Yogi or fireball - or both - a diary study on the interaction between mindfulness and vigor on job performance.

Introduction: Building upon the conservation of resources theory and the episodic process model of performance, this research addresses the gap in understanding how daily variations in two personal resources, particularly their interaction, affect job performance. Specifically, this study examines the influence of vigor and mindfulness on daily fluctuations in task performance considering the potential compensation effect between these personal resources in the workplace. Methods: We conducted a five-day online diary study involving 192 participants (926 daily observations). At the conclusion of each workday, participants were asked to assess their level of mindfulness and vigor in the workplace using validated scales, as well as estimate their task performance. Results: Multilevel analyses showed that both daily mindfulness and daily vigor positively predict self-reported task performance. The interaction between mindfulness and vigor was significant. The results suggest that high levels of mindfulness can compensate for low levels of vigor, and vice versa. Discussion: Exploring the interplay of personal resources at work provides a valuable starting point for individual-tailored interventions that enable individuals to reach their full potential. Enhancing employees' mindfulness may increase job performance directly and empowers workers to compensate for periods of low energy.

Parents' work demands on next day's cortisol awakening response - the moderating role of family-to-work conflict.

BACKGROUND: Constant availability, overtime and feeling overwhelmed by work can impact employees' wellbeing and their biological stress responses. Especially working parents often struggle to balance the demands of their work and family life and were found to be distracted from their work due to family responsibilities. The Family-to-Work Conflict (FWC) indicates the extent to which participating in work is made difficult by family demands. Recent studies have found associations between FWC and biological outcomes such as the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR), a measure of an individual's Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA)-axis activity. This diary study investigates the effect of parental work demands on next day's cortisol response as well as the moderating role of FWC and the mediating role of fatigue. METHODS: Over the course of five consecutive days (from Monday to Friday), 168 observations were made on a total of 42 parents. Participants had at least one child and worked a minimum of 20 hours per week. Salivary cortisol samples were obtained immediately, 15 and 30 minutes after awakening each day. Work demands, FWC and fatigue were assessed using standardized questionnaires. Within-person effects were examined using multilevel modeling and mediation analyses. RESULTS: Our results indicate that there are no main effects of work demands on next day's cortisol response. The multilevel analysis revealed that FWC predicts lower wakening cortisol levels and confirmed FWC as an increasing moderator between work demands and next day's HPA-axis activity. Further, work overload was found to increase fatigue, which in turn leads to higher CAR on the following day. This indicates that fatigue mediates the relationship between work demands and CAR. Our findings add to a growing body of research demonstrating further predictors for HPA-axis activity and emphasise the importance of considering family related demands when investigating biological outcomes for working parents.

Fostering study crafting to increase engagement and reduce exhaustion among higher education students: A randomized controlled trial of the STUDYCoach online intervention.

The study demands-resources framework states that study demands increase exhaustion and study resources increase engagement. Study crafting describes a student's proactive adaption to demands and resources. To date, no intervention in the higher education context has aimed to foster study crafting. Accordingly, this study developed and evaluated the STUDYCoach online intervention, which aimed to increase engagement and reduce exhaustion by promoting study crafting. The study was a randomized controlled trial with a waiting-list control group. All participants (N = 209) completed a questionnaire before (T1) and after (T2) the intervention and at a 20-week follow-up (T3). Participants in the intervention group (n = 149) used the STUDYCoach over three consecutive weeks. Results showed that overall study crafting, decreasing hindering demands, and engagement significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group after the intervention. All effects remained stable at follow-up. Notably, exhaustion decreased significantly in the intervention group from T1 to T3 and T2 to T3. Study crafting mediated the intervention's effect on engagement and exhaustion. Our study extends the study demands-resources framework and the literature on job crafting by confirming that study crafting interventions can be effective in higher education.

Burnout and poor perceived health in flexible working time in Japanese employees: the role of self-endangering behavior in relation to workaholism, work engagement, and job stressors.

The study aim was to examine whether flexible working time was associated with burnout and poor perceived health in relation to the work-related psychological/behavioral factors of self-endangering work behavior (SEWB), workaholism, work engagement, and job stressors. We analyzed data obtained from an Internet survey of 600 full-time Japanese employees. We also proposed a causal model using path analysis to investigate the overall relationships of burnout and perceived health to psychological/behavioral factors. The results indicated that flexible working time was associated with adverse work-related consequences and factors such as increased burnout, working hours, SEWB, workaholism, and job demands, and with positive factors such as improvement of work engagement. The path analysis suggested that burnout was caused by workaholism both directly and via SEWB, and by low job decision latitude, and was reduced by work engagement. Similarly, it was observed that poor health was caused by workaholism via SEWB, and reduced by work engagement. Thus, SEWB is driven by workaholism and plays a key role in the adverse health consequences of flexible working time. For workers to benefit from flexible working time, it is important to improve workaholism, SEWB, and low job decision latitude, and to develop work engagement in the workplace.

Development of the Japanese Version of the Self-Endangering Work Behavior (J-SEWB) Scale.

