Jessica de Bloom

Tampere University | UTA · Department of Psychology

Introduction An intensified and increasingly demanding and digitalized working life, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires new approaches to improve health and wellbeing at work and beyond. This presentation provides an overview of 5-years research progress on needs-based crafting. The Identity-based Integrative Needs Model of Crafting pro...

Crafting research has often focused solely on the work domain or examined work and non‐work life domains separately, using a variable‐centered approach. Little is known about the interactions of crafting processes in the work and non‐work domain. In this time‐lagged study, we examined (1) the relationship between job and off‐job crafting behaviours...

Background Self-initiated and proactive changes in working conditions through crafting are essential for shaping work and improving work-related well-being. Recently, the research stream of job crafting has been extended to other life domains. The present paper aims to study a novel crafting concept—work–nonwork balance crafting—investigating the r...

We present the conceptualization and validation of the Needs-Based Job Crafting Scale (NJCS), a new assessment tool theoretically grounded in the Identity-Based Integrative Needs Model of Crafting and DRAMMA psychological needs (detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation). The article is composed of three studies. In Study...

Off-job crafting entails deliberate changes people can make in their non-work activities to meet their personal goals and satisfy psychological needs. We conducted a quasi-experimental study with a waitlist control group in three organizations in Finland (N = 86) to evaluate whether participation in a hybrid off-job crafting intervention stimulates...

We use experience sampling methodology and adopt the integrative needs model of crafting to investigate employees' daily energy trajectories, and to test whether employees' energy can be conserved or increased throughout the day through the proactive behavioral strategy of needs-based crafting. We first examine the daily trajectories of energy and...

Our study examines the core concept of salutogenesis—sense of coherence (SOC)—in relation to off-job crafting (OJC) and mental well-being (MWB). The original salutogenic model of health mainly addresses the protective function of SOC against adversity. In our study, we focus on the recently proposed path of positive health development that captures...

Shaping off-job life is becoming increasingly important for workers to increase and maintain their optimal functioning (i.e., feeling and performing well). Proactively shaping the job domain (referred to as job crafting) has been extensively studied, but crafting in the off-job domain has received markedly less research attention. Based on the Inte...

Ongoing developments, such as digitalization, increased the interference of the work and nonwork life domains, urging many to continuously manage engagement in respective domains. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent home-office regulations further boosted the need for employees to find a good work-nonwork balance, thereby optimizing their health a...

Studies on the stress‐sleep relationship consistently demonstrate negative effects of stress on sleep. The reversed relation, however, has received less research attention. Also, field studies on physiological stress are scarce. The aim of this day‐level diary study was to examine daily relationships between sleep quality and quantity, and subjecti...

Unlimited paid time off policies are currently fashionable and widely discussed by HR professionals around the globe. While on the one hand, paid time off is considered a key benefit by employees and unlimited paid time off policies (UPTO) are seen as a major perk which may help in recruiting and retaining talented employees, on the other hand, ear...

Recovery from work stress during workday breaks, free evenings, weekends, and vacations is known to benefit employee health and well-being. However, how recovery at different temporal settings is interconnected is not well understood. We hypothesized that on days when employees