' workaholism. We collected data from 399 full-time employees who completed six online surveys over 3 workdays to test our hypotheses. Multilevel path analysis of these data revealed that organizational norm of connectivity was more strongly related to smartphone use after work among employees with high workaholism compared to those with low workaholism. However, smartphone use was more strongly related to emotional exhaustion among those with low workaholism compared to those with high workaholism. In total, the indirect effect of organizational norm of connectivity on emotional exhaustion through work-related smartphone use after work was significant only for those with low workaholism. These findings highlight the role of organizational norm of connectivity and individual workaholism in the association of work-related smartphone use after work and negative employee outcomes. We discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Work-family conflict during the Covid-19 pandemic: teleworking of administrative and technical staff in healthcare. An Italian study.

Background:Remote working (more appropriately, mandatory work from home) during the Covid-19 healthcare emergency has increased significantly. Amidst many critical issues, work-family conflict (WFC) remains a central topic, due to the hardships in separating different life domains, the pervasiveness of technology, and decreased opportunities for recovery, all considering new, emerging job demands. Although many studies have involved healthcare workers, less attention has been paid to technical-administrative staff (TA); moreover, previous studies about the impact of remote working on WFC have provided mixed results.Objectives:The study aims at examining the relationships between WFC and cognitive demands, off-work hours technology assisted job demands (off-TAJD) and recovery, in the TA of a hospital in northwest Italy.Methods:A sample of 211 individuals (response rate of 58%), in line with the population, filled in an online self-report questionnaire in the second half of April 2020.Results:Multiple regression analysis showed a positive relationship between WFC and perceived ICT stress, off-TAJD and cognitive demands, and a negative relationship with recovery.Conclusions:The results confirm the role of cognitive demands, technology overload and invasiveness, as potential predictors of WFC. The results also indicate the mitigating role of recovery, even in the face of a prolonged and forced experience of remote work. The study emphasises the need for transparent policies, based on trust, autonomy and right to disconnect, and the centrality of training, especially for supervisors, on topics such as evaluation of results, proper recovery management and correct use of technology.

Well-Being of Entrepreneurs: The Thin Line between Work Engagement and Workaholism

Theoretically, working excessively hard should be related negatively with well-being; however, the empirical literature does not consistently indicate that entrepreneurs are lower in well-being than people working in other jobs. The present article introduces a study of 101 entrepreneurs differentiating between different types of working hard: Workaholism and work engagement. While workaholism implies a work obsession, work engagement implies working hard in a fulfilling and positive way. Results indicate that workaholism is negatively and work engagement is positively related with well-being. Moreover, the negative relationships of workaholism are minimized by detaching from work during off-work hours.

Participation of libraries in solving national economic problems during the Great Patriotic War

The author examines the role of libraries in accomplishing diverse economic tasks during the Great Patriotic War (WWII). Before the war, the libraries accumulated this specific experience and expanded it in timely and integrated manner. The author demonstrates how the libraries participated in engaging new workpower to the industries, including women and teenagers who had to replace those who went off to war. The libraries assisted in teaching teenagers and young adults in their off-work hours and their professional training. The activities of the libraries in the backlands is discussed: information support of evacuated enterprises and research centers, new groups of users, and researchers, in particular. Statistical data available from multiple publications (see the applied list of sources). The author examines this subject in his several works, including papers presented at various forums and articles published in the present journal (e. g. Libraries’ accomplishing military and defense tasks during the Great Patriotic War. – 2020. – № 4; Unknown lives: D. B. Marchukov heading the State Foundation for Reviving Libraries Destroyed During the Great Patriotic War. – 2017. – № 1).

