Relationships between work-family conflict and family structure in the lives of working mothers in Hungary - a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The family, as the basic socialization environment, is a complex dynamic system that - as a whole and through its subsystems - is in relationships with other social systems (Bagdy in Family socialization and personality disorders. Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest, 2002; Lakatos et al. in Mentálhigiéné és Pszichoszomatika 21(1):56-85, 2020). The system with which the family system has long-term relationships is the work system/environment. Creating and maintaining a work-life balance has become a central issue in our societies, as they are two of the most organising forces, and reconciling them is a very difficult task due to the demands and expectations coming from both directions, often simultaneously (Makra et al. in Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle 67(3):491-518, 2012). This kind of "double burden" primarily affects women, but their increasing role in the labour market is not necessarily followed by an equal sharing of work within family life (Engler et al. in Work-life balance in women's careers. In: Tardos K, Paksi V, Fábri Gy (eds) Scientific careers in the early 21st century. Belvedere Meridionale, Szeged, pp 114-126, 2021). We hypothesise that involvement in work negatively correlates with work-life balance, making it more difficult to integrate into the family. It was expected that the relationship between the number of children and mothers' professional involvement would be negative. A positive correlation was expected between the age of the youngest child and the mothers' work involvement. On the other hand, a family united by cohesion and resilience leads to higher job satisfaction. METHODS: For the present analysis, we analysed the relationships between work-family conflict and family structure in working mothers with children in a sample of 273 participants. The self-reported questionnaire included demographic data and 2 standard questionnaires: the Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire and the Olson-Family Test (FACES-IV.). The study was conducted in Hungary. RESULTS: No significant relationship was found between work involvement and work-family conflict. A negative relationship was observed between work involvement and family involvement. Similiarily, no significant relationship was found between the number of children, the age of the youngest child and work involvement, contrary to expectations. The findings indicate a positive relationship between good family cohesion, flexibility and job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Striking a work-family balance is a challenging process for families with young children, especially working mothers. A mutually negative relationship between work and family involvement has been shown. The importance of a well-functioning family, with adequate cohesion and flexibility, is reflected in family and job satisfaction. The relationship between work-to-family conflict and job involvement is moderated significantly only when family flexibility is low. The results from the present pilot study indicate important relationships between variables and point to further research directions worth investigating in a larger sample in the future.

Advice to future family physicians: findings from qualitative interviews with family medicine residents and early-career family physicians.

BACKGROUND: Canadians continue to report challenges accessing primary care. Practice choices made by primary care providers shape services available to Canadians. Although there is literature observing family medicine practice trends, there is less clarity on the reasoning underlying primary care providers' practice intentions. Advice offered by residents and early-career family physicians may reveal challenges they have experienced, how they have adapted to them, and strategies for new residents. In this paper, we examine advice family medicine residents and early-career family physicians would give to new family medicine residents. METHODS: Sixty early-career family physicians and thirty residents were interviewed as part of a mixed-methods study of practice patterns of family medicine providers in Canada. During qualitative interviews, participants were asked, "what advice would you give [a new family medicine resident] about planning their career as a family physician?" We inductively analyzed responses to this question. RESULTS: Advice consisted of understanding the current climate of family medicine (need for specialization, business management burden, physician burnout) and revealed reasons behind said challenges (lack of support for comprehensive clinic care, practical limitations of different practice models, and how payment models influence work-life balance). Subtheme analyses showed early-career family physicians being more vocal on understanding practical aspects of the field including practice logistics and achieving job security. CONCLUSION: Most advice mirrored current changes and challenges as well as revealing strategies on how primary care providers are handling the realities of practicing family medicine. Multi-modal systemic interventions may be needed to support family physicians throughout the changing reality of family medicine and ensure family medicine is an appealing specialty.

Work-family interface during COVID-19: a sociolinguistic study of working mums' identity and mental health.

