3. Fatigue, recovery and work times

Question 1

Beckers - effort recovery theory

Answer 1

overtime work = effort investment prolonged and recovery time reduced. overtime can lead to a situation of prolonged insufficient recovery.

Question 2

Beckers - adverse behavior theory

Answer 2

overtime linked to adverse behavior (unhealthy diet, lack of effort etc.)

Question 3

Beckers - effort reward imbalance model

Answer 3

employees’ efforts at work are part of social exchange process in which employee expects fair rewards for their invested efforts. lack of reciprocity may elicit distress and low satisfaction.

Question 4

Beckers - research question

Answer 4

how are control over time work and rewards for overtime work related to fatigue and work satisfaction.?

Question 5

Beckers - results control ft personal and work characteristics

Answer 5

voluntary higher levels of education and income + more job variety + more autonomy.

Question 6

Beckers - control ft fatigue and work satisfaction

Answer 6

voluntary less fatigued. unrewarded overtime workers more fatigued than rewarded. involuntary overtime work without rewards was related to high fatigue. involuntary less satisfied particularly no rewards. voluntary more satisfied. involuntary no rewards least satisfied, involuntary rewards little more satisfied.

Question 7

Beckers - discussion

Answer 7

It can thus be concluded that voluntary and unrewarded overtime workers generally work in more favourable jobs with a relatively high income and a good combination of work characteristics. involuntary overtime work was associated with relatively high fatigue and low satisfaction especially no rewards = burnout risk group. voluntary overtime workers were relatively non- fatigued and satisfied even when they received no rewards for their extra work hours.

Question 8

Beckers - explanations

Answer 8

voluntary partly by congruence actual and desired work hours. involuntary mismatch.

Question 9

Beckers - implications

Answer 9

The results of this study imply that moderate overtime work does not have to be a major problem as long as employees have the freedom to decide whether or not to work overtime. Moreover, the negative effects of involuntary overtime work may, to some extent, be reduced by fair compensation for extra work efforts. Stated differently, this study shows that proper working conditions (e.g., high worktime control and/or fair rewards) are not only vital during contractual work hours but also (and maybe even more important) during overtime work.

Question 10

Hulst - physiological recovery mechnism

Answer 10

long hours of work invest effort in work for longer period of time where recovery time is reduced. insufficient recovery disturbs physiological processes (blood pressure)

Question 11

Hulst - behavior life-style mechanism

Answer 11

long work associated with life-style factors such as smoking and coffee and alcohol consumption etc. causes physiological changes and increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Question 12

Hulst - mortality

Answer 12

mixed evidence

Question 13

Hulst - disease

Answer 13

cadio: positive, hypertension: negative, diabetes: positive

Question 14

Hulst - work disability

Answer 14

disability retirement: positive. sickness absence: negative, work more lower sickness absence

Question 15

Hulst - subjective health

Answer 15

general: half of studies, psychological ill health: pos and neg. physical ill: strong. fatigue: pos

Question 16

Hulst - physiology

Answer 16

fasting blood sugar

Question 17

Hulst - behavior

Answer 17

sleep negative

Question 18

Hulst - whether recent literature shows evidence of a relationship between long workhours and specific aspects of health.

Answer 18

most studies found either no association between long workhours and adverse health or an association in the expected direction. These results show that there is good reason to be concerned about the possible detrimental effects of long workhours on health, in particular cardiovascular disease, diabetes, illnesses leading to disability retirement, subjectively reported physical ill health, and subjective fatigue. However, reverse or counterintuitive associations were found for development of hypertension and sickness absence.

Question 19

Hulst - whether recent literature provides evidence of physiological changes in those who work long hours

Answer 19

there is some evidence for a lack of physiological recovery among those who work long hours. In particular, results point at cardiovascular changes (increased heart rate and blood pressure). Furthermore, there is evidence for an association between long workhours and reduced immunity. Thus, long workhours are, at least under some circumstances, associated with a disturbance of vital physiological processes that are associated with an increased risk of development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and vulnerability to bacterial and viral infections. But evidence is inconclusive.

