The toll we take from caring for our elders

'Just as there was a postwar baby boom, society is now in the midst of a senior boom.' While all organisations offer parental support at or beyond that mandated by the state, provision for employees involved in eldercare is far more hit and miss. In the article that provides our lead quote, Lisa Calvano of West Chester University takes us through the literature on the psychological impact of eldercare.

Calvano’s literature review reveals a clear consensus on one point: psychological strain is substantial for people caring for elders, and higher than that experienced by those who care for children, for a number of reasons. We are less likely to plan ahead for a period of eldercare: we are flung into responsibility by a deterioration, slip, or diagnosis which is often impossible to anticipate.

In addition, the demands of childcare tend to lessen as the cared-for child becomes increasingly independent, whereas eldercare involves escalating challenges and typically a bleaker conclusion. Moreover, the role-reversal of caring for someone who was once your source of care can be a disorienting experience that is hard to process, involving a range of emotion and guilt for feeling those emotions rather than 'getting on with it'.

It's less clear whether this strain results in negative impact on workplaces. Studies disagree as to whether eldercarers take more leave from work. In addition, there is evidence that carers are as committed to and derive as much satisfaction from work as non-carers, because work offers a respite and source of accomplishment.  Eldercarers are also less likely to desire shorter working hours than those caring for children.

Not in doubt, however, is the fact that eldercare can force people, especially women, out of the workforce; the conditions that are most likely to do so are where carers are living with an elder who is experiencing cognitive impairment as part of their condition. Women are also more likely to experience poorer emotional health and depressive symptoms due to higher hours of eldercare.

Finally, the evidence suggests that a more supportive work environment - including but not limited to the presence of eldercare benefits - reduces stress, workplace disruption, and the amount that strain erodes workplace engagement. So although more remains to be understood about the degree and nature of the impact of eldercare, workplaces should feel sufficiently informed to take action to support their employees and generate a conversation about what is often a hidden burden that can be difficult to share.

Calvano, L. (2013). Tug of War: Caring for Our Elders While Remaining Productive at Work Academy of Management Perspectives, 27 (3), 204-218 DOI: 10.5465/amp.2012.0095


Further reading:
Pinquart, M., & Sörensen, S. (2003). Differences between caregivers and noncaregivers in psychological health and physical health: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 18(2), 250–267. 

Not getting much out of meetings? You may be masking your feelings too much

Organisations invest up to 15 per cent of their personnel budget on meetings, yet their ubiquity is a common source of frustration, partly validated by evidence that as many as a third of meetings simply aren't productive. As research catches on to the importance of this area, we are beginning to understand how practical factors like agendas and refreshments influence meeting quality. So what about the emotional side to meetings? According to a new study, meeting attendees who feel the need to mask their emotional reactions get less from the meeting itself, and are more likely to experience negative long-term outcomes such as burnout.

The phenomenon we are talking about is surface acting: managing emotions by expressing the 'right' one, even though you may be feeling the opposite. Surface acting is mainly studied in interactions with customers, but Linda Shanock and colleagues suspected that the quasi-public nature of the meeting makes it a perfect venue within which surface acting can manifest. After all, meetings involve a variety of events and decisions that can potentially affect your work future even more profoundly than a grumpy customer can.

Shanock's team predicted that because surface acting demands self-control and puts pressure on our resources, it can restrict the attention we put towards the actual goals of the meeting, making it less likely to get a satisfactory outcome than if we were not so distracted. Their data, collected online from 178 participants from a variety of roles with a range of meeting regularity (mean 2.5 per week, some less than once per week), suggested such a relationship existed. Participants rated items like 'I tend to fake a good mood when interacting with others in the meeting’ to produce a surface acting score, and this score was negatively associated with their rating of typical meeting effectiveness, in terms of networking, achieving work goals, or learning useful information.

Long term effects were also measured three months on. Participants who indicated higher surface acting had higher emotional exhaustion (or burnout) scores. The authors interprets this as consistent with previous findings that surface acting is frustrating and emotionally draining, and also consistent with the subjective feeling referred to as 'meeting recovery syndrome'. In addition, habitual surface actors were more likely to have an intention to quit the organisation entirely. Again this is linked to the harmful effects of surface acting.