BACKGROUND: The dramatic reconfigurations of work-family roles and social boundaries resulting from the social restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic led working mums to look for online sites as spaces of emotional support and regulation where they could vent their emotions, share their concerns and griefs, and seek advice. They also became interactional spaces where mums' relevant identities were reassessed and enacted as they aimed to balance work-family roles and improve their wellbeing. The paper explores how working mums discursively negotiated their multiple identities in an online support forum during times of global struggle, how these identity constructions reflect the domains of Work-Family Conflict (WFC) and how working mums perceived these identities are related to their mental health. METHODS: 127 posts of Chilean working mums published in a public online support forum for working mums collected during the first half of 2020 were analysed in three phases. The first one involved a thematic analysis to identify themes and subthemes related to working mums' identity construction in the data. The second phase involved conducting a narrative analysis of working mums' microstorias in order to identify a master narrative crafted by these working mums, and contesting and conforming ideologies of motherhood, among others. Finally, the third phase involved a fine-grained discourse analysis of the most representative extracts illustrating working mums' identity negotiation. RESULTS: The sociolinguistic analysis showed that working mums' discourses displayed three themes of self-reflection, namely, diminishing self-care, reassessing their self, and enhancing self through self-care. Identity-related sub-themes for each main theme are discussed and discursively analysed. Two main points are emphasised: (1) the identity that was most salient in working mums' discourse was their personal identity (rather than work-family roles and identities), and (2) microstorias allowed working mums to challenge the hegemonic power of dominant discourses around their identities and their work-family roles. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that a sociolinguistic approach to the exploration of working mums' identity negotiation is useful to highlight the ways in which mums contest binary assumptions of work-family roles and the need to reconsider working mums' life domains so that they reflect working mums' actual identity needs and lived experiences. Future lines of research are outlined.

Early-career general practitioners' career intentions in Estonia: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The shortage of general practitioners (GPs) is a worsening problem in many countries and poses a threat to the services provided by primary care and by extension for the entire healthcare system. Issues with GP workforce recruitment and retention can be reasons for this shortage. OBJECTIVES: To describe GP trainees and newly qualified GPs experiences and perceptions on how their training and early experiences of work influence their career intentions in primary care in Estonia. METHODS: A qualitative study with GP trainees (n = 12) and newly qualified GPs (n = 13) using semi-structured group interviews (n = 6) was conducted. Interviews were conducted from October until November 2020. Data were analysed using thematic analysis with NVivo Software. RESULTS: Although early-career GPs in Estonia envision their future roles as GP practice owners with patient list, this is often postponed due to various reasons. Early-career GPs expressed a sense of unpreparedness to fill all the roles of GPs' and found the process of establishing a GP practice and taking on a patient lists very complicated. They value work-life balance and prefer workplaces, which offer flexible working conditions. CONCLUSION: Potential strategies were identified to enhance the willingness of early-career GPs to continue their career as GP practice owners with patient list: improving the GP training program by placing more emphasis on managing skills and making the process of establishing GP practice and taking on a patient list less bureaucratic and more accessible.

This study highlights the career intentions of GP trainees and newly qualified GPs in Estonia.Participants of this study perceive the many different roles of being a GP as very challenging.Understanding early-career GPs ideas about the future work environments can be helpful in shaping future workforce strategies.

Gender differences in job satisfaction among gig workers in Bangladesh.

The gig economy (temporary, contract, and freelance online jobs rather than permanent positions) is a component of the fourth industrial revolution and preview of future work. The rise of digital platforms has increased career opportunities and income potential, particularly for women. Yet, the sex-disaggregated evidence regarding platform usage, employment characteristics, and working motivations and satisfaction remains untapped. Using data from a quantitative survey of Bangladeshi gig workers (242 men and 201 women) conducted in 2022, this paper addresses these gaps between male and female workers. The gig economy appears to be gender-segregated across digital platform usages and working categories. Women tend to prioritize digital work options for managing multiple responsibilities, while men are often driven by the potential for higher income. This study conceptually utilized the two-factor theory and empirically ordered a probit model to identify gender differences in job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was significantly increased by work-life balance, monthly income, and social-media connection, while an increase in working hours, complexity in payment systems, and unstable networks all led to a decrease in job satisfaction. The findings have implications for the future growth of the gig economy, provide new insights into gender differences in job satisfaction, and underscore the need for gender-sensitive policies in the online labor market.