Objective: The concept of self-endangering work behavior (SEWB) was recently proposed to describe problematic behaviors to cope with heavy workloads and self-management. Although SEWB may enable workers to achieve immediate goals, it risks health and long-term work capacity. In this study, we developed a Japanese version of the SEWB (J-SEWB) scale, which was originally in German, and verified its validity and reliability. Materials: The original SEWB scale consisted of 21 items, constituting five subscales: "Intensification of working hours," "Prolongation/extension of working hours," "Refraining from recovery/leisure activities," "Working despite illness," and "Use of stimulating substances." We translated the scale into Japanese, then checked the wording using back-translation. Methods: The J-SEWB scale and questions for working conditions and sociodemographic variables was administered via an online survey with 600 participants registered with an internet survey company in Japan. Cronbach's α coefficients were calculated for each subscale to assess internal consistency. Construct validity was examined using principal factor analysis with equamax rotation. An analysis of variance evaluated the relationships of J-SEWB scores with working conditions and sociodemographic variables. Results: Cronbach's α coefficients ranged from 0.846 to 0.964 for five subscales, and 0.957 for all 21 items (total J-SEWB score) in 600 participants. The factor analysis identified five factors, classifying 21 items into corresponding subscales. Total J-SEWB scores were significantly higher for flexible work as well as longer working hours. Conclusions: The J-SEWB scale appears to be an effective tool for assessing SEWB in Japanese employees, with satisfactory reliability and construct validity.

How to Use Questionnaire Results in Psychosocial Risk Assessment: Calculating Risks for Health Impairment in Psychosocial Work Risk Assessment.

Psychosocial risk questionnaires are common instruments in occupational safety and health promotion. Organizations use psychosocial risk questionnaires to obtain an economic overview of psychological job stressors and job resources. However, the procedures to assess if a result for a given workplace group is critical and calls for further action differ significantly and are often based on an arbitrary rule of thumb instead of empirically based evaluations. This article presents a method to translate questionnaire results into risk values for the occurrence of health impairment. We test this method on a dataset including the job stressors, job resources, and emotional exhaustion of 4210 employees from different industries. We applied logistic regression analysis to calculate the risks for impaired psychological health, indicated by high values of the burnout indicator emotional exhaustion. The results indicate significantly different health impairment risks (probabilities) for different scores on the job stressors and job resources scales as well as for scale score combinations. The risk values can be used to define cutoff values between high- and low-risk workplaces that are empirically based on stressor-strain relationships and are easily understandable by all stakeholders in the psychosocial risk assessment process, including laypersons.

"Some days won't end ever": Working faster and longer as a boundary condition for challenge versus hindrance effects of time pressure.

Within the workplace, time constraints that create deadline pressure may jeopardize employees' goal attainment. In an attempt to overcome this stressful situation, employees may increase their efforts. We examine two strategies that are assumed to be stress reactions (coping) under conditions of high time pressure: working faster and working longer. We propose that these strategies moderate the relationship between time pressure and adverse health effects, as well as work engagement. In our daily diary study, 122 public service employees provided ratings over five consecutive working days. Multilevel analyses revealed that time pressure relates positively to irritation only in conditions of working faster and is unrelated to irritation in the absence of this strategy. It relates positively to engagement only when employees do not work longer, whereas it is unrelated to work engagement in conditions of working longer. We conclude that using the strategies of working faster or working longer is not recommended to overcome daily time pressure. This study contributes to the refinement of the challenge-hindrance framework by identifying boundary conditions of challenge and hindrance effects of time pressure. In addition, this study provides the first empirical evidence about the daily role of "working faster" and "working longer," conceptualized as a maladaptive coping mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Extended work availability and its relation with start-of-day mood and cortisol.

The opportunity to work at any time and place, which is facilitated by mobile communication technologies, reinforces employer expectations that employees are available for work beyond regular work hours. This study investigates the relation of daily extended work availability with psychological and physiological well-being and the mediating role of recovery experiences. We hypothesized that recovery is limited under conditions of extended work availability, which may impair well-being. A sample of 132 individuals from 13 organizations provided daily survey measures over a period of 4 days during which they were required to be available during nonworking hours and 4 days during which they were not required to be available. A subsample of 51 persons provided morning cortisol levels in addition to the survey data. The analysis of within-person processes using multilevel structural equation modeling revealed significant effects of extended work availability on the daily start-of-day mood and cortisol awakening response. Mediation analysis revealed that the recovery experience of control over off-job activities mediated the observed relationship with start-of-day mood but not the relationship with the cortisol awakening response. The results demonstrate that nonwork hours during which employees are required to remain available for work cannot be considered leisure time because employees' control over their activities is constrained and their recovery from work is restricted.

Effects of work stress on work-related rumination, restful sleep, and nocturnal heart rate variability experienced on workdays and weekends.

The present study reports the lagged effects of work stress on work-related rumination, restful sleep, and nocturnal heart rate variability experienced during both workdays and weekends. Fifty employees participated in a diary study. Multilevel and regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between work stress measured at the end of a workday, work-related rumination measured during the evening, and restful sleep measured the following morning. Work stress, measured as the mean of 2 consecutive workdays, was substantially but not significantly related to restful sleep on weekends. Work stress was unrelated to nocturnal heart rate variability. Work-related rumination was related to restful sleep on weekends but not on workdays. Additionally, work-related rumination on weekends was positively related to nocturnal heart rate variability during the night between Saturday and Sunday. No mediation effects of work stress on restful sleep or nocturnal heart rate variability via work-related rumination were confirmed.

Effects of on-call work on well-being: results of a daily survey.

BACKGROUND: Flexible work schedules and on-call work are becoming more and more common in working life. However, little is known about the effects of on-call work on health. METHODS: Using a daily survey method, 31 employees from an Information Technology Service Organisation filled out a questionnaire four times a week while they were on call and another four times a week while they were not on call. An evaluation of cortisol levels was included. Multilevel analyses were used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: Results showed increases in irritation and negative mood and decreases in social activities, household activities, and low-effort activities. No effects were found concerning the secretion of cortisol. There were no significant differences between those employees who were actually called in to work during the on-call period and those who were not. CONCLUSIONS: Flexible work schedules like on-call work have effects on well-being. The mere possibility of being disturbed by calls shows negative consequences, regardless of whether the employees are actually called in or not.