The aim of this three‐wave longitudinal study conducted among 664 Finnish employees was to examine the cross‐lagged relationships between various work‐related ruminative thoughts (affective ...rumination, problem‐solving pondering, lack of detachment from work) during off‐job time and employee well‐being (exhaustion, vigour). We tested normal, reversed, and reciprocal temporal relationships across 1 and 2 years using structural equation modelling. The analyses lent most support to the reversed temporal relationships, showing first that high exhaustion predicted low problem‐solving pondering 2 years later and second, that high vigour predicted low affective rumination both 1 and 2 years later. In addition, a normal temporal relationship was supported in one model, indicating that high affective rumination predicted high exhaustion 1 year later. Thus, our study suggests that affective ruminative thoughts, in particular, play a negative role in cross‐lagged relationships. On the basis of our results, occupational health interventions intended to reduce both affective work‐related rumination and exhaustion and to increase vigour at work are desirable.
Practitioner points
Affective rumination during off‐job time predicted increased job exhaustion across 1 year. Prevent affective rumination by training employees to change ways of thinking and to create action plans on setting and completing work goals.
Vigour predicted reduced affective work‐related rumination in the long term. Provide employees with sufficient job resources to increase their vigour at work.
Exhaustion predicted reduced problem‐solving pondering during off‐job time in the long term. Attention should be paid to ensuring that job demands are not so high that they increase exhaustion. Care should be taken to ensure that problem‐solving pondering replenishes energy resources.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In March 2020, the world was hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic which led to all‐embracing measures to contain its spread. Most employees were forced to work from home and take care ...of their children because schools and daycares were closed. We present data from a research project in a large multinational organisation in the Netherlands with monthly quantitative measurements from January to May 2020 (N = 253–516), enriched with qualitative data from participants' comments before and after telework had started. Growth curve modelling showed major changes in employees' work‐related well‐being reflected in decreasing work engagement and increasing job satisfaction. For work‐non‐work balance, workload and autonomy, cubic trends over time were found, reflecting initial declines during crisis onset (March/April) and recovery in May. Participants' additional remarks exemplify that employees struggled with fulfilling different roles simultaneously, developing new routines and managing boundaries between life domains. Moderation analyses demonstrated that demographic variables shaped time trends. The diverging trends in well‐being indicators raise intriguing questions and show that close monitoring and fine‐grained analyses are needed to arrive at a better understanding of the impact of the crisis across time and among different groups of employees.
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DOBA, FSPLJ, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives: The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate to what extent vacation has positive effects on health and well-being, how long such effects endure after work resumption, and how specific ...vacation activities and experiences affect these relationships. Methods: Based on a systematic literature search (Psyclnfo, Medline) and methodological exclusion criteria, in a stepwise approach, 7 studies were selected and reviewed. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated i) for every outcome variable within every study, ii) for every study by averaging the effect sizes per study, and iii) for homogeneous categories of outcome variables (exhaustion, health complaints, life satisfaction). Results: The results suggest that vacation has positive effects on health and well-being (small effect, d=+0.43), but that these effects soon fade out after work resumption (small effect, d=-0.38). Our research further demonstrated that vacation activities and experiences have hardly been studied. Therefore, their contribution to vacation effect and fade out remains unclear. Discussion: Progress in future vacation research will depend on strong research designs that incorporate repeated measurements pre-, inter- and post-vacation.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose
The study had three aims. We investigated, first, how six recovery experiences (i.e., detachment, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation) during off-job time suggested by the ...DRAMMA model (Newman et al. in J Happiness Stud 15(3):555–578.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9435-x
, 2014) are related to well-being (i.e., vitality, life satisfaction, and work ability). Second, we examined how age related to these outcomes, and third, we investigated whether age moderated the relationships between recovery experiences and well-being outcomes.
Methods
A sample of 909 Finnish teachers responded to an electronic questionnaire (78% women, average age 51 years). The data were analyzed with moderated hierarchical regression analyses.
Results
Detachment from work, relaxation, control, and mastery were associated with higher vitality. Detachment, relaxation, meaning, and affiliation were related to higher life satisfaction. Older age was related to lower work ability, but not to vitality or life satisfaction. Older teachers benefited more from control and mastery during off-job time than did younger teachers in terms of vitality, whereas younger teachers benefited more from relaxation in terms of all well-being outcomes.
Conclusions
Detachment, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation during off-job time were related to higher well-being, supporting the DRAMMA model. Age moderated the relationships between control, mastery, and relaxation and vitality and life satisfaction. The role of aging in recovery from work needs further research.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in psychological need satisfaction and its role in promoting optimal functioning. The DRAMMA model integrates existing need and recovery models ...to explain why leisure is connected to optimal functioning (i.e., high well-being and low ill-being). It encompasses six psychological needs: detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation (DRAMMA). While the individual needs of the DRAMMA model have been previously shown to relate to different aspects of optimal functioning, a longitudinal study examining the entire model has not been conducted before. In this longitudinal field study covering leisure and work episodes, we tested the within-person reliability and (construct and criterion) validity of the operationalization of the DRAMMA model in a sample of 279 German employees. Participants filled out measures of DRAMMA need satisfaction and optimal functioning at five measurement times before, during, and after vacation periods in 2016 and 2017. The six-factor model showed good fit to the data. In the multilevel models, relaxation, detachment, autonomy, and mastery had the most consistent within-person effects on optimal functioning, while the relationships between optimal functioning, meaning, and affiliation were considerably weaker. In conclusion, DRAMMA need satisfaction can aid and nurture employees’ optimal functioning.
