Jessica de Bloom

Do We Recover from Vacation? Meta-analysis of Vacation Effects on Health and Well-being

Do We Recover from Vacation? Meta‐analysis of Vacation Effects on Health and Wellbeing: Jessica de Bloom, et al. Department of Work & Organizational Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

How does a vacation from work affect employee health and well-being?

Health and well-being (H&W) improve during vacation. However, it is unclear whether this general development applies to all employees, while also little is known about the underlying processes causing such an improvement. Our research questions were: (1) Does every worker experience a positive effect of vacation on H&W? and (2) Can vacation activities and experiences explain changes in H&W during vacation? In a 7-week longitudinal field study, 96 workers reported their H&W 2 weeks before, during, 1 week, 2 and 4 weeks after a winter sports vacation on 6 indicators (health status, mood, fatigue, tension, energy level and satisfaction). Sixty percent of the sample experienced substantial improvement of H&W during and after vacation. Yet, a small group experienced no (23%) or a negative effect of vacation (17%). Spending limited time on passive activities, pleasure derived from vacation activities, and the absence of negative incidents during vacation explained 38% of the variance in the vacation effect. Although vacation has a positive, longer lasting effect for many, it is not invariably positive for all employees. Choosing especially pleasant vacation activities and avoiding negative incidents as well as passive activities during active vacations apparently contributes to the positive effect of vacation on H&W.

Recovery Processes During and After Work: Associations With Health, Work Engagement, and Job Performance.

Objective: We examined energy management during work, recovery experiences after work and their connections to health, work engagement, and job performance. Methods: An online survey was completed by 1208 Finnish employees. Energy management was assessed through 13 strategies and recovery experiences through four experiences. As outcomes of recovery, we examined self-reported health, work engagement, and job performance. Results: On average, employees applied three energy management strategies. The most beneficial strategies were work-related: shifting focus, goal setting, and helping coworkers. Both energy management and recovery experiences contributed to the outcomes. Conclusions: Employees benefit in terms of energy from shifting their focus to positive aspects of their jobs and demonstrating proactive social behavior at work. Recovery processes during and after work are closely connected to each other, to well-being and performance at work.

From restorative environments to restoration in work

This is an illustrative review on studies revealing the restorative, that is, stress-reducing, effects of natural settings. We focus on the effects of viewing or being physically active in the natural setting and the effects of indoor plants and window views on restoration and recovery. These themes represent interesting and potentially fruitful areas for future studies that combine work and environmental psychological aspects. There is conceptual similarity between recovery experiences and processes of perceived restorativeness. Increasing evidence shows that outdoor natural environments are more efficient in producing restoration than outdoor built environments. Anecdotal evidence shows that window views to natural elements buffer the negative impact of job stress on intention to quit; the more natural elements, the less the negative impact of job stress on turnover intentions. A laboratory study recording brainwaves and blood volume pulse has indicated that people are less nervous or anxious when looking at the window view to nature compared with the window view to the city or no window view. Also the amount of outdoor nature contact during breaks at work seems to be associated with less perceived stress and better self-rated health. Research has showed that plants in the office room seem to enhance the solution of creative tasks, but deteriorate simple, proofreading or sorting tasks which require continuous concentration to the task. Some practical recommendations can be made on the basis of current evidence, but more rigorous experimental and intervention studies are needed.

Exposure to nature versus relaxation during lunch breaks and recovery from work: development and design of an intervention study to improve workers' health, well-being, work performance and creativity

BackgroundThe objective of this research project is to understand and to improve workers’ recovery from work stress. Although recovery during lunch breaks is the most common within-workday break, it has received only minor research attention. Therefore, we will study whether lunch breaks including a relaxation session or exposure to nature have more favorable outcomes than usually spent lunch breaks concerning: a) recovery processes, b) health, c) well-being, d) job performance and e) creativity. We approach recovery by combining the theoretical frameworks of work and environmental psychology.Methods/DesignWe conduct an intervention study in a sample of 268 knowledge-workers who engage in different lunch break activities for 15-minutes per day, two weeks in a row. We randomly assign participants to three experimental conditions: 1) exposure to nature, 2) relaxation and 3) control group (lunch break spent as usual). Online questionnaires before and after the intervention assess long term changes regarding recovery processes and the major outcome variables. Before, during and after the intervention, SMS and paper-pencil questionnaires measure the same constructs four times a day with fewer items. We also measure blood pressure and collect saliva samples to map cortisol excretion across the intervention period. A timed experimental task (i.e., the Alternative Uses Task) is used to examine differences in creativity between the three groups after the intervention period.DiscussionBy combining the knowledge of work and environmental psychology about recovery and restorative experiences, by merging three recovery perspectives (settings, processes, and outcomes) and by using data triangulation, we produce valid results that broaden our view on mechanisms underlying recovery and enhance our understanding about their links to psychological, behavioural and physiological outcomes, resulting in a more comprehensive picture of work stress recovery in general.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System NCT02124837. Registered 24 April 2014.