Managers in the context of small business growth: a qualitative study of working conditions and wellbeing.

PURPOSE: In view of the importance of managers' wellbeing for their leadership behaviour, employee health, and business effectiveness and survival, a better understanding of managers' wellbeing and working conditions is important for creating healthy and sustainable businesses. Previous research has mostly provided a static picture of managers' wellbeing and work in the context of small businesses, missing the variability and dynamism that is characteristic of this context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how managers in small companies perceive their working conditions and wellbeing in the context of business growth. METHODS: The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 20 managers from twelve small companies. Content and thematic analysis were applied. RESULTS: The findings indicate that a manager's working environment evolves from its initial stages and through the company's growth, leading to variations over time in the manager's experiences of wellbeing and work-life balance as well as changes in job demands and resources. Managers' working situation becomes less demanding and more manageable when workloads and working hours are reduced and a better work-life balance is achieved. The perceived improvement is related to changes in organizational factors (e.g. company resources), but also to individual factors (e.g. managers' increased awareness of the importance of a sustainable work situation). However, there were differences in how the working conditions and wellbeing changed over time and how organizational and individual resources affected the studied managers' wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that, in the context of small business, managers' working conditions and wellbeing are dynamic and are linked to growth-related changes that occur from the start of organizational activities and during periods of growth. In addition, the findings suggest that changes in managers' working conditions and wellbeing follow different trajectories over time because of the interaction between organizational and personal factors.

A survey-based study: assessing inpatient attending perspectives on teaching learners, feeling valued, and symptoms of burnout.

BACKGROUND: Physician burnout is rising, especially among academic physicians facing pressures to increase their clinical workload, lead administrative tasks and committees, and be active in research. There is a concern this could have downstream effects on learners' experiences and academic physician's ability to teach learners on the team. METHODS: A 29-question RedCap survey was electronically distributed to 54 attending physicians within an academic learning health system who oversaw the General Medicine inpatient teaching services during the 2022-2023 academic year. The aims were to assess this cohort of attending physicians' experiences, attitudes, and perceptions on their ability to effectively teach learners on the team, feeling valued, contributors to work-life balance and symptoms of burnout, Fisher's Exact Tests were used for data analysis. RESULTS: Response rate was 56%. Attendings splitting time 50% inpatient / 50% outpatient felt that team size and type of admissions model affected their ability to effectively teach learners (p = 0.022 and p = 0.049). Attendings with protected administrative time felt that non-patient care obligations affected their ability to effectively teach the learners (p = 0.019). Male attendings and attendings with ≤ 5 years of General Medicine inpatient teaching experience felt less valued by residency leadership (p = 0.019 and p = 0.026). 80% of attendings experienced emotional exhaustion, and those with > 10 weeks on a General Medicine inpatient teaching service were more likely to experience emotional exhaustion (p = 0.041). Attendings with > 10 weeks on a General Medicine inpatient teaching service and those who were a primary caregiver were more likely to experience depersonalization (p = 0.012 and p = 0.031). 57% of attendings had reduced personal achievement. CONCLUSIONS: Institutions should seek an individual and organizational approach to professional fulfillment. Special attention to these certain groups is warranted to understand how they can be better supported. Further research, such as with focus groups, is needed to address these challenges.

Work-Life Balance.

There has been much written about work-life balance, both in nursing and other professions. Additionally, the term has taken on multiple definitions over the years, and it is often touted as central to an organization's mission. The Cambridge Dictionary defines work-life balance quite simply as "the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy." If it is such a simple concept, why is it such a dominant subject in nursing literature? This article explores the essential components of work-life balance, how health care organizations struggle to define it and differ in what they may promote on paper versus what they practice, and examine why work-life balance is crucial to nurses' overall well-being.

