Unlimited Paid Time Off Policies: Unlocking the Best and Unleashing the Beast.

Unlimited paid time off policies are currently fashionable and widely discussed by HR professionals around the globe. While on the one hand, paid time off is considered a key benefit by employees and unlimited paid time off policies (UPTO) are seen as a major perk which may help in recruiting and retaining talented employees, on the other hand, early adopters reported that employees took less time off than previously, presumably leading to higher burnout rates. In this conceptual review, we discuss the theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the potential effects of UPTO on leave utilization, well-being and performance outcomes. We start out by defining UPTO and placing it in a historical and international perspective. Next, we discuss the key role of leave utilization in translating UPTO into concrete actions. The core of our article constitutes the description of the effects of UPTO and the two pathways through which these effects are assumed to unfold: autonomy need satisfaction and detrimental social processes. We moreover discuss the boundary conditions which facilitate or inhibit the successful utilization of UPTO on individual, team, and organizational level. In reviewing the literature from different fields and integrating existing theories, we arrive at a conceptual model and five propositions, which can guide future research on UPTO. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and societal implications of UPTO.

Being an accountant, cook, entertainer and teacher-all at the same time: Changes in employees' work and work-related well-being during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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.

The ups and downs of the week: A person-centered approach to the relationship between time pressure trajectories and well-being.

This study extends previous research on time pressure and well-being by investigating the relevance of distinct time pressure trajectories for indicators of well-being at the end of the working week and start of the next week. Drawing on the Effort-Recovery Model and Conservation of Resources theory, we applied latent class growth analyses and a manual stepwise Bolck-Croon-Hagenaar approach to examine (a) which latent classes of time pressure trajectories occur for employees and (b) how these classes differ from each other regarding indicators of well-being at the end of the working week and the following Monday. Using data on 254 employees in a daily diary study across five consecutive workdays, the findings revealed a four-class solution characterized by qualitatively different time pressure trajectories: a low stable time pressure trajectory and three trajectories with changing time pressure levels (high unstable, medium unstable, and increasing unstable time pressure). Further, the trajectories exhibited class-specific differences in Friday evening and Monday morning positive valence, calmness, and energetic arousal, in addition to Friday night sleep quality. The results indicated that not only did the level of time pressure matter regarding well-being but also the temporal pattern of change across one working week. The present article provides a first step towards understanding different temporal dynamics of time pressure and their relationship to well-being. Additionally, the findings are discussed from the perspective of resource loss and gain, providing practical recommendations for job design, leadership behavior, as well as individual coping with job demands. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Coworker support and its relationship to allostasis during a workday: A diary study on trajectories of heart rate variability during work.

In this study, we investigate autonomic nervous system regulation during a regular workday and how coworker support relates to this allostatic system. We first examined the trajectory of the heart rate variability (HRV) as an indicator of autonomic nervous system activation throughout the workday. Furthermore, we proposed that coworker support is directly related to the typical autonomic regulation of the workday and facilitates a stable high parasympathetic and low sympathetic activation level during the workday. We conducted a 5-day daily diary study with 115 employees, measuring their coworker support at the end of the day and their HRV during work. We examined the effect of stable between-coworker support on the latent growth curve of HRV during work and found evidence for the stabilizing effect of general coworker support on HRV trajectory. Employees with higher coworker support, on average, had a high, stable parasympathetic and low, stable sympathetic level during work. Employees with low support showed an inverted, U-shape trajectory of the parasympathetic activation throughout the workday, with low parasympathetic activation at the beginning and end of the workday and a maximum in the middle of the workday during lunch break time. Thus, we offer initial evidence for a regulating effect of coworker support on allostasis in terms of a trajectory in actual working conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Fair Share of Work: Is Fairness of Task Distribution a Mediator Between Transformational Leadership and Follower Emotional Exhaustion?