Question 20

Hulst - whether recent literature contains evidence that long workhours are associated with changes in health-related behavior

Answer 20

there is some evidence for changes in behavioural life-style for those who work long hours. Those who work long hours seem to have short sleep hours. This finding is in agreement with the disturbance of physiological processes already discussed, and it strengthens the evidence for the physiological recovery mechanism. In some circumstances, long workhours seem to be associated with increased smoking, alcohol consumption, and a higher BMI. However, the evidence for the behavioural life-style mechanism that may explain the relationship between long workhours and ill health is rather weak.
Support for the physiological recovery mechanism seems stronger than support for the behavioural lifestyle mechanism. However, the evidence is inconclusive because many studies did not control for potential confounders. Due to the gaps in the current evidence and the methodological shortcomings of the studies in the review, further research is needed.

Question 21

Nakamura - hypothesis

Answer 21

overtime adverse effect on physical health

Question 22

Nakamura - results

Answer 22

overtime with bmi and waist. bmi highly with waist. age with waist to hip. overtime with dinner time. overtime and dinner time with bmi and waist. bmi predicted overtime. waist by overtime and age. bmi predicted preference fatty food. waist to and habit of eating breakfast and age.

Question 23

Nakamura - discussion

Answer 23

This study confirmed a weak but statistically significant relationship of overtime hours to changes in BMI and waist circumference during a 3-year period.
In the present study, habitual late-night meals were associated with BMI. These findings suggest increased hepatic lipogenesis and support the hypothesis that meal timing is a factor determining body weight change in humans.
They speculate that adult BMI values reflect fat intake and/or lifestyle factors. Possibly of a long duration, and genetic predisposition.

Question 24

Nakamura - explanations

Answer 24

A possible explanation is that workers who did a great deal of overtime possibly had higher dietary intakes due to stress-induced behaviours including overeating (speculation).
o Another possible mechanism of weight gain for those working overtime is suggested by the inter-correlation between overtime hours and dinner time, i.e., the more overtime work one does the later dinner is eaten. The authors speculate that habitually eating dinner late in the evening dependently or independently changes lipid metabolism, which may promote fat deposition.

Question 25

Nakamura - conclusion

Answer 25

In conclusion, the present study suggested that people who worked overtime had a small excess risk for the increases in BMI and waist circumference over a 3-year period, independent of lifestyle factors except for dinner time. Some eating habits of workers with long working hours may reflect an intervening effect of working overtime on the anthropometric changes.

Question 26

Akersted - demand control model

Answer 26

High demands and low decision latitude have been found predictive of cardiovascular and other types of disease.
There seems to be a relation between increasing job strain, the combination of high psychological demands and low decision latitude and disturbed sleep.

Question 27

Akersted - results

Answer 27

high work demands and physical effort work = risk indicators disturbed sleep. high social support with reduced risk. 45+, female and high BMI & lack of exercise are lifestyle indicators. high age predicted reduced risk for not feeling rested. difficulties awakening predicted by high work demands, low social support, male, low age & smoking. subjective sleep quality decreased with age, the difficulties awakening and feelings of not being well rested after sleep increased with age.

Question 28

Akersted - obvious results

Answer 28

The most obvious link between work factors and disturbed sleep was that of working under high demands. This agrees with the studies attributing disturbed sleep to work stress. Also, lack of social support at work was a risk indicator for disturbed sleep, not feeling rested and difficulties awakening.

Question 29

Akersted - discussion

Answer 29

overtime not related to disturbed sleep, lower risk. expl: levels need to be extreme to see effect and overtime voluntary so may counteract. shift work not with disturbed sleep. expl: shift workers sleep after so never really disturbed. age clear predictor disturbed sleep. single related to disturbed sleep. smoking to difficulties awakening.

Question 30

Torres-Harding - fatigue

Answer 30

nonspecific symptom because it can be indicative of many causes or conditions.

Question 31

Torres-Harding - chronic fatigue syndrome

Answer 31

illness characterized by unexplained severe, persistent, disabling fatigue.

Question 32

Torres-Harding - conceptualization of fatigue

Answer 32

best on a continuum with its variability reflecting degrees of severity.