ORGANIZATIONAL AND OLDER ADULT VOLUNTEER PERSPECTIVES ON ROLE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Older adults are increasingly occupying multiple life roles, including working, caregiving, and volunteering, creating the opportunity for role conflict. Such conflict occurs when stress and strain created by the demands of multiple life roles outstrips an individual’s resources to successfully manage such demands. A two-phase research study was recently completed with 1,697 RSVP volunteers drawn from 55 RSVP program sites across the country (Phase I) with a follow-up survey of RSVP programs conducted with 17 sites (Phase II). Grounded in role theory, the Phase I volunteer survey explored role conflict in addition to self-reported strategies used to mitigate the experience of role conflict. The Phase II program survey gathered responses from volunteer managers and staff about the strategies used by their older adult volunteers to avoid and address role conflict. Based on findings from both surveys, caregivers engaged the following strategies in order to minimize role conflict: obtaining respite care, and volunteering alongside their care recipient. Worker-specific strategies focused largely on time management and included volunteering during off-work hours and completing time-limited volunteer assignments. While a high level of convergence was noted between volunteer manager and volunteer perspectives, two themes emerged from the volunteer survey that were not identified in program survey responses: seeking volunteer opportunities that leverage similar skills and experiences across roles and seeking volunteer opportunities that provide a different experience from that of other roles. Implications for future research and volunteer management strategies will be discussed.

Daily Smartphone Use for Work and Its Effect on Work-Life Conflict among Integrators


 This daily diary study investigates the effects of daily smartphone use for work during off-work hours on work-life conflict. Drawing on role theory which supports the notion that segmentation is a boundary management strategy, the moderating effect of individual’s segmentation preference is proposed. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that smartphone use for work was positively related to work-life conflict. The result also shows that the preference to integrate work and personal life rather than separate these domains strengthened the relation between smartphone use for work and work-life conflict. The results of this study may help human resource practitioners to better understand the impact of staying connected to work during off-work hours.
 
 Keywords: Daily smartphone use; Work-life conflict; Segmentation preference; Diary study

The Effect of Employee Participation in Enterprise Social Media on Their Job Performance

This study focuses on employee involvement in enterprise social media (ESM) and the impact of ESM on job performance. Few studies found empirical support for this perspective due to limited sample size either the difficulty of accessing the data on user behavior in ESM and their job performance. We addressed this research gap through a data-sharing agreement with a large, high-tech manufacturing enterprise with internal social media and conducted a cooperative study on the impact of employee behaviors involved in ESM on their job performance. We divided online activities on ESM into information-sharing behaviors, information-seeking behaviors and general usage behaviors and then employed hierarchical regression analysis to investigate how the various usage behaviors of employees on ESM affect their job performance significantly. We find that information-seeking behaviors on ESM have positive effects on job performance, but information-sharing behaviors on ESM have negative effects on job performance. Overall, the usage of social media within enterprise social media use could help improve employee job performance. Moreover, to test whether the timing of ESM usage (during working hours or off-work hours) may affect employee job performance, we add a variety of moderator variables into the model. The results show that information-sharing behaviors, information-seeking behaviors and general usage behaviors during working hours negatively moderate the relationship between ESM usage and job performance. The findings have valuable managerial implications for the use of ESM.

Numerical analysis on the advantage of using PCM heat exchanger in liquid-flow window

Liquid-flow window is a multi-glazing system with a flowing liquid layer in the window cavity. Thermal transmission is largely restricted and warm water can be produced. These lead to considerable energy saving in buildings with daytime hot water demand. For service extension, it is necessary to enhance the thermal storage capability of the system as solar energy is an intermittent heat source. In this study, the potential advantage of applying PCM onto the double-pipe heat exchanger of liquid flow window was evaluated for different situations, including the unfavorable case with night-time hot water demand. The enthalpy-based method was adopted for precise modelling of the heat transfer process in the PCM layer. The validity of the numerical model was confirmed by experimental comparison with published data. Numerical studies were then conducted based on different design positions of the PCM layer at the heat exchanger, and for use in residential and office buildings. The results show that comparatively, the design with PCM located at the outermost layer of the heat exchanger has the best energy storage performance. For the case with PCM sealed in the middle annular space, the inner PCM layer is heated up rapidly, while the outer PCM layer remains at low temperature because of the continuous heat release to the cold water stream. With the use of PCM, 31.4% and 11.4% more hot water can be harvested during off-work hours for residential use in typical summer and winter weeks. And as a whole, the energy saving potential is greater in summer than in winter.