We might conclude then, that individual tendencies toward employing surface acting during meetings harm meeting quality – at least in terms of meeting their own goals – and have long term negative consequences. However, I wouldn't go quite so far yet. The study authors advise caution before we attribute causality, while arguing that their two waves of data collection allow more confidence that surface acting is causing exhaustion and not vice versa. My concern, however, is that a hidden variable could be driving all of these factors. An organisation, team or employee in crisis is likely to be subject to more emotional exhaustion, higher turnover, ineffective meetings and more frequent incidents of breaking bad news that may call for stiff upper lips. Shanock’s team conducted one analysis that demonstrated a single factor explanation being a poorer fit to the data, but ‘in crisis’ is a catch-all for a collection of situational influences. I would like to see more work looking within organisations – even within teams – to see if two individuals in similar circumstances experience meetings differently due to their tendency to surface act.

Nevertheless the link between surface acting and negative outcomes in meetings draws our attention to this unremarked-upon phenomenon. Organisations should be concerned about members habitually holding in their feelings. As this study suggests, this may make them unhappy and even lead to their organisational exit, while getting less from meetings than they would do if not preoccupied with hiding their emotions. And more generally, openness is important for the frank and free exchange of information, making meetings more efficient and productive.

Linda R. Shanock, Joseph A. Allen, Alexandra M. Dunn, Benjamin E. Baran, Cliff W. Scott, & Steven G. Rogelberg (2013). Less acting, more doing: How surface acting relates to perceived meeting effectiveness and other employee outcomes Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86, 457-476 DOI: 10.1111/joop.12037

Further reading:
Leach, D. J., Rogelberg, S. G., Warr, P. B., & Burnfield, J. L. (2009). Perceived meeting effectiveness: The role of design characteristics. Journal of Business and Psychology, 24, 65–76. doi:10.1007/s10869-009-9092-6

Junior doctors squeezed by working conditions

How do junior doctors experience current working conditions? Pressures on public sector spending in many countries have put the squeeze on their health services, and this strata of the workforce - already renowned as being under pressure - seem to be feeling extra strain. This is the suggestion of a recent study that investigates the experiences of twenty junior doctors in the Irish medical system.

The participants provided their experiences through qualitative interviews with the researchers, working from the ground up to collect their perspectives and identify the common themes that emerged. Those interviewed were just about to transition into roles as clinical tutors, a hybrid role that involves both clinical practice and academic teaching of medical students. The shape of these individuals' careers to date mirrors what is typical for junior doctors: working as temporary employees on a 3-, 6-, or 12-month basis.

The first theme that emerged was one of staffing shortages. The interviewees saw shortages as contributing to longer hospital stays for patients, whose problems were not getting detected as quickly. In addition, they complained that lean workforces often meant that a senior perspective was not available as much as they would like, which would normally provide an expert viewpoint to benefit both diagnosis and the junior doctor's understanding. Because of staffing shortages, there were also fewer opportunities to take leave for training. As one interviewee remarked, 'Training isn’t the best. It’s very much ‘see one, do one, teach one’'

The next theme was how unrealistic workloads had become. Some of this was due to wider societal factors: as healthcare developments both extend lifespan and increase detection of multiple conditions, patients' problems can be more acute and involve multimorbidity (multiple diagnoses), making treatment a more complex matter. But workload issues also related to the first issue of shortages, which contributed to long hours, interrupted breaks, and pressure to complete tasks quickly: 'I have a sense of dissatisfaction with being able to give each patient on a round just 90 seconds on average.' Another interviewee noted the personal consequences of this overworking: 'When you do something wrong, not out of malice or incompetence, because you’re too tired, then you have to live with it.'

As well as these themes, interviewees reported issues with unpredictability of their work. Their schedules as well as lengthy (80-90 hour weeks) were subject to change, leading one to comment 'It is the not knowing. I have missed christenings and birthdays and let people down'. The high workloads also forced the work-home divide to become porous, with paperwork often taken home to be completed outside of 'work'. And within the hospital,  cuts meant doctors could not rely on having the needed equipment to hand, but at times had to devote time to hunting it down elsewhere.