Drawing on social resource theory and the norm of equity, this research proposes fairness of task distribution as a mediating mechanism of the well-established relationship between transformational leadership and followers' well-being, conceptualizing the latter as low emotional exhaustion. Using data from 479 German employees in a three-wave longitudinal study, we found transformational leadership to be related to fair task distribution over time. The perceived fairness of task distribution mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and follower emotional exhaustion (structural equation modeling) when excluding stabilities. Our results also show a reverse causation effect for emotional exhaustion and transformational leadership over a longer time period (within 20 months), suggesting a circular process, as well as a mediation by fairness of task distribution when excluding stabilities. The findings emphasize the importance of fair task distribution by leaders for followers' well-being.

Little things matter: a daily diary study of the within-person relationship between workplace incivility and work-related rumination.

Workplace incivility is a low-intensity, counterproductive work behavior associated with negative health outcomes and organizational consequences (e.g., turnover intention). In the present study, I used a daily diary design to investigate the short-term within-person effects of workplace incivility on work-related rumination. Time pressure was included in the present study to underline the importance of workplace incivility for off-work ruminative thoughts beyond the known effects of a stressful workday. Additionally, I propose mood at the end of the workday as a mediator for the proposed relationships. The results of my study corroborate the existence of the daily within-person and the more stable weekly between-person effect of workplace incivility on off-work ruminative thoughts. These results suggest that the experience of short-term and fluctuating workplace incivility has an impact on off-work ruminative thinking even when controlling for the known effects of time pressure. With regard to my proposed mediational effect, my hypothesis was not confirmed. In an additional analysis, however, mediation was confirmed when time pressure was excluded from the model. Further, the within-person relationship between time pressure and work-related rumination was mediated by mood.

Get even and feel good? Moderating effects of justice sensitivity and counterproductive work behavior on the relationship between illegitimate tasks and self-esteem.

We proposed that effects of illegitimate tasks, which comprise unreasonable and unnecessary tasks, on self-esteem and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) are enhanced among employees who are highly sensitive to injustice. CWB was further proposed to be a moderating coping strategy, which restores justice and buffers the detrimental effects of illegitimate tasks on self-esteem. In this study, 241 employees participated in a diary study over five workdays and a follow-up questionnaire one week later. Daily effects were determined in multilevel analyses: Unreasonable tasks decreased self-esteem and increased CWB the same day, especially among employees high in trait justice sensitivity. Unnecessary tasks only related to more CWB the same day, regardless of one's justice sensitivity. Weekly effects were determined in cross-lagged panel analyses: Unreasonable and unnecessary tasks increased CWB, and justice sensitivity moderated the effect of unreasonable tasks on CWB and of unnecessary tasks on self-esteem. Moderating effects of CWB were split: In daily analyses, CWB buffered the negative effects of illegitimate tasks. In weekly analyses, CWB enhanced the negative effects of illegitimate tasks. Overall, illegitimate tasks rather affected CWB than self-esteem, with more consistent effects for unreasonable than for unnecessary tasks. Thus, we confirm illegitimate tasks as a relevant work stressor with issues of injustice being central to this concept and personality having an influence on what is perceived as (il)legitimate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Stress in nonregular work arrangements: A longitudinal study of task- and employment-related aspects of stress.

In nonregular forms of employment, such as fixed-term or temporary agency work, 2 sources of stress must be distinguished: task-related stress components (e.g., time pressure) and employment-related stress components (e.g., effort to maintain employment). The present study investigated the relationship between task- and employment-related demands and resources and indicators of strain, well-being, work engagement, and self-rated performance in a sample of nonregular employed workers. Using a 2-wave longitudinal design, the results of autoregressive cross-lagged structural equation models demonstrated that time pressure, as a task-related demand, is positively related to strain and negatively related to well-being and self-rated performance. Autonomy, as a task-related resource, exhibited no significant relationships in the current study. Employment-related demands exhibited negative relationships with well-being and work engagement as well as negative and positive relationships with self-rated performance over time. Employment-related resources were primarily positive predictors of well-being and self-rated performance. Fit indices of comparative models indicated that reciprocal effect models (which enable causal and reverse effects) best fit the data. Accordingly, demands and resources predicted strain, well-being, work engagement, and self-rated performance over time and vice versa. (PsycINFO Database Record

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.