Battery Discharge from Monday to Friday: Background Social Stress at Work is Associated with more Rapid Accumulation of Fatigue

Purpose: This field study investigated the effects of background social stress at work on the weekly course of evening fatigue. Methods: Male employees of a Swiss organisation reported their fatigue after work and at 9 pm in the evening over three weeks. A total of 482 evening fatigue measurements from 34 male participants were subjected to multilevel analysis. Results: Sleep quality in the previous night and fatigue after work predicted evening fatigue. Evening fatigue was not associated with the time spent on daily housework or child care. There was a linear increase in evening fatigue across weekdays and a main effect of workplace social stressors on evening fatigue. Sleep quality during the previous night mediated the link between background social stressors and evening fatigue. Moreover, an interaction between workplace social stressors and working days indicated that fatigue accumulated faster during the working week in those reporting a high level of social stress at work. Conclusion: Social stress at work seems to accelerate the loss of resources over consecutive workdays. The analysis of workplace social stressors and other potential moderators of resource dynamics contributes to our understanding of work-related stress, including the role of background stressors and the temporal dynamics of resource loss

The workday of hospital surgeons: what they do, what makes them satisfied, and the role of core tasks and administrative tasks; a diary study.

BACKGROUND Many surgeons report passion for their work, but not all tasks are likely to be satisfying. Little is known about how hospital surgeons spend their days, how they like specific tasks, and the role of core tasks (i.e. surgery-related tasks) versus tasks that may keep them from core tasks (e.g., administrative work). This study aimed at a more detailed picture of hospital surgeons' daily work - how much time they spend with different tasks, how they like them, and associations with satisfaction. METHODS Hospital surgeons (N = 105) responded to a general survey, and 81 of these provided up to five daily questionnaires concerning daily activities and their attractiveness, as well as their job satisfaction. The data were analyzed using t-tests, analysis of variance, as well as analysis of covariance and repeated measures analysis of variance for comparing means across tasks. RESULTS Among 14 tasks, surgery-related tasks took 21.2%, patient-related tasks 21.7% of the surgeons' time; 10.4% entailed meetings and communicating about patients, and 18.6% documentation and administration. The remaining time was spent with teaching, research, leadership and management, and not task-related activities (e.g. walking between rooms). Surgery was rated as most (4.25; SD = .66), administration as least attractive (2.63; SD = .78). A higher percentage of administration predicted lower perceived legitimacy; perceived legitimacy of administrative work predicted job satisfaction (r = .47). Residents were least satisfied; there were few gender differences. CONCLUSIONS Surgeons seem to thrive on their core tasks, most notably surgery. By contrast, administrative duties are likely perceived as keeping them from their core medical tasks. Increasing the percentage of medical tasks proper, notably surgery, and reducing administrative duties may contribute to hospital surgeons' job satisfaction

How are social stressors at work related to well-being and health? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Social relationships are crucial for well-being and health, and considerable research has established social stressors as a risk for well-being and health. However, researchers have used many different constructs, and it is unclear if these are actually different or reflect a single overarching construct. Distinct patterns of associations with health/well-being would indicate separate constructs, similar patterns would indicate a common core construct, and remaining differences could be attributed to situational characteristics such as frequency or intensity. The current meta-analysis therefore investigated to what extent different social stressors show distinct (versus similar) patterns of associations with well-being and health. Methods: We meta-analysed 557 studies and investigated correlations between social stressors and outcomes in terms of health and well-being (e.g. burnout), attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction), and behaviour (e.g. counterproductive work behaviour). Moderator analyses were performed to determine if there were differences in associations depending on the nature of the stressor, the outcome, or both. To be included, studies had to be published in peer-reviewed journals in English or German; participants had to be employed at least 50% of a full-time equivalent (FTE). Results: The overall relation between social stressors and health/well-being was of medium size (r = -.30, p < .001). Type of social stressor and outcome category acted as moderators, with moderating effects being larger for outcomes than for stressors. The strongest effects emerged for job satisfaction, burnout, commitment, and counterproductive work behaviour. Type of stressor yielded a significant moderation, but differences in effect sizes for different stressors were rather small overall. Rather small effects were obtained for physical violence and sexual mistreatment, which is likely due to a restricted range because of rare occurrence and/or underreporting of such intense stressors. Conclusions: We propose integrating diverse social stressor constructs under the term "relational devaluation" and considering situational factors such as intensity or frequency to account for the remaining variance. Practical implications underscore the importance for supervisors to recognize relational devaluation in its many different forms and to avoid or minimize it as far as possible in order to prevent negative health-related outcomes for employees