Despite all these challenges, respondents tended to give less attention to how the conditions affected their own wellbeing, framing issues more in terms of problems for patients or the smooth running of the system. The authors reflect that this tendency to soldier on may be because doctors see their role as evaluating stress and illness in others, and so are reluctant to see themselves as the ones who may at times be in need. Previous research also suggests that doctors are reluctant to seek health care from other doctors due to embarrassment, especially for less-defined illnesses such as stress. This is despite the fact that doctors display higher levels of stress than those found in the general population.

'The challenges currently faced by junior doctors in Ireland identified within this study are likely to be illustrative of problems faced by junior doctors in many countries where government spending is decreasing and deficits are rising.' Overextension of this layer of the medical profession is bound to have consequences for patients - US figures estimate medical error contributes to 180-195,000 patient deaths annually - and also, whether they like to admit it, to the wellbeing of the junior doctors on whose shoulders so much rests.

McGowan, Yvonne, Humphries, Niamh, Burke, Helen, Conry, Mary, & Morgan, Karen (2013). Through doctors’ eyes: A qualitative study of hospital doctor perspectives on their working conditions British Journal of Health Psychology DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12037

Further reading:
Kay, M., Mitchell, G., Clavarino, A., & Doust, J. (2008). Doctors as patients: a systematic review of doctors’ health access and the barriers they experience. British Journal of General Practice, 58 (552), 501–508. doi:10.3399/bjgp08X319486
 

Stretching emotional limits leads to bad behaviour at work

While counter-productive work behaviours (CWBs) such as pilfering stationery or hassling colleagues arise through the decisions of individuals, there is an increasing interest in how they may be encouraged by broader working conditions. Incentive schemes or different levels of organisational engagement may deter or encourage such behaviours, and now a recent study suggests that emotional exhaustion may open the door to bad actions. The research, led by George Banks at Virginia Commonwealth University, suggests that emotional exhaustion matters because it makes it harder to form and maintain deep relationships within the organisation, such relationships being the foundation for a sense of organisational commitment.

The research team surveyed 113 South Korean bank employees, and contacted the supervisors of each to get a measure of CWB from an outside source, allowing them to minimise correlational artefacts due to data arising from a common source. All employees rated their emotional exhaustion with items such as "I feel frustrated by my job" as well as their organisational commitment, for instance "I really care about the fate of this organization". Supervisors rated the frequency of CWBs relating to the organisation ("Takes a longer break than is acceptable in your workplace") and that specific to organisational members ("Makes fun of someone at work"). They found that higher exhaustion was related to both lower organisational commitment and higher frequency of CWBs. Analyses suggested that the effect of emotional exhaustion on CWBs is solely due to its influence upon organisational commitment.

It's already well-understood that emotional states can contribute to CWBs. For instance, they become more common when individuals experience negative emotions arising from co-worker incivility. Whereas that finding suggests a reflexive quality to the rise in behaviours - “the employee strikes back” - the current research suggests that they can also increase due to the mechanisms that prevent them being eroded. Banks' team point out that CWBs typically present an intrinsic reward, such as pleasure, personal gain or thrill-seeking, that would normally be resisted using regulatory processes. But exhaustion is likely to tap the resources these processes themselves depend on; moreover, the motivational juice of doing right by your meaningful relations peters out when those relations have deteriorated due to lack of attention. The author suggest that to avoid the substantial costs that CWBs present to organisations, they should act to reduce emotional exhaustion by better work design, or at minimum through availability of stress reduction techniques.

George C. Banks, Christopher E. Whelpley, In-Sue Oh, & KangHyun Shin (2012). (How) Are Emotionally Exhausted Employees Harmful?. International Journal of Stress Management. DOI: 10.1037/a0029249

Depression and burnout: vicious cycles and the saving grace of exercise

A rise in levels of depression contributes to subsequent increases in work burnout, and burnout to later depression, according to new research. However, physical exercise can mitigate and even prevent this vicious cycle.