New Technologies Smart, or Harm Work-Family Boundaries Management? Gender Differences in Conflict and Enrichment Using the JD-R Theory.

Background: The relationship between technology-assisted supplemental work and well-being outcomes is a recent issue in scientific literature. Whether the use of technology for work purpose in off-work time may have a positive or negative impact on work-family balance remains an open question and the role of gender in this relationship is poorly understood.Aim: According to the JD-R theory, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between off-work hours technology assisted job demand (off-TAJD) and both work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family enrichment (WFE). Moreover, it considered two general job demands, workload and emotional dissonance, and one job resource, supervisory coaching.Method: The hypotheses were tested with a convenience sample of 671 workers. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS 23 and through multi-group structural equation model (SEM) (Mplus 7).Results: The estimated SEM [Chi-square (510) = 1041.29; p < 0.01; CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.06 (0.05, 0.06); SRMR = 0.05. M = 319/F = 352] showed that off-TAJD was positively related to WFC in both subsamples; off-TAJD was positively related also to WFE only in the Male group. Workload was positively related to WFC in both Male and Female subsamples. Emotional dissonance was positively related to WFC in both subsamples and was negatively related to WFE. Supervisory coaching was strongly, positively related to WFE in both groups, and only in the Male subsample presented a low negative relationship with WFC.Conclusion: This study contributes to the literature on new challenges in work-life interface by analyzing the association between off-TAJD and WFC and Enrichment. Our findings suggest it is important to pay attention to gender differences in the study of the impact of supplemental work carried out during off-work hours using technology on the work-life interface. In fact, employee perception of Company demands of being available during off-work time, with the use of technology, may have different consequences for men and women, indicating potential differences in the centrality of the working role. Practical implications, at both cultural and organizational levels, should address the use of technology during leisure time.

After-hours availability expectations, work-related smartphone use during leisure, and psychological detachment

Purpose – Modern working life is characterized by increased expectations for employees to be available to deal with work issues outside regular work hours and by using new communication technology. This implies more individual freedom in organizing work in time and space, but also places increased demands on employees to manage the boundaries between work and personal life. This, in turn, can be expected to be crucial to their ability to mentally detach from work during free time. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether individual perceptions of boundary control moderate the impact of after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use during off-work hours on psychological detachment. Design/methodology/approach – The study population comprised 2,876 gainfully employed professionals from four large organizations in both the public and private sector, representing various businesses and occupations. Univariate correlations and multiple, linear hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. Findings – High after-hours availability expectations, high frequency of work-related smartphone use, and low boundary control were associated with poor psychological detachment. Furthermore, boundary control moderated the relationships between both after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use, respectively, and psychological detachment. As such, boundary control mitigated the negative effects of both after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use during leisure on psychological detachment. Practical implications – Modern work organizations would benefit from introducing availability policies and helping employees reduce their work-related smartphone use outside regular work hours, thus helping them achieve successful boundary control and subsequent psychological detachment. Originality/value – In a working life characterized by blurred boundaries, employees’ ability to achieve boundary control can be regarded as crucial.

Off‐hours admission for acute stroke is not associated with worse outcome – a nationwide Israeli stroke project