Self-Reported Factors Involved in Attrition and Retention of Pharmacy Faculty.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate factors associated with pharmacy faculty attrition and retention. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was developed that consisted of 33 closed- and open-ended items related to reasons or potential reasons for leaving academia, motivating factors for staying in academia, and personal and professional demographic characteristics. The survey was distributed via Qualtrics to all current pharmacy faculty using the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy email listserv and posted in American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy online communities to recruit participants who were no longer in academia. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data using SPSS. RESULTS: A total of 1011 current and 79 former pharmacy faculty completed the survey, with the majority being female, white, full-time, nontenure track, pharmacy practice, and at associate rank. Of the current faculty, 21.5% intend to leave their current position within the next year and 37.4% of respondents think about leaving either daily or weekly. Faculty who are no longer in academia or potentially will leave their position cited an unmanageable workload as the most impactful reason, with other risk factors, including unsupportive/inadequate direct supervisors or senior leadership and inadequate work-life balance, compensation, and resources. The top reasons for staying in academia included having an adequate work-life balance, manageable workload, and meaningful relationships with students. CONCLUSIONS: The Academy and individual institutions must evaluate and address risk factors contributing to faculty attrition. Simultaneously, they should actively encourage conditions such as maintaining a manageable workload and promoting work-life balance to retain faculty members.

Personal career decisions during medical training are not complicated, they are complex.

BACKGROUND: For medical training to be deemed successful, in addition to gaining the skills required to make appropriate clinical decisions, trainees must learn how to make good personal decisions. These decisions may affect satisfaction with career choice, work-life balance, and their ability to maintain/improve clinical performance over time-outcomes that can impact future wellness. Here, the authors introduce a decision-making framework with the goal of improving our understanding of personal decisions. METHODS: Stemming from the business world, the Cynefin framework describes five decision-making domains: clear, complicated, complex, chaotic, and confusion, and a key inference of this framework is that decision-making can be improved by first identifying the decision-making domain. Personal decisions are largely complex-so applying linear decision-making strategies is unlikely to help in this domain. RESULTS: The available data suggest that the outcomes of personal decisions are suboptimal, and the authors propose three mechanisms to explain these findings: (1) Complex decision is susceptible to attribute substitution where we subconsciously trade these decisions for easier decisions; (2) predictions are prone to cognitive biases, such as assuming our situation will remain constant (linear projection fallacy), believing that accomplishing a goal will deliver lasting happiness (arrival bias), or overestimating benefits and underestimating costs of future tasks (planning fallacy); and (3) complex decisions have an inherently higher failure rate than complicated decisions because they are the result of an ongoing, dynamic person-by-situation interaction and, as such, have more time to fail and more ways to do so. DISCUSSION: Based upon their view that personal decisions are complex, the authors propose strategies to improve satisfaction with personal decisions, including increasing awareness of biases that may impact personal decisions. Recognising that the outcome of personal decisions can change over time, they also suggest additional interventions to manage these decisions, such as different forms of mentoring.

Need for recovery after work and associated risk factors in working menopausal women.