Here's the how: Sharok Toker and Michal Biron assessed employed visitors to a medical centre on three occasions spanning on average 40 months. They ended up with 1,632 participants from a range of occupations with a mean age of 47, mainly (70%) male. At each time point participants recorded levels of burnout, in terms of fatigue, cognitive weariness ("I have difficulty concentrating") and emotional exhaustion, as well as completing the depression scale of a patient-oriented clinical instrument. Participants also reported the volume of strenuous exercise they conducted within a typical week in the last month.

The what is as described: an increase in burnout from time one to time two predicted an increase in depression from time two to time three, even controlling for time two depression (that is, depression at the time of the burnout uptick). The same effect was found for depression on subsequent burnout. Why? These concepts are understood as related but distinct, with burnout reflecting strain due to the quality of the social situation at work whereas depression is a global state that involves a range of symptoms and an intense experience of sadness or diminished pleasure. Both however make demands on psychological and energetic resources, and this study's results bear out its expectations that a drain on these resources from one origin - such as a harried workplace - can lay the groundwork for other problems.

How about physical exercise? Toker and Biron hypothesised several reasons why it might act as a bulwark against this spiral. Exercise activates systems that can have physical outcomes like improving sleep and even damping down the physical consequences of sustained stress. It can also produce psychological benefits such as better body image and mood states. Moreover, it can be a useful way to take our mind off things, distracting from specific concerns (such as work challenges) or global cognitions (negative thoughts). Toker and Biron found that the more exercise you do, the milder the effect of earlier burnout/depression upon the other variable at a later time point, to the point of obliterating the effect for high doses of exercise.  They conclude that, as well as considering the larger links between job burnout and global depression, employers should recognise the benefits of exercise “as an important means of preventing the build-up of work-related or general distress.”

Toker, S., & Biron, M. (2012). Job burnout and depression: Unraveling their temporal relationship and considering the role of physical activity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97 (3), 699-710 DOI: 10.1037/a0026914

Perfectionists worry away the benefits of a break from work

Go on, have a few days off. Take a week - you've certainly earned it! Clear your mind, take a break - things will tick over til you return...

Easier said than done, of course. But respites from work are valuable, replenishing resources and preventing negative loads (mental fatigue, adrenaline build-up) spiralling out of control. Sadly, the positive gloss of the holiday itself tends to slip quickly when we return to work - a 'fade-out effect' described well in this Psychologist article.  What makes you more likely to fall prey to the fade-out? The quest for perfection, new research suggests.

Researcher Paul Flaxman and colleagues canvassed academics before, during and on two occasions after an Easter break, measuring changes in well-being. The 77 participants also completed a tool that measures self-critical perfectionism; this form of perfectionism centres around high standards and doubting your actions are sufficient to reach them. As this attribute is triggered by achievement -related stressors, such as deadlines or presentations, the researchers suspected the holiday itself would likely be a genuine respite for all, but that those high in this attribute could quickly crash once they returned to work.

Pre-holiday, perfectionists were worse off in terms of well-being: more exhausted, anxious and fatigued than their colleagues. During the holiday, their wellbeing raised and fell in line with colleagues. Yet, at return to work, they quickly reported higher exhaustion, giving way to higher anxiety a few weeks later, with consistently higher fatigue across both time points. The finding accounted for differences in respite wellbeing, length of respite, and how much participants worked during the respite.

What's driving this? Participants reported on holiday cognitions, and it turns out that time spent ruminating about the correctness of past judgments and repeatedly worrying about future events led to more emotional exhaustion and anxiety on return to work. The effect that perfectionism has on the various wellbeing measures was partly due to the mediating influence of these 'perseverative cognitions', which explained at least a quarter and in one case (fatigue) two thirds of the effect. Why didn't these thoughts drag holiday wellbeing down, too? Flaxman's group conjecture that  these cognitions are functional in the short-term, staving off uncomfortable feelings (I should be doing something!) by rehearsing intentions in your head. However, by preventing psychological detachment from work, this strategy foregoes any chance to shake things off and lighten the load.