Question 33

Torres-harding - outbreaks

Answer 33

20th century: several of illnesses with fatigue with unknown etiology. 1955 too and another atypical poliomyelitis in LA.

Question 34

Torres-Harding - epstein-barr virus syndrome

Answer 34

explained chronic fatigue as a persistent viral illness caused by the same pathogen responsible for acute mononucleosis. later chronic fatigue syndrome.

Question 35

Torres-Harding - unexplained chronic fatigue

Answer 35

myalgic encephalomyelitis, ME.

Question 36

Torres-Harding - mid 1800 high fatigue without clear cause.

Answer 36

Mid 1800 - neurasthenia - general malaise, poor appetite etc.

Question 37

Torres-Harding - summary

Answer 37

• Both unexplained fatigue and fatigue occurring as a symptom of illness are recognized as serious symptoms that can severely limit physical functioning and have a negative impact on quality of life.
• Research supports the involvement of multiple dimensions, with physiological, psychological, and psychosocial factors contributing to the experience of fatigue.
• Fatigue often occurs in conjunctions with other somatic and psychiatric symptoms.
• The relationship between physiological fatigue or disease states and the feeling of fatigue
  remains poorly understood
  o Fatigue is difficult to measure o Difficult to define
• A recurring theme in the research on fatigue is the need for a biopsychosocial approach, incorporating physiological, psychological and psychosocial factors.

Question 38

VDL - what is examined here

Answer 38

whether fatigued people show deficits in task performance that indicate that their executive control on behavior is compromised.

Question 39

VDL - deficit in flexibility

Answer 39

often manifest itself in behavior as a tendency to perseverate or to hold on to an ineffective strategy. - Wisconsin card sorting test

Question 40

VDL - deficit in planning

Answer 40

can be observed by a tendency to initiate actions without considering a strategy beforehand, by ineffective plans, or by increased planning time. - tower of london test

Question 41

VDL - results fatigue

Answer 41

fatigue group increased in fatigue after manipulation

Question 42

VDL - results task motivation

Answer 42

willingness to exert effort on the experimental tasks and to do ones best on these tasks sign lower for fatigued participants

Question 43

VDL - results mood

Answer 43

fatigued higher levels of anger.

Question 44

VDL - results wisconsin card sorting test (flexibility)

Answer 44

fatigued participants higher percentages of perseverative errors and discovered less sorting rules.
fatigue group higher RT rule application (takes longer)

Question 45

VDL - results tol

Answer 45

& lower rule search (apply the same strategy, so don’t search for different rule)

Question 46

VDL - discussion

Answer 46

The overall results support this idea as fatigued participants showed more performance deficits than non-fatigued participants on tasks that required to flexibly generate and test hypotheses (WCST) and to plan (TOL).
fatigued performed worse in tasks related to executive control.
results show that deficit in task performance were caused by difficulties in upholding sufficient levels of executive control.

Question 47

VDL - implications

Answer 47

The current study supports the view that compromised executive control underlies behavioural manifestations of mental fatigue. compromised executive control under fatigue does not imply that certain basic cognitive processes can no longer be executed at all. Moreover, it also does not imply that cognitive processes are fundamentally changed under fatigue. However, from the (goal- activation) view that was adopted in the current study, compromised executive control under fatigue does imply a reduced probability that actions will be guided by task goals or by changing task context. Subsequently there would be an increased tendency for more automatic regulatory processes to guide action selection, even when this is inappropriate. Such lapses in the exertion of executive control may be responsible for the typical slips of action and intrusion errors that are often found in fatigued people.

Question 48

Cropley - what did they study

Answer 48

The present study was designed to replicate and extend this research in two ways:
1. This study examined the mechanisms by means of which work rumination contributes to
sustained cognitive arousal by extending the time frame in which work rumination is measured. They did this by assessing work ruminative thoughts in high and low job strain workers across the whole evening, until bedtime. ‘
2. The authors wished to examine the association between work rumination and sleep quality and in particular whether work rumination mediates or moderates the relationship between job strain and sleep.

