This paper gives an overview of how well the Baltic States have introduced the European flexibility policy in their overtime work regulations, to meet the goals of European Commission strategy ...“Europe 2020”. In this work, an analysis from the flexibility aspect is carried out, regarding how the overtime work in Baltic States is defined, what kind of restrictions have been established regarding the form of overtime agreement, time limits and persons, also what kind of overtime work compensation mechanisms are being used in the Baltic States. In the article good flexibility practice is pointed out, and the problem areas concerning overtime work are analysed. Additional suggestions are given, how the overtime work regulations in Baltic States can be made even more flexible.
Long working hours and mental health problems among teachers are a concern in Japan. More specifically, it has been reported that junior high school teachers tend to work overtime. In this study, ...examined the working hours of junior high school teachers in public schools and investigated the association between overtime work and stress responses across job titles.
From June to December 2018, 54,772 teachers in public junior high schools completed a web-based nationwide survey regarding occupational stress and submitted self-evaluated working hours per day of the previous month. Psychological and physical stress responses were assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire.
Results showed that 59.6% of the participants worked 11 h or more per day. Additionally, the length of working hours significantly differed across job titles (χ
(30) = 5295.8,
< 0.001, Cramér's
= 0.14). With respect to tenured teachers, sex (female), age, taking charge of the class, number of working years in the same school, working hours of 10 to 11 h, 11 to 12 h, 12 to 13 h, and 13 h or more were significantly associated with high stress, compared to those who worked less than 9 h per day. Moreover, for fixed-term teachers, sex (female), age, working hours of 9 to 10 h, 10 to 11 h, 11 to 12 h, 12 to 13 h, and 13 h or more were related with more stress as compared to those who worked less than 9 h per day. On the other hand, there was no significant relationship between long working hours and stress response among vice-principals, even though they tended to work the longest hours.
We verified that Japanese junior high school teachers work long hours. Long working hours were associated with stress responses in both tenured and fixed-term teachers, but not in vice-principals. However, vice-principals work the longest hours among teachers, and we suggest that these long working hours may be a hidden problem that is often overlooked.
The present study aimed to clarify the prevalence and risk factors of insomnia among public school teachers in Japan by examining the relationships between working hours, commuting time, and ...insomnia. Time spent on work activities among teachers with insomnia was also investigated.
This study was a secondary analysis of data obtained in a 2016 survey of working conditions among public elementary/junior high school teachers in Japan. A total of 11,390 teachers (women: 47.4%, average age: 42.2 ± 11.3 years) were selected for analysis. The relationships between working hours, commuting time, and insomnia were evaluated using a binomial logistic regression model. The primary outcome was insomnia, defined by a score of ≥6 on the Athens Insomnia Scale. Explanatory factors were working hours/week, commuting time/day, six subscales of occupational stress, age group, presence of children, type of job, type of the school, and the urbanicity of the school.
In total, 41.7% of men and 44.0% of women were classified into the insomnia group. The insomnia group spent more time preparing for lectures, and a significant association was observed between insomnia and long working hours and commuting time. Results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that long working hours, long commuting time, and urbanicity of the school were statistically significantly associated with insomnia.
Insomnia is common among public school teachers in Japan. Our findings suggest the importance of reducing the time spent on working to prevent insomnia.
•Nationally representative public school teachers (11,390, 47.4% women) were analyzed.•The prevalence of insomnia is higher than 40% among public school teachers in Japan.•Public school teachers with insomnia devote about 13 h/day to working and commuting.•Long working and commuting times are a potential risk factor for insomnia.•Working for a school in the 23 wards of Tokyo was associated with insomnia.
Previous studies have defined "workaholic" effort as "bad effort" while work engagement is defined as "good effort." Active overtime is a mapping of work effort, but at this stage there is still ...relatively little exploration of the motivation behind "good effort" in the Chinese context.
This study explores the reasons that promote employees' initiative to perform overtime work in Chinese enterprises based on the two-factor theory. The study mainly used data empirical research approaches, including exploratory factor analysis, validation factor analysis, and data modeling. The questionnaire scale was developed based on factors that have been proven to be of high reliability and validity. The data are mainly for employees who are currently employed in Chinese companies.
We received a total of 1741 valid questionnaires, which provided a good database for this study. The results of the study show that both motivational and hygiene factors can positively promote employees' motivation to intentionally work overtime to a certain extent. Among them, overtime culture, institutional agreement, good physical office environment, career growth, financial rewards, and work challenges can positively promote motivation to work overtime. Work stress can increase the frequency and intensity of overtime work, but negatively promote motivation to work overtime. The study helps to improve enterprise management, optimize work design, and enhance psychological satisfaction.
Healthcare organizations often have to provide patient care around the clock. Shift work (any shift outside of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m) and long work hours increase the risk for short sleep duration and ...sleep disturbances. Thirty-two percent of healthcare workers report they do not get enough sleep. The purpose of the article is to give an overview of the wide range of risks to nurses, patients, and employers that are linked to shift work, long work hours, and poor sleep from other sources.
Shift work and long work hours increase the risk for reduced performance on the job, obesity, injuries, and a wide range of chronic diseases. In addition, fatigue-related errors could harm patients. Fatigued nurses also endanger others during their commute to and from work.