If you feel that the world might collapse if you took the invitation at the top of this piece, you might want to explore holiday activities that are extremely absorbing and take you well away from the work mentality; you might also want to switch off your work mobile.  The researchers also note that interventions such as CBT and mindfulness-based training may be effective in cushioning perfectionist beliefs from harming quality of life.

Flaxman PE, Ménard J, Bond FW, & Kinman G (2012). Academics' Experiences of a Respite From Work: Effects of Self-Critical Perfectionism and Perseverative Cognition on Postrespite Well-Being. The Journal of applied psychology PMID: 22545621

Resolutions to take the harder edges off work

Work can be engaging, social, and fun. It can also be draining, lonely, and stressful. So let's kick off with resolutions that can reduce these hassles.

Actually, let's be specific: our debut post examined how some work hassles are hindrances of no benefit. But others - often more initially intimidating - are actually challenges that can transform and educate. So our byword should always be avoid hindrances, or eliminate them once and for all - but arm yourself to take on challenges.

Reducing work-life conflict

Work-life conflict dampens engagement and increases burnout, leading to illness and days lost at work - and it can spread to affect your co-workers too. Any steps that can be taken to manage these hindrances benefit the person and the organisation. Here are some steps you might take:

1. Introduce a leisure hours switch-off policy for work technology. It's harder to mentally disconnect from work, especially when technology keeps you plugged in, so introducing a formal policy, or simply taking personal initiative to power down your Blackberry at 6pm (as I decided to do), can pay dividends. The call for more offline time is likely to increase this year, both for leisure and working periods, but why wait to put a good thing in place?

2. Give shift employees more say in when they work. Or if you're that employee, start to demand it. After all, such autonomy - allowing people to coordinate work and home activities - makes more of a difference than the financial incentives that tend to accompany awkward shift patterns such as Sunday working.

3. Lobby for family-friendly policies in science, engineering and technology organisations. In all organisations, really; but women in SET careers, in academia and the private sector alike, experience a leaky pipeline that winnows out many before reaching seniority. If you're serious about this, men could cultivate more welcoming atmospheres whereas women might offer mentoring and support to more junior colleagues.

Role-specific issues

Particular responsibilities come with particular problems.

4. Reduce bureaucracy and other demands on time for academics. For example, burnout is now comparable in higher education to that in other sectors, and particularly high in younger staff. This is an institutional problem, so those with influence might want to think about how to help them keep their head above water.

5. Offer support to those who work at the edge and defend them from internal critics. It's often an unpopular duty to work at the interface between two functions, or between one organisations and another: you end up distrusted by both home and away sides. Try and break that habit, and offer some solidarity.

Meanwhile, newly minted MBAs can struggle in the transition from conceptual classroom to hands-on management. Perhaps you know one?
6a. Apply a little patience with new managers, and offer feedback on their blind spots where possible.
If the new manager is you, remember that the climate and attitudes of your MBA class is no model for the wider world:
6b. Get to understand how your team operates and what motivates them.

And finally...

Coming out of this holiday period, I'm taking a month off from overindulging. If you're a musician, you could choose to act as a drink-free buddy for your musician peers (7). Evidence suggests the muso boozing lifestyle isn't always one of choice but due to peer pressure, boredom, and habit. Be a haven for others who might want to shift down to soft drinks and save some cash - and their liver - for a while.

Higher education is burning out its employees

It's a tumultuous period for higher education in the UK, with many of the givens of university existence being chipped away. It feels like a good time to take the temperature of those who work in that sector. One indicator is the extent to which employees feel they are burned out – when everyday work activities become a struggle, leaving them weary, fed up and performing less effectively. Jenny Watts and Noelle Robertson at the University of Leicester have reviewed the literature to provide us a current account of burnout in university teaching staff.