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CEKLJ, DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The present study focused on within‐workday recovery, which has received less scholarly attention than has recovery outside work. We examined six break recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, ...autonomy, mastery, meaning and affiliation) as possible mediators between daily emotional job demands, positive and negative affect both in the afternoon and in the evening. We conducted a one‐work week diary study (N = 107) among Finnish schoolteachers with three daily measurements per workday. Most participants (88%) were women, and the average age was 50 years. The data were analysed with multilevel path modelling. Regarding daily afternoon affect, both low break detachment and low break meaning mediated the relationship between high daily emotional demands and low afternoon positive affect and high afternoon negative affect. Regarding daily evening affect, only low break meaning mediated the relationship between high daily emotional demands and low evening positive affect. In addition, afternoon positive and negative affect did mediate the relationships between break detachment and meaning and positive and negative evening affect. Our findings offer new insights into the interplay of daily job demands, break recovery experiences and affective well‐being. Despite detachment, meaning, which has received limited research attention as a recovery experience, seems to play an important role in within‐workday recovery. Our study also suggests that successful break recovery can benefit employees' affective well‐being in the evening.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Longitudinal research on the relationship between job demands and job performance and its underlying mechanisms is scarce. The aims of this longitudinal three‐wave study among 920 Finnish employees ...were to ascertain whether (1) challenge job demands (i.e., workload, cognitive demands) and self‐reported job performance are positively related over time, (2) job insecurity (i.e., a hindrance demand) and job performance are negatively related over time, (3) restorative experiences during off‐job time and sleep quality are underlying mechanisms in these relations, and (4) affective rumination mediates the proposed relations of job demands and job insecurity with restoration and sleep quality. Self‐report data were analysed with structural equation modelling. The results revealed a positive, temporal relationship between challenge job demands and job performance (task and contextual performance) across 1 year, but no temporal relationship between job insecurity and self‐reported job performance. Moreover, high challenge job demands were positively related to the restorative value of off‐job activities, and favourable restoration was positively related to subsequent task performance. Finally, affective rumination mediated the relationship of challenge job demands with both restoration and sleep quality. Job insecurity was not longitudinally related to restoration, sleep quality, or affective rumination. The implications of our findings for occupational health psychology are discussed.
Practitioner points
Provide employees with sufficient job resources (e.g., high autonomy and social support) to adequately deal with high job demands.
Allow employees sufficient time to recover from high job demands during off‐job time and provide training sessions in recovery, relaxation, meditation, and goal setting.
Employees may attempt to counteract perseverative thoughts by actively pursuing distracting restoration activities (e.g., exercise, meditation).
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Studies on the stress‐sleep relationship consistently demonstrate negative effects of stress on sleep. The reversed relation, however, has received less research attention. Also, field studies on ...physiological stress are scarce. The aim of this day‐level diary study was to examine daily relationships between sleep quality and quantity, and subjective and physiological stress in an occupational context. Moreover, we examined daily vigour as an underlying mechanism of the sleep‐stress relationship. Participants were 167 knowledge workers who filled in daily questionnaires measuring sleep quality and quantity, morning vigour and subjective afternoon stress on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 5 weeks. Physiological stress was assessed with cortisol decline from morning peak to evening, and with blood pressure in the afternoon. Multilevel path analysis results showed that better sleep quality and longer sleep hours predicted increased vigour the following morning, which in turn predicted lower subjective stress in the afternoon. Sleep quality and quantity were not related to physiological stress neither directly nor indirectly via morning vigour. On the basis of our results, sleep should be considered as a factor affecting vigour which in turn seems to lower stress.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Only few studies so far have examined recovery from work during workday breaks. In this intervention study, based on the effort-recovery model and the conservation of resources theory, we examined ...how to enhance recovery during lunch breaks. More specifically, we examined the within-person effects of lunchtime park walks and relaxation exercises on employees' levels of concentration, strain, and fatigue experienced at the end of a working day. We moreover tested whether detachment from work and enjoyment experienced during lunch breaks transmitted the effects of these activities to well-being outcomes. Participants in the park walk (n = 51) and relaxation (n = 46) groups were asked to complete a 15-min exercise during their lunch break on 10 consecutive working days. Afternoon well-being, lunchtime detachment, and lunchtime enjoyment were assessed twice a week before, during, and after the intervention, altogether for 5 weeks. Multilevel analysis results showed that park walks at lunchtime were related to better concentration and less fatigue in the afternoon through enjoyment. Relaxation exercises were related to better concentration in the afternoon via detachment. In addition, relaxation exercises were directly linked to lower levels of strain and fatigue in the afternoon. Our study suggests that on days on which employees engage in recovering activities during lunch breaks, they experience higher levels of well-being at the end of a working day. These results add to the theory-based knowledge on recovery during workday breaks and highlight the importance of breaks for organizational practices.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
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