Emotional labour and work engagement among nurses: examining perceived compassion, leadership and work ethic as stress buffers

AIM The study examined whether three resources, that is, compassion, transformational leadership and work ethic feasibility, buffer against the negative effects of emotional labour on work engagement. BACKGROUND Emotional labour is a common job stressor among nurses, but little is known about whether certain personal and work resources buffer against it in relation to work engagement. Revealing buffers of emotional labour would help organizations to design tailored interventions. DESIGN Cross-sectional online survey conducted in 2014. METHODS Participants were 3466 Finnish nurses. Hypotheses were tested via hierarchical moderated regression analyses. RESULTS Higher emotional labour related to lower engagement. Two interaction effects were found. First, work ethic feasibility buffered against emotional labour: the nurses who perceived work ethic feasibility as high in a situation of high emotional labour, scored higher on engagement compared with those nurses who in this stress situation perceived work ethic feasibility to be low. Second, high compassion was detrimental to engagement in the presence of high emotional labour. Transformational leadership did not act as a buffer but showed a positive relationship with engagement. CONCLUSION Work ethic feasibility (being able to work according to high ethical standards) is an important resource in nursing as it protects an employee against the negative effects of emotional labour and as it also directly promotes engagement. However, compassion may not always be beneficial in nursing, especially if co-occurring with high job stress. Transformational leadership has potential to improve engagement in nursing although it may not operate as a stress buffer.

Take a break! Benefits of sleep and short breaks for daily work engagement

ABSTRACT The current study investigates the benefits of a good night’s sleep and short work breaks for employees’ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employees’ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they indicated higher work engagement during the day. Moreover, taking self-initiated short breaks from work in the afternoon boosted daily work engagement, whereas taking short breaks in the morning failed to predict daily work engagement. Taking short breaks did not compensate for impaired sleep with regard to daily work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that recovery before and during work can foster employees’ daily work engagement.

Pre-Vacation Time: Blessing or Burden?

Vacationers generally experience higher health and well-being levels than nonvacationers. It is unclear if and how health and well-being levels of vacationers change prior to vacation and what potential determinants are. Our research questions were: (1) How do health and well-being change before vacation? (2) Which factors (i.e., vacation anticipation, pre-vacation workload, and homeload) are associated with health and well-being changes before vacation? (3) Are associations between pre-vacation work- and home-load and health and well-being changes before vacation different for men and women? In a longitudinal study, 96 Dutch workers reported their health and well-being in the two weeks prior to their winter sports vacation. Health and well-being decreased significantly from two weeks to one week prior to vacation. Anticipation did not affect health and well-being, whereas pre-vacation workload lowered health and well-being. Pre-vacation homeload was also associated with a decline in pre-vacation health and well-being but only for women.

Occupational e-Mental Health: Current Approaches and Promising Perspectives for Promoting Mental Health in Workers

During the past few years, the Internet has started to change lifestyles and affect all life domains, including working life. It is also increasingly used for targeting mental health issues. The “application of information technology in mental and behavioral health” (Andersson G, Riper H, Carlbring P (2014) Editorial: Introducing Internet interventions—a new open access journal. Internet Intervent 1:1–2) is becoming common in health-care; interventions have already been incorporated into routine care in countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Australia, and the USA. As a next step, Internet interventions in the area of occupational health are progressively emerging. They may offer an evidence-based, cost-effective, and convenient way of promoting workers’ mental health on a large scale. Currently, Internet interventions for workers are the most promising approach in the field of occupational e-mental health. The evolution of occupational e-mental health is embedded in interdisciplinary research, practice, and policy. In the first section of this chapter, the origins of occupational e-mental health will be outlined and a definition proposed. Following this, different approaches to occupational e-mental health will be described and their potentials elucidated. A comparison between Internet interventions and traditional stress-management trainings will provide further insights into the design and characteristics of the most elaborated approach in occupational e-mental health. Subsequently, various Internet training programs will be introduced and the evidence for their efficacy summarized. Finally, important topics for further research and implementation will be outlined.

Vacation Effects on Behaviour, Cognition and Emotions of Compulsive and Non‐compulsive Workers: Do Obsessive Workers Go ‘Cold Turkey’?

Compulsive workers often face psychological and physical health disturbances because of working long hours and an obsessive preoccupation with work during off-job time. Prolonged respite episodes may either relief these employees from their daily stressors to recover or trigger withdrawal symptoms. Our research question was as follows: How do (1) work hours, (2) rumination and (3) affective well-being unfold for compulsive workers compared with non-compulsive workers across long vacations? In a longitudinal field study, work hours, rumination and affective well-being were assessed in 54 employees 2 weeks before, during and in the first, second and fourth week after a long summer vacation. Working compulsively was assessed 3 weeks before vacation. Work hours decreased during and increased after vacation. Levels of rumination dropped during vacation and remained below baseline until 2 weeks after vacation. Initial differences in rumination between obsessive and non-obsessive workers disappeared during and directly after vacation. Affective well-being rose during vacation and returned to baseline directly after vacation. Increases in affective well-being during vacation as well as decreases after vacation were greater in obsessive workers than in non-obsessive workers. Vacations seem to temporarily offset characteristic differences between obsessive and non-obsessive workers, decrease rumination and improve affective well-being.