The Monday Effect Revisited: A Diary and Sleep Actigraphy Study

Purpose Accidents are more likely to occur during the morning hours of Mondays (Monday effect). This might be due to a higher level of cognitive failure on Monday morning at work. Methods In a pilot actigraphy study across one working week, we explored this Monday effect and regressed daily self-reported workplace cognitive failure on weekdays (Monday versus other days), background social stressors at work, delayed sleep onset and sleep duration. Diary data were gathered from 40 full-time employees. Results Confirming our assumptions, results revealed work-related cognitive failure and sleep-onset latency on the previous night to be higher on Mondays compared to other workdays. Work-related cognitive failure correlated positively with delayed sleep-onset latency and background social stressors. In multilevel regression analysis, Monday significantly explained variations in workplace cognitive failure. The addition of background social stressors at work and sleep-onset latency to the regression model showed unique contributions to the prediction of workplace cognitive failure. No significant two-way or three-way interactions between working days, sleep-onset latency or sleep duration, and background social stressors were found. Conclusion Peak levels of cognitive failure on Monday morning and the association of cognitive failure with social stressors at work contribute to understanding the mechanisms involved in the increased prevalence of occupational accidents on Monday morning. Occupational safety interventions should address both social stressors at work and individual sleep hygiene

Thirst at work implies more than just inadequate facilities for breaks

Early signs of dehydration, such as headaches, are not unusual in the working population. Even slight deficiencies of water intake may have negative effects on both health and performance. However, little is known about work-related fluid intake. We expect the daily experience of interruptions to distract from perceived thirst, resulting in reduced daily fluid intake. This effect may be more pronounced when the workload is generally less predictable due to the assignment of tasks that are beyond the definition of the worker's professional role (unreasonable tasks). Data were gathered from 29 female service employees across five workdays. Multilevel analyses revealed daily work interruptions to be negatively associated with fluid intake, especially when there were frequent unreasonable task-assignments. Results suggest that interruptions at work might reduce daily fluid intake. However, adequate allocation of tasks by managers can protect employees against insufficient drinking

Sleep, Work Stress and Headache in Printing Business: An Actigraphy Study

Purpose: Technological change, economic pressure and the need for concentration increase work stress in the printing busi-ness. It is well known that stress in the workplace is associated with impaired cognitive functioning, such as headaches and concentration problems. Accordingly, daily recovery—especially restful and healthy sleep—is essential for human functioning. This study tested whether the quality of the previous night’s sleep predicts headaches and concentration problems independent of current-day time pressure, work interruptions and concentration requirements. Methods: Twenty-seven out of 28 printing plant employees contributed daily data over five consecutive workdays. Self-reported data on working conditions and cognitive functions and actigraphy-based indicators of sleep quality were subjected to multi-level analysis. Results: Multilevel regression analysis of 125 days confirmed that longer sleep-onset latency, more fragmented sleep and lower sleep efficiency were antecedents of headache intensity the following day. Headaches were also predicted by the current work interruptions. Concentration problems were predicted by the previous night’s sleep latency and the current day’s concentration requirements. Conclusion: Poor recovery in the sense of low sleep quality may impair cognitive function beyond the effects of the current-day’s work stress. Work redesign and person-oriented training should be used to promote sleep and cognitive function in printers

Stress at school? A Qualitative Study on Illegitimate Tasks during Teacher Training

What do I expect when stating that I am going to be a teacher? Social roles, including professional roles, often become part of people’s identity and thus, of the self. As people typically strive for maintaining a positive sense of self, threats to one’s role identity are likely to induce stress. In line with these considerations, Semmer et al. recently (e.g., 2007, 2015) introduced illegitimate tasks as a new concept of stressors. Illegitimate tasks, which are defined as unnecessary or unreasonable tasks, threaten the self because they signal a lack of appreciation regarding one’s professional role. Teacher training is a phase of role transition in which the occurrence of illegitimate tasks becomes likely. A holistic understanding of these tasks, however, has been missing up to now. Is there already a professional role identity during teacher training that is vulnerable to threats like the illegitimacy of tasks? What are typical illegitimate tasks in the context of teacher training? In order to close this research gap, 39 situations taken from 16 interviews with teaching trainees were analyzed in the present study on the basis of qualitative content analysis. Seminars and standing in to hold lessons for other teachers were identified as most prevalent illegitimate tasks. More specifically, unnecessary tasks could be classified as sub challenging, inefficient and lacking in organization (e.g., writing reports about workshops no one will ever read). Unreasonable tasks appeared overextending, fell outside responsibility, and lacked supervisory support. Training interventions focusing upon task design and supervisory behavior are suggested for improvement