Several studies reported worse outcome for stroke patients arriving on weekends. We compared working hours to off-work hours throughout the week as there is lack of experienced staff and special services during off-hours. A nationwide stroke survey project on acute stroke was carried out in all acute care hospitals in Israel during 2004, 2007 and 2010 (2-month each). 'On-hours' were defined as regular Israel working hours and the rest, including holidays, were defined as 'off-hours'. The modified Rankin scale (mRS) at discharge was used for the main analysis on outcome. A total of 4827 acute strokes patients were analyzed (2139 arrived on-hours and 2688 during off-hours). 'Off-hours' patients were 1 year younger (mean 70 vs. 71 years in 'on-hours') had lower rates of prior cardiac interventions, but had higher admission blood pressure levels and had more intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) (11% vs. 8% in 'on-hours' patients, P < 0.001). Death during hospitalization was recorded in 9% of 'off-hours' vs. 6% of 'on-hours' patient (P = 0.004). Controlling for age, blood pressure, stroke type, pre-stroke mRS, admission NIHSS, and thrombolysis, the relative odds of poor outcome (i.e. mRS ≥ 2) amongst 'off-hours' admissions compared to on-hours was 1.09 (95% CI: 0.92-1.30). Odds ratio amongst ischaemic stroke patients was 1.08 (95% CI: 0.88-1.33). Off-hours stroke admissions were associated with higher short-term mortality rate, probably due to a higher rate of ICH. After controlling for the latter and other potential confounders, 'off-hours' admissions were not different from 'on-hours' with respect to poor outcome.

Predictors of Reperfusion Delay in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention from the HORIZONS-AMI Trial

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the optimal method of reperfusion when performed expeditiously. Factors contributing to delays in PCI for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have not been thoroughly characterized or quantified. We sought to identify the factors associated with the delays to reperfusion in patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI. Primary PCI was performed in 3,340 patients with STEMI in the international, multicenter Harmonizing Outcomes with Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction trial. Multivariate analysis was used to identify independent predictors of delay in achieving reperfusion from 38 baseline and procedural variables. A total of 905 patients (27.1%) presented to non-PCI hospitals and were subsequently transferred; the remainder presented to PCI hospitals. The most powerful independent predictor of the interval from symptom onset to arrival at the PCI hospital and the first door-to-balloon time was an initial presentation at a non-PCI hospital (median incremental 58- and 54-minute delay, respectively, both p < 0.001). Other independent predictors of prolonged door-to-balloon times included presentation with respiratory failure (42-minute incremental delay, p = 0.003), presentation during off-work hours (11-minute incremental delay, p < 0.001), and co-morbid conditions such as diabetes and heart failure. In conclusion, among patients undergoing primary PCI, presentation to a non-PCI hospital was the variable associated with the greatest delay to reperfusion. Systems of care that encourage ambulance diagnosis and direct delivery of patients with STEMI to a PCI hospital might shorten the overall door-to-balloon times and improve the clinical outcomes.

Cross-Clustered Model of Frequency of Home-Based Work Participation in Traditional Off-Work Hours

A study was done to shed light on the determinants of working from home beyond the traditional office-based work hours. The frequency of work participation from home was examined for individuals who also have a traditional work pattern of traveling to an out-of-home workplace and a fixed number of work hours at the out-of-home workplace. The sample for the empirical analysis was drawn from the 2002 to 2003 Turin, Italy, survey of time use, which was designed and administered by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The methodology recognizes both spatial and social clustering effects by using a cross-clustered ordered response structure to analyze the frequency of work participation from home during off-work periods. The model is estimated through the use of the inference technique of composite marginal likelihood, which represents a conceptually, pedagogically, and implementationally simpler procedure relative to traditional frequentist and Bayesian simulation techniques.

Survey of outcome of CPR in pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest in a medical center in Taiwan