OBJECTIVES: To explore relationships between 'need for recovery' (NFR), a strong predictor of burnout, and menopause symptoms and to identify work-related factors that are associated with a high NFR in Belgian menopausal women. STUDY DESIGN: 760 menopausal women took part in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. NFR, presence of menopause symptoms, job type, age category, work activity, physical workload, psychosocial and physical work environment, balance of work and private life and the opportunity to discuss menopause at work were assessed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uni- and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to calculate the odds ratios for the presence of a high NFR. RESULTS: Of menopausal women currently experiencing menopause symptoms, 53.3 % reported problems while performing their work. The overall prevalence of a high NFR in menopausal women was 41.2 %. Women who experienced problems at work had the highest prevalence of a high NFR (61.1 %), and constituted a separate risk group for having a high NFR (OR 3.31 vs. never symptoms; 95%CI 1.72-6.38). The following factors were significantly associated with a high NFR: poor balance of work and private life (OR 7.89; 95%CI 4.32-14.39), physical workload (OR 1.17; 95%CI 1.08-1.28), discomfort from cognitive demands (OR 1.17; 95%CI 1.09-1.26), organizational justice (OR 0.86; 95%CI; 0.78-0.94), and social support from colleagues (OR 0.87; 95%CI 0.79-0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining a good balance of work and private life, reducing physical workload, addressing discomfort from cognitive work demands and assuring a fair work distribution are measures that require a culture where open and easy discussion about menopause is possible.

Cross-sectional study of the association between burnout and work overload and work-life imbalance among medical personnel in Liaoning, China: role of specialty.

OBJECTIVES: Burnout is common among medical personnel in China and may be related to excessive and persistent work-related stressors by different specialties. The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of burnout, work overload and work-life imbalance according to different specialties and to explore the effect of specialty, work overload and work-life imbalance on burnout among medical personnel. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: This study was conducted in 1 tertiary general public hospital, 2 secondary general hospitals and 10 community health service stations in Liaoning, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3299 medical personnel participated in the study. METHODS: We used the 15-item Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS) to measure burnout. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to explore the association between medical specialty, work overload, work-life imbalance and burnout. RESULTS: 3299 medical personnel were included in this study. The prevalence of burnout, severe burnout, work overload and work-life imbalance were 88.7%, 13.6%, 23.4% and 23.2%, respectively. Compared with medical personnel in internal medicine, working in obstetrics and gynaecology (OR=0.61, 95% CI 0.38, 0.99) and management (OR=0.45, 95% CI 0.28, 0.72) was significantly associated with burnout, and working in ICU （Intensive Care Unit）(OR=2.48, 95% CI 1.07, 5.73), surgery (OR=1.66, 95% CI 1.18, 2.35) and paediatrics (OR=0.24, 95% CI 0.07, 0.81) was significantly associated with severe burnout. Work overload and work-life imbalance were associated with higher ORs for burnout (OR=1.64, 95% CI 1.16, 2.32; OR=2.79, 95% CI 1.84, 4.24) and severe burnout (OR=4.33, 95% CI 3.43, 5.46; OR=3.35, 95% CI 2.64, 4.24). CONCLUSIONS: Burnout, work overload and work-life imbalance were prevalent among Chinese medical personnel but varied considerably by clinical specialty. Burnout may be reduced by decreasing work overload and promoting work-life balance across different specialties.

An organizational working time reduction and its impact on three domains of mental well-being of employees: a panel study.

BACKGROUND: Work hours are an important aspect of one's job and these in turn have the potential to impact people's well-being. Much research investigating the link between working hours and well-being uses cross-sectional data. Longitudinal studies, especially those studying the same subjects changing their working time, can study the impact of work time more clearly. Using panel data, this study aims to explore the impact of a reduction in working time on three domains of well-being: general well-being, job-related well-being (positive work experience) and work-family well-being (work-family conflict). In addition, our study offers insights into the role of concomitant changes in work and private circumstances of employees as we investigate whether the impact of shorter working hours for well-being is mediated by changes in the participants' and circumstances related to paid and unpaid work resources. METHOD: An organization of about 60 (female) employees trialed a shorter workweek for one calendar year in 2019. All full-time employees reduced their hours. The part-time working employees can be used as a control group. Panel data (survey and time-use diary data) of a 30-h workweek trial in Belgium was collected in four waves over two years in a pre- and post-intervention design. Change over time (waves) was analyzed through multilevel growth models. RESULT: A decrease in work-family conflict was observed during the shorter workweek. Part of this decrease is explained by concomitant changes in work and private circumstances, such as sufficiency in free time, schedule control, and satisfaction with work pressure. Positive work experience and general well-being tend to have decreased during the shorter workweek, although this could partly be explained by other organizational changes and not by the reduction in working hours per se. Schedule control helped suppress these somewhat negative effects of organizational changes on positive work experience. CONCLUSION: Reduced working hours have the largest and most positive impact on work-family conflict. The feeling of having enough leisure time contributes to this increased well-being. Especially for women, who were the majority in this study, a reduction in working time might be beneficial as they often bear more responsibility for household work and care tasks. Next to the duration of working time, schedule control/autonomy has an important impact on well-being.