Searching research databases using terms such as 'burnout' and 'faculty', Watts and Robertson pruned the results using strict criteria to arrive at just 12 English-language papers that tackled burnout in university staff, mainly dealing with Western institutions alongside papers from Turkey and South Africa. The review suggests levels of burnout in universities are similar to those found in professions like school teachers and hospital workers that are generally recognised as challenging; a far cry from the traditional conception of universities as a home for lower-stress work.

What seems to be driving these levels of burnout? Certain groups are more vulnerable, with younger staff more susceptible, possibly due to less developed coping mechanisms.
Consistent with the general burnout literature work, women were more prone to emotional exhaustion, whereas men were more likely to become depersonalised and distanced from their work.

Burnout was reduced when staff felt that their contact with students was valued, and was higher when staff faced negative student evaluations or direct conflict. However, non-student factors such as intensive time pressure appear to have greater effects, suggesting that the stressors are less about unbearable students than changes in work patterns, which may include mounting bureaucracy and more frequent classes. Several of the papers do indeed suggest that simply being responsible for more students leads to more burnout.

There is some evidence that social support protects individuals from burnout, although this was not found in all studies. Type of teaching also mattered, with teachers of postgraduates more likely to hang on to work satisfaction on the one hand, but on the other experience more exhaustion and distancing.

The authors are clear that this is a worrying picture, especially as university staff are responsible for pastoral care of students; hard to be a sympathetic ear when you can't wait to get out of the building. They call for more research into this area in order to form “strategies to enhance wellbeing, student success and teaching quality, particularly during a time of retrenchment in the university sector.”


Watts, J., & Robertson, N. (2011). Burnout in university teaching staff: a systematic literature review Educational Research, 53 (1), 33-50 DOI: 10.1080/00131881.2011.552235

Dirty work jobs call for low expectations

You may have a job that you sometimes personally resent; maybe your work draws hostility from others from time to time. But how about a job that automatically earns you the animosity of your entire society? That's the reality for those employed in dirty work occupations, defined as work that is seen as physically, socially or morally tainted: think sewer workers or morticians. The stigma of this work threatens identity, pushing notions like ‘sick’ or ‘creepy’ where we would prefer nice and desirable. A recent article explores how this affects incoming workers, and what makes some of them stick at dirty work.

Erika Lopina and her team from the University of North Carolina spent two years collecting survey data from 102 people starting animal care roles that involved some contact with the dirty work task of euthanasia. After two months, 28% of these individuals had left their organisation – contrast this with the better retention in mainstream jobs, where turnover within two months sits at somewhere under 10%. Lopina's team were most interested in the remaining 72%: what factors encouraged them to stay?

Firstly, those who remained had initially received more information about the type of work they were getting themselves into, which would lessen any unexpected shocks to identity. Secondly, higher turnover was associated with maladaptive coping strategies such as blaming yourself for problems, denial, or substance use as a support or escape. Clearly, the demands of these sorts of jobs require you to effectively maintain your own well-being, or be overwhelmed by their negative features.

Thirdly – and a little bleakly – those who began with generally poor expectations for life tended to stay longer in their role. This was measured in the survey using a construct called negative affectivity (NA), rating the general level of states like afraid, distressed, and upset; it seems that if these labels already apply to your life then the adjustment to the negative perceptions and reality of dirty work isn't such a wrench.

Two further factors appear to have some influence: turnover was lower when the new hire expressed a commitment to the career (of animal care worker) and emphasised their belief in the value of the job. However, it turns out they don't significantly contribute anything beyond the influence of the previous three variables when the data was combined into a predictive model. As the authors comment, the differentiator is less about pride or drive, but open eyes coming into the job, pragmatism within it, and a fairly low bar for what life offers.

Lopina, E., Rogelberg, S., & Howell, B. (2011). Turnover in dirty work occupations: A focus on pre-entry individual characteristics Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02037.x

What ingredients sweeten Sunday working?

I hope you're having a relaxing weekend. If so, spare a thought for those busy at their jobs, serving in shops, making our meals, or mending wounds. Lacking a sacrosanct day of rest – in much of the West at least – we expect this work to get done... but are reluctant to be the ones doing it. Sunday is the day most workers avoid if they can help it; now, a new study suggests ways to sweeten this bitter pill.