The key strategy to reduce these risks is making sleep a priority in the employer's systems for organizing work and in the nurse's personal life.
AbstractBackground: Expanding nursing workload is a worldwide problem. However, any nursing workload assessment (NWA) tool requires complicated analyses of the nursing job profile. To determine the ...imbalance in time assignments across all nursing operations and to reduce nursing workload, a nursing job survey was conducted. Methods: A total of 25 major job categories, common to all hospital wards, were identified, and an NWA tool was developed for efficient analyses to feature easy/flexible entry of the time spent for each job category and real-time visual profiling of job time allocation. The profile could be divided by job categories, wards, shifts, and years. Results: From the preliminary analyses, undesirable time allocation was revealed in several job categories, especially the time for recording and other nonessential nursing operations. Using the analytical functions of the NWA tool between 2014 and 2016, a series of corrective measures were successfully taken to many job categories, and they were found to be effective. Consequently, excessive overtime workload was reduced from 125 min/day/nurse in 2014 to 100 and 100 min/day/nurse in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Conclusion: Notable improvements in nursing workload and time allocation for attentive patient care could be achieved employing the novel user-aimed NWA tool.
Despite the recent and sharp rise in psychedelic research, few studies have investigated how classic psychedelic use relates to employees' work-related outcomes. This is surprising given that the ...increased use, decriminalization, and legalization of classic psychedelics in the United States (U.S.) has the potential to impact both employees and their organizations. Addressing this gap, the current study explores how employees' lifetime psilocybin use relates to the amount of overtime they work, thereby offering insight into what current trends in psilocybin use could mean for businesses. Using pooled, cross-sectional data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2002-2014) on 217,963 adults employed in the U.S. full-time, this study tests whether lifetime psilocybin use is associated with employees' number of overtime hours worked in the past week. After adjusting for sociodemographics and other substance use, a significant negative association is found between employees' lifetime psilocybin use and the amount of overtime they reported working. Specifically, the findings suggest that lifetime psilocybin use in the U.S. full-time working population is associated with an estimated 44,348,400 fewer overtime hours worked per year and may help explain recent findings linking employees' lifetime psilocybin use to a reduction in sick leave taken.
•We examined the association between working hours and the onset of suicidal ideation among female workers in Korea.•Those working ≥55 h per week had a 1.7-fold increased risk of developing suicidal ...ideation than those 35–40 h per week.•A pronounced association was observed among individuals with low-income levels or those employed in blue-collar jobs.•Our findings suggest that policy efforts are required to promote the mental health of workers exposed to long working hours.
Long working hours and overwork have recently emerged as pressing public health concerns. We explored the association between long working hours and suicidal ideation in female workers. A total of 8017 women (24,331 observations) from the fourth to eighth waves of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (2012–2020) were analyzed. To address the repeated measurements within each participant, we employed a generalized estimating equation to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 1.9% for those working 35–40 h/week and 4.4% for those working ≥55 h/week. Compared to individuals working 35–40 h/week, those working ≥55 h/week were more likely to experience concurrent suicidal ideation (OR 95% CI:1.85 1.43–2.39). The OR (95% CI) of the association between long working hours and onset of suicidal ideation in the subsequent wave was 1.69 (1.20–2.38) for ≥55 h/week. In subgroup analysis, this association was pronounced among workers with low-income levels (OR 95% CI: 1.97 1.29–3.02) and blue-collar occupations (OR 95% CI: 2.27 1.41–3.66). Policy efforts are required to protect the mental health of female workers exposed to long working hours.
Summary
Overtime work has been blamed for the deterioration of employee satisfaction and productivity. However, the organization‐level implications of overtime work as a normative expectation remain ...unclear. In this study, such effects were analyzed through human capital theory and a causal attribution approach. Various organizational outcomes and boundary conditions were explored in explaining these implications. The analysis of time lagged data from 273 firms affirmed that a firm's overtime level was related negatively to employee satisfaction. However, it was positively related to the firm's productivity and curvilinearly (inverted U‐shaped) related to innovation. The effects of the firm's overtime level on firm productivity and innovation were also moderated by organizational trust. This study highlights the costs and benefits of overtime work as tools for utilizing human capital and reveals the critical contingency of organizational trust that enables firms to attenuate the costs of the overtime level and accentuate its potential benefits.
This study examines the effects of short sleep duration (SSD) on hemodynamic and psychological responses under long working hours (LWH) in a laboratory experiment. Sixteen subjects participated in a ...crossover design experiment consisting of two conditions: normal (7-hours) sleep and short (5-hours) sleep. In each condition, participants engaged in simulated LWH (13 hours a day), comprising 12 task sessions. Hemodynamic and psychological responses were measured in each session. Results showed that there were significant main effects of condition and session but no interaction for hemodynamic and psychological responses. Systolic blood pressure and fatigue were higher in the later sessions than the first one. Stroke volume, sleepiness, fatigue, and stress were higher in the 5-hour than the 7-hour sleep condition (all p<0.05). These results suggest that although the combined effect of LWH and SSD was not significant, both LWH and SSD caused a hemodynamic and psychological burden.
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