Purpose of the study While the outcomes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) are reported for many regions, none is reported for Asian countries. We report the outcomes of CPR for pediatric IHCA in a tertiary medical center in Taiwan and also identify prognostic factors associated with poor outcome. Methods Data were retrieved retrospectively from 2000 to 2003 and prospectively from 2004 to 2006 from our web-based registry system. We evaluated patients younger than 18 years of age who had IHCA and received CPR. The primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge, and the secondary outcomes were sustained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), and favorable neurological outcomes as assessed by pediatric cerebral performance categories (PCPC). Results We identified 316 patients and the overall hospital survival was 20.9% and 16.1% had favorable neurological outcomes. Sixty-four patients ever supported with ECMO. We further analyzed 252 patients who underwent conventional CPR only and most had cardiac disease (133/252, 52.8%). The second most common preexisting condition was hematologic or oncologic disease (43/252, 17.1%). Of the 252 patients, 153 (60.7%) achieved sustained ROSC, 50 (19.8%) survived to discharge, and 39 patients (15.5%) had favorable neurological outcomes. CPR during off-work hours resulted in inferior chances of reaching sustained ROSC. Multivariate analysis showed that long CPR duration, hematology/oncology patients, and pre-arrest vasoactive drug infusion were significantly associated with decreased hospital survival ( p < 0.05). Conclusions Outcomes of CPR for pediatric patients with IHCA in Taiwan were comparable to corresponding reports in Western countries, but more hematology/oncology patients were included. Long CPR duration, hematologic or oncologic underlying diseases, and vasoactive agent infusion prior IHCA were associated with poor outcomes. The concept of palliative care should be proposed to families of terminally ill cancer patients in order to avoid unnecessary patient suffering. Also, establishing a balanced duty system in the future might increase chances of sustained ROSC.

Voicing and silence periods in daily and weekly vocalizations of teachers

The National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS) data bank on voice dosimetry was used to study the distributions of continuous voicing periods and silence periods in 31 teachers over the duration of two weeks. Recordings were made during all awake hours of the day. Voicing periods were grouped into half decades, ranging from 0.0316 to 0.10 s for the shortest periods of phonation to 31.6-100 s for the longest periods of phonation. Silence periods were grouped into similar half decades, but ranged up to periods of several hours. On average, the teachers had 1800 occurrences of voicing (onset followed by offset) per hour at work and 1200 occurrences per hour while not at work. Voicing occurred 23% of the total time at work, dropping to 13% during off-work hours and 12% on weekends. The greatest accumulation of voicing occurred in the 0.316-1.0 s voicing periods, whereas the greatest accumulation of silence occurred in the 3-10 s silence periods. The study begins to lay the groundwork for understanding vocal fatigue in terms of repetitive motion and collision of tissue, as well as recovery from such mechanical stress.

Determination of Inhalation Exposure to 1-Nitropyrene in Workplace Atmospheres and Urban Dwellings

1-Nitropyrene (1-NP) is found as a particle-associated product of diesel combustion. It has been suggested that 1-NP may be used as a marker for diesel exhaust particle exposure. It was the objective of this study to determine the inhalation exposure to 1-NP of diesel mechanics (n = 5) in a workshop for buses and exposure of low occupational exposed office workers (n = 11). Airborne particulate matter (APM) was collected at fixed locations on the workplace and in the breathing zones of workers and analysed for 1-NP by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). During the workday the bus garage workers were exposed to higher concentrations of 1-NP (<1.0–70.6 pg/m3), compared to the office workers (<1.0–11.1 pg/m3). Inhalation exposures to 1-NP were approximately one order of magnitude higher during work hours compared to off-work hours. For office personnel there was no difference between exposure concentrations during the workday and off-work hours.

Working conditions in home care: negotiating race and class boundaries in gendered work.

Home care work in metropolitan areas is a source of employment for immigrant women of color. Service work of this type intertwines domestic and caring labor in ways that reinforce the historically gendered and racialized nature of the work. Such macro level economic and political issues are played out at the micro level of daily service provided within elderly clients' homes. A study of these processes in home care work was carried out in urban southern Ontario in two nonprofit home care agencies. In-depth interviews and focus groups held with visible minority home care workers suggested that workers deal daily with racist attitudes and behaviors from clients and their families; agencies recognize these oppressive processes but usually handle them on a case-by-case basis through supervisors; and home care workers handle racism on the job as they do in their off-work hours-by avoidance, situating incidents within an analysis of the circumstances of elderly clients, setting boundaries on discussions, and occasionally, confrontation.