James Martin and colleagues contacted union members working in a retail food chain that often requires Sunday shift-work, using a survey to gather responses from 2000 employees. The researchers were interested in how an employee's satisfaction with their current work schedule relates to other factors, after taking into account considerations such as base pay rate and hours worked.

They found that unsurprisingly people were happier to work Sundays when this came with a salary premium; however, the premium needed to be at least moderate in scale ($2/hour extra, rather than $1/hour). In addition, Sunday workers with more control over their overall schedule were more acceptant of their schedules, as were workers with longer organizational tenure. The latter probably reflects the fact that time in a job offers more opportunities to get out of, negotiate, or make peace with schedules that pose inconveniences.

Martin's team also explored what future benefits could entice Sunday workers into taking further Sunday shifts, and found that this depended on how the workers currently felt. For those already satisfied with their working pattern, the notion of a raise in the Sunday premium was attractive; those currently fed up with their current schedule were much harder to please financially. These individuals thawed towards future Sunday shifts when it came with the prospect of more power over the rest of their schedule: to flex and amend it to fit circumstances, or simply to have more say over it in the first place. It's worth noting that these analyses give insight into how to handle incremental change – working more or fewer Sundays – but have less to say about the introduction of wholly new working schedules, as they did not assess attitudes in non-Sunday workers.

Organisations that depend on work completed in non-standard schedules have to account for the fact that we prefer to do other things with our nights, evenings, and weekends. This research reminds us that although financial incentives do still appeal, we would do better to provide employees more say in when they work. And if you're working today, I hope you have some time off soon when it suits you.



Martin, J., Wittmer, J., & Lelchook, A. (2011). Attitudes towards days worked where Sundays are scheduled Human Relations DOI: 10.1177/0018726710396248

Hey co-worker, your family stresses affect me, too

Kim is a little worried about her co-worker Greg. She hears all about his home issues: young kids, ill mother, and a house sale turned ugly.

You hear that his mammoth project has been stuttering recently - unsurprising.

It seems to have affected Kim a little too...

wonder how she is finding work right now?

Greg is experiencing family-work interference (FWI), where an individual struggles in the workplace, home, or in both domains, due to the conflicting demands they make. These include time demands and stresses, together with required behaviours - a workplace may expect an objective and cool style, whereas a family wants your openness and warmth. We vary in how we experience this: men are most likely to perceive the problem as family obstructing their work, rather than the reverse, and ‘Type-A’ traits are associated with more FWI. All in all, though, these clashes cause problems.

Now a new study by Lieke ten Brummelhuis and colleagues suggests that an employee’s levels of FWI affects not just themselves, but their co-workers too. They studied 1,430 pairs of employees from a Dutch policing organisation, and measured whether the FWI of one employee correlated with more sick days and stronger intention to leave the organisation for both members of the pair. They discovered it did: higher FWI produced worse outcomes on both measures for the employee themselves, and somewhat more weakly for their co-worker as well.

The team provide evidence that the negative outcomes are due to the transmission of emotional states from one co-worker to the other, a process called crossover. They measured states commonly associated with FWI: burnout, where exhaustion and doubts stack up to make daily responsibilities a struggle, and low levels of engagement, an attunement with your job, organisation, profession. The study showed that both crossed-over, and also showed that each appears to have a distinct effect. Burnout was more likely to lead to sick days, whereas lack of engagement, by eroding loyalty, increases intention to leave.

How the feelings caused by FWI cross-over isn’t fully understood. It’s likely to be a combination of negative banter, atmosphere, and displaced tasks from the overloaded employee. As such, it's premature on the basis of this research to recommend how to reduce the cross-over; some may be due to too much sharing between colleagues and some due to too little. But we can clearly see the benefit in seeking to reduce FWI for each and every employee, as the consequences can be far spreading. When Greg is feeling the strain, Kim may be feeling it, too.

---

Ten Brummelhuis, L.L., Bakker, A.B., Euwema, M.C. (2010). Is family-to-work interference related to co-workers' work outcomes? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3), 461-469, DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2010.06.001