Question 49

Cropley - results H1

Answer 49

Consistent with hypothesis 1, work rumination was higher in the early evening and declined as the evening progressed as individuals gradually unwound and relaxed. Also as expected, high job strain teachers, demonstrated a greater likelihood of ruminative thinking, across the whole evening, relative to low job strain teachers. This finding could not be explained by work patterns as there was no difference between the groups in the time spent on school work over the evening. Unlike previous research, however, there was no interaction between job strain and work rumination.

Question 50

Cropley - results H2

Answer 50

Job strain and work rumination were negatively associated with sleep quality. However, against expectations (Hypothesis 2), work rumination did not mediate or moderate the relationship between job strain and sleep quality in the present study.
Unfortunately, the initial path between job strain and sleep quality was relatively low at r=-.18, and once work rumination was added to the model, the beta value was only reduced by a very small amount, .03.
- One possible reason for this could be the job strain measure used in the study. The job strain measure was more of a trait questionnaire, seeking information about perceptions of the working environment in general, and future research may find a stronger correlation with sleep quality if a state or specific measure of job strain is used that seeks information about how stressful the job was that day.

Question 51

Cropley - interesting finding

Answer 51

Interestingly there was no difference in reported sleep time between the high and low job strain teachers. The mean sleep length was 6 hours and 38 minutes. The authors assume that ruminating about work issues in the hour before bed raises cognitive and physiological arousal of the central nervous system, and being highly aroused delays sleep onset and leads to poorer sleep. Laboratory studies have shown that individuals who ruminate following the completion of a challenging task tend to show prolonged physiological arousal and being aroused at bedtime delays sleep onset.

Question 52

Cropley - conclusion

Answer 52

Many teachers take work home and the interface between work and home boundaries is blurred. Working at home does not necessarily translate into poor sleep; how easily one is able to ‘‘switch off ’’ once work is completed appears to be the crucial factor predicting good quality sleep.

Question 53

Demerouti - internal recovery

Answer 53

in the context of work during short breaks from work

Question 54

Demerouti - external recovery

Answer 54

after work-hours, during weekends, longer periods like vacation

Question 55

Demerouti - work-related activties

Answer 55

well-being: -

Question 56

Demerouti - low effort, social, physical activities

Answer 56

well-being: +

Question 57

Demerouti - feelings of being recovered due to various activities

Answer 57

engagement: +, personal initiative: +, pursuit of learning: +

Question 58

Demerouti - psychological detachment during social activities

Answer 58

mood: +

Question 59

Demerouti: psychological detachment during physical activities

Answer 59

mood: +, fatigue: -

Question 60

Demerouti - general psychological detachment

Answer 60

mood: +, fatigue: -

Question 61

Demerouti - sleep quality

Answer 61

positive activation: +, serenity: +, negative activation: -, fatigue: -

Question 62

Demerouti - feelings of mastery

Answer 62

positive activation: +

Question 63

Demerouti - relaxation

Answer 63

serenity: +

Question 64

Demerouti - Psychological detachment

Answer 64

negative activation: -, morning fatigue: -

Question 65

Demerouti - feelings of recovery

Answer 65

vigor: +, depression: -, fatigue: -

Question 66

Demerouti - time spent on social activities

Answer 66

depression: +

Question 67

Demerouti - time spent on physical activities

Answer 67

vigor: +, depression: -

Question 68

Demerouti - psychological experiences with potential for recovery

Answer 68

psychological detachment and humor

Question 69

Demerouti - activities potentially inhibiting recovery

Answer 69

work-related activities, household and child-care activities

Question 70

Demerouti - factors facilitating recovery

Answer 70

job resources; job control, feedback, learning opportunities.

Question 71

Demerouti - factors inhibiting recovery

Answer 71

work-related, non-work hassles

Question 72

Demerouti - need for recovery

Answer 72

• Daily need for recovery has been found a highly significant predictor of daily well-being at bedtime.
• Need for recovery was also positively related to employee voluntary turnover in a two-year follow-up study among truck drivers.
• In a longitudinal study of high levels of need for recovery were associated with an increased risk of leaving shift work during the follow-up two years later.
• High need for recovery after work increased the risk of subsequent sickness absence that is not explained by relevant (non-) work-related factors in another longitudinal study.
• Finally, a study found that need for recovery was a major predictor of psychosomatic complaints, sleep complaints, and complaints of emotional exhaustion in coach drivers.

