Individual Determinants of Rest-Break Behavior in Occupational Settings

What alleviates the harmful effect of strain on recovery from work of 4478 health and social services workers? A cross-sectional study

AIM

To analyse whether the harmful effect of job demands on recovery can be alleviated by healthy lifestyle, psychological recovery experiences and job resources. We also describe their prevalence among employees in different types of eldercare service and in the health and social services sector in general.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

The data were collected using a self-report survey in 2020 in the health and social services sector organizations (n = 4478). Employees were classified as the following service types: general health and social services (N = 3225), home care (N = 452), service housing (N = 550) and outpatient and ward care (N = 202). The data were analysed using percentages, cross-tabulations and logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Poor recovery, high job demands, low appreciation and low autonomy in terms of worktime and breaks were more prevalent in eldercare. Employers could alleviate the risk of high job demands by offering job resources-appreciation, autonomy in terms of worktimes and breaks-and motivating employees to maintain healthy lifestyle habits and use recovery experiences such as relaxation.

CONCLUSION

The study emphasizes the importance of appreciation in the health and social services sector context. Even with moderate levels of appreciation employers can protect employees from poor recovery from work in the demanding health and social services work environment.

IMPACT

Eldercare employees face continuous and accumulating work strain at the same time as the sector struggles against a labour shortage. One way to prevent the harmful consequences of strain is to enhance recovery from work. Employers could alleviate the risk of high job demands and poor recovery by showing appreciation and giving employees more autonomy in terms of work time and breaks during the workday. This could also motivate employees to keep up healthy lifestyle habits and use their recovery experiences. Results are important especially in the daily management of HSS work. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER CONTRIBUTE TO THE WIDER GLOBAL CLINICAL COMMUNITY?: Managers in the health and social services sector and eldercare can use these findings to promote recovery from work.

REPORTING METHOD

STROBE checklist.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

Short Mindfulness Meditations During Breaks and After Work in Everyday Nursing Care: A Simple Strategy for Promoting Daily Recovery, Mood, and Attention?

BACKGROUND

Nurses experience high job demands, which makes recovery particularly necessary to maintain well-being and performance. However, these demands also make recovery challenging. Short mindfulness meditations could potentially help alleviate this paradox.

METHODS

Two ecological momentary intervention studies were conducted among geriatric nurses (Study 1: break study) and hospital nurses (Study 2: after-work study) to investigate whether short audio-guided mindfulness meditations are beneficial for recovery during breaks and psychological detachment after work. Furthermore, break recovery and after-work detachment were examined as mediators of the associations between mindfulness meditations and after-break/after-sleep mood and attention after respective recovery periods. Multilevel path models were based on a sample of 38 nurses and 208 after-break surveys in the break study and 26 nurses and 192 after-sleep surveys in the after-work study.

RESULTS

Compared to breaks spent as usual, breaks that incorporated short mindfulness meditations were associated with higher break recovery, which mediated the positive associations between mindful breaks and after-break calmness, valence, and energetic arousal. Only with certain constraints did mindfulness meditations predict a lower rate of attention failures. In the after-work study, short mindfulness meditations were positively related to psychological detachment, which mediated the positive associations between the intervention and after-sleep valence and calmness.

CONCLUSION/APPLICATION TO PRACTICE

Both pilot studies showed that short mindfulness meditations aid in recovery among nurses. However, to fully utilize the advantages of recovery-promoting breaks, structural changes are necessary to ensure that breaks of an appropriate duration are consistently implemented.

"Make it the done thing": an exploration of attitudes towards rest breaks, productivity and wellbeing while working from home

OBJECTIVE

Taking regular rest breaks while working positively impacts productivity and wellbeing. While home and hybrid working styles have become a popular choice for employees, the impact of, and perceptions towards, taking breaks while working at home is poorly understood. The current research aimed to explore attitudes towards taking rest breaks while working from home and capture levels of breaks taken, wellbeing and productivity in a sample of UK white-collar workers.

METHODS

A mixed method approach was applied where self-report data from an online survey were gathered from individuals (N = 140) from one organisation. Open-ended questions regarding attitudes and perceptions towards rest break behaviours were obtained. Further quantitative measures included the number of breaks taken while working from home, levels of productivity (measured by the Health and performance Presenteeism subscale) and mental wellbeing (measured by the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental wellbeing scale). Both quantitative and qualitative analysis approaches were applied.

RESULTS

Qualitative responses indicated two overarching themes (1) Personal and (2) Organisational sat above four further themes including Movement outside, Structure of home working, Home environment and Digital presence. Additionally, quantitative findings indicated that the number of breaks taken outside was associated with positive changes in wellbeing.

CONCLUSION

Employers could aim to support employees working from home in taking outside breaks through flexible working patterns, authentic leadership, and a change in company social norms around break behaviours. Such organisational changes could help to improve workforce productivity and wellbeing.

Working from home during lockdown: the association between rest breaks and well-being

One of the challenges with working from home (WFH) is the question of its effect on health and well-being. The impact of home working on health has so far not been studied extensively. We address this gap by investigating the association between internal recovery, operationalised as rest break frequency (low, medium, and high) during the working day, on self-reported musculoskeletal pain, and post-work recovery symptoms in WFH knowledge workers (n = 382). The analysis showed that failing to take frequent breaks was associated with a dose-response increased risk of reporting headaches. For post-work recovery symptoms, failing to take rest breaks throughout the day was associated with an increased risk of reporting psychological fatigue, physical fatigue, and sleep problems, and a decreased risk of psychologically detaching from work and experiencing adequate rest. Our findings emphasise the importance of remote workers taking recovery breaks from work demands in the maintenance of health and well-being.Practitioner Summary: For the foreseeable future, many knowledge workers will be obliged to work from home for at least, some days of the week. It is therefore important for workers to learn to regulate their behaviour, and workers need to be educated about the value of taking regular rest breaks throughout the working day.Abbreviations: ICT: Information and communications technology; MSDs: musculoskeletal disorders; MSPs: Musculoskeletal pain symptoms; OR: Odds ratio; WFH: Working from home; WRRQ: Work-Related Rumination Questionnaire Questionnaire.