Feeling Supported as a Remote Worker: The Role of Support from Leaders and Colleagues and Job Satisfaction in Promoting Employees' Work-Life Balance.

Due to the increasing use of remote work, understanding the dynamics of employee support and its implications for job satisfaction and work-life balance is crucial. Utilizing the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory as a theoretical framework, this research investigated how feeling supported by leaders and colleagues at work fosters work-life balance and job satisfaction among remote employees. The study involved 635 remote workers (females = 61%, mean age, 46.7, SD = 11) from various service-based industries and public administration in Italy. Results from the structural equation model showed a total mediating effect of job satisfaction in the link between colleague support and work-life balance (χ2(22) = 68.923, p = 0.00, CFI = 0.973, TLI = 0.955, RMSEA = 0.059 (90% CI = 0.044-0.075, p = 0.158), SRMR = 0.030), emphasizing the role of interpersonal relationships within the workplace in enhancing remote workers' job satisfaction and, consequently, their work-life balance. Contrary to expectations, the study found no significant direct or indirect link between leader support and work-life balance. This research highlights the significance of fostering strong social connections and ensuring employee satisfaction to promote well-being and work-life balance in remote work arrangements.

Work addiction and social functioning: A systematic review and five meta-analyses.

As theoretical models suggest, work addiction has several adverse correlates and consequences, such as unfavorable personality traits, physical and psychological symptoms, and social conflicts. Both early and recent concepts emphasize that individuals with work addiction have more problematic social life due to obsessive overwork. This includes negative impacts on family, workplace, and other relationships. The present study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze all the empirical studies that examined the association between work addiction and any dimension of social life, as such an analysis has never been conducted before. Studies published from 1995 to 2022 were identified through a systematic search. 102 eligible studies were included in the review, with 75 studies contributing to five different meta-analyses. The results indicated significant associations between work addiction and: (1) lower work-life balance, (2) reduced social functioning, and increased difficulties in (3) family relationships, (4) intimate relationships, and (5) relationships with the community, friends, and colleagues. The associations were found to be independent of gender and age. The meta-analytic study highlights research gaps in the field and suggests future directions, including exploring attachment styles and early social relationships in work addiction, investigating the association between social and emotional competencies and work addiction, examining the role of escape motivation, and exploring the characteristics of the partners (spouses) of workaholics. Since the quality of social relationships and social support are crucial factors in physical and mental health, the prevention and intervention of work addiction should be prioritized in organizational and clinical settings.

Gender inequality in work location, childcare and work-life balance: Phase-specific differences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Much research on the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the unequal impact on men and women in many countries but empirical evidence on later stages of the pandemic remains limited. The objective of this paper is to study differences between men and women in work location, the relative division of childcare, and perceived work-life balance across and throughout different phases of the pandemic using six waves of probability-based survey data collected in the Netherlands between April 2020 and April 2022 (including retrospective pre-pandemic measures). METHOD: The study used descriptive methods (longitudinal crosstabulations) and multivariate modelling (cross-sectional multinomial logits, with and without moderators) in a repeated cross-sectional design. RESULTS: Results suggest the pandemic is associated with several phase-specific differences between men and women in where they worked and their relative division of childcare in the Netherlands. Men were less likely than women to work fully from home at the start of each lockdown and to work on location during the first lockdown. Amongst parents, fathers increased their share of childcare throughout the first phase of the pandemic, and this increase remains visible at the end of the pandemic. Women in the Netherlands did not experience worse work-life balance than men throughout the pandemic, but mothers did experience worse work-life balance than fathers at various points during the pandemic. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest varying long-term implications for gender inequality in society. Gender differences in work location raise concerns about the possible longer-term impact on gender inequalities in career development. Our findings on childcare suggest that many households have experienced different divisions of childcare at different stages of the pandemic, with some potential for longer-term change. CONCLUSION: Inequalities between men and women in work, childcare, and wellbeing have neither been alleviated by nor unilaterally worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before and during COVID-19: the roles of transformational leadership, organizational culture and work-life balance in healthcare.