Question 73

Demerouti - recovery model

Answer 73

The type of activities will moderate the relationship between the strain reactions and the psychological and energetic state at bedtime.
o When a person is involved in activities with potential for recovery (physical or social activities) the unfavourable effect of strain reactions on psychological and energetic state at bedtime will be weaker then when one is not involved in such activities.
o When a person is involved in activities inhibiting recovery (work-related activities) it will have detrimental effects on psychological and energetic state compared to when one is not involved in such activities.
▪ What is crucial for the state at bedtime is that the person has increased their ability to relax and recover from work.
• Physiological: blood pressure and heart rate reduced in the evening
• Psychological: recovery process during non-work time has to do with
less rumination or better well-being before going to bed
▪ Important for recovery: after the non-work activities the person feels ready and able to sleep. The better the state, the longer the sleep and better
quality→better and energetic for work.

Question 74

Bloom - measurements

Answer 74

pre, inter, post 1, post 2, post 3

Question 75

Bloom - vacation effects

Answer 75

when health and well-being during vacation are higher than pre-vacation levels (pre vs inter)

Question 76

Bloom - results RQ1: do health and well-being of working individuals improve during a winter sports vacation?

Answer 76

• During vacation participants felt healthier, were in a better mood, felt more energized, were more satisfied and reported lower tension than during the regular working week before they went on vacation.
• Level fatigue was not significantly different during vs. pre baseline.
  o Overall, self-reported health and well-being significantly improved during vacation.
  The mean absolute effect size d for the difference between Pre and Inter in all seven
  indicators was 0.54, indicating a medium-sized positive vacation effect.

Question 77

Bloom - results RQ2: once a vacation effect has occurred, how long does it last after work resumption? vacation after-effects

Answer 77

Self-reported health and well-being declined significantly after returning home and resuming work
- Fatigue levels decreased rather than increased directly after vacation→positive short-term after affect.
Self-reported health and well-being had declined rapidly after resumption of work: five of the six H&W indicators (health status, mood, tension, energy level, satisfaction) had returned to baseline levels within the first week of work resumption (Post 1), meaning that vacation had no short-term, mid-term or long-term after- effect. Fatigue showed a different pattern of rise and fall, with the lowest level at Post 1 and levels comparable to baseline at Post 2, suggesting a short-term after-effect. FIGURE

Question 78

Bloom - discussion

Answer 78

Vacation effect:
These findings strongly support the idea of a vacation as a powerful opportunity to recover from work demands and to benefit from positive free-time experiences. Regarding fatigue and sleep quality, participants’ reports did not differ between the on-vacation and the pre-vacation occasions.

, the authors found the lowest levels of fatigue immediately after vacation instead of during vacation. Strictly speaking, this effect cannot be labelled an after-effect of vacation, since levels of fatigue on vacation did not differ significantly from pre-vacation levels, indicating the absence of a vacation effect. Still, it is assumed that decreased levels of fatigue on post-vacation may represent a vacation after-effect: during winter sports vacation, people engage in physically demanding, uncommon activities which are presumably accompanied by feeling physically fatigued, while after work, people may feel primarily mentally fatigued.

Vacation after-effects
Fatigue was the only exception and was the lowest immediately after vacation.
expl:
- wintersport is active
- wintersport during busy period
- duration of wintersport not long enough as usual or need
- in previous studies after-effect overestimated

Question 79

Bloom - why still go on vacation

Answer 79

Like any other freely chosen and pleasant activity, a vacation is a period that people enjoy for its own sake; vacation makes people happy and healthy as this study unmistakably showed. Furthermore, health and well- being could deteriorate over time if people did not go on vacation, as vacation is important for long-term health and vitality, and for building up enduring personal resources and coping capacities.