PURPOSE: This research aims to investigate the role of transformational leadership and organizational culture - encompassing Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchical and Market Cultures - in the context of work-life balance for healthcare workers. It aims to present a comparison of observations made pre and mid-pandemic. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data from a varied sample of 355 employees (258 before and 97 during the pandemic) representing multiple sectors and positions within a hospital. The interpretation of the data was accomplished using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). FINDINGS: Findings reveal that prior to the pandemic, transformational leadership significantly influenced all forms of organizational culture perceptions, with a strong influence on Clan Culture. Clan Culture displayed a consistent positive correlation with WLB both before and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, Market Culture exhibited a negative effect on WLB and Adhocracy Culture demonstrated a positive effect, impacts which were absent before the pandemic. Transformational leadership had a positive impact on WLB before the pandemic, but no discernible effect during the pandemic was observed. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The results indicate that the dynamics between transformational leadership, organizational culture and work-life balance are susceptible to alterations in the face of external crisis events. This study offers a unique exploration of these dynamics in the healthcare sector during the ongoing global pandemic.

Telework, working conditions, health and wellbeing during the Covid crisis: A gendered analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Telework was massively adopted during the COVID-19 crisis. Related changes in working conditions may have affected women's and men's health differently due to the gendered division of work. Our study aimed to assess the gendered association of telework with physical and mental health outcomes one year after the onset of the pandemic and to determine whether the pathways of working conditions underlying these associations are gender-related. METHODS: We compared pre-pandemic and Covid-crisis work contexts using a large representative sample of French employees surveyed in early 2021. We identified potential work-related mediators of the relationship between telework and well-being, i.e., change in autonomy, low support, work overload, digital issues, atypical working time, meaning at work, and work-life balance, and used multiple-matching and adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: All things being equal, the health and well-being of teleworkers were, on average, less favourable than that of on-site workers, with little gender differences. The selected working conditions mediated a substantial part of the relationship, indicating that important pathways were captured, such as meaning at work. These pathways partly differed between women and men. In particular, in new teleworkers, the largest contributions came from digital issues for women, and from low support at work and work overload for men. CONCLUSION: People who teleworked during the pandemic were at higher odds of deterioration of health and well-being than onsite workers. Health patterns were similar among male and female teleworkers; however, the pathways differed. These negative effects may yet have been absorbed once the government pandemic response became less stringent.

Feedback from the Science Café roundtables at the ninth European Bioanalysis Forum Young Scientist Symposium: optimizing the work-life balance in a bioanalytical laboratory.

As part of the European Bioanalysis Forum's continued commitment to develop young scientists beyond their scientific skills, we also focus on soft skills and a community responsibility during the Young Scientist Symposia, with the Science Café. In previous years, we have focused on topics such as sustainability (green lab) or the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on career development. At the ninth Young Scientist Symposium, the Science Café roundtables focused on the work-life balance and how caring for it can be beneficial for both the individual and the company. Feedback from a premeeting survey and from the discussions during the roundtables can be an important addition to personal and professional development. If organizations are not already focusing on the importance of a healthy work-life balance, they can be inspired to include some aspects of the outcome of the Science Café discussions when developing their staff toward future (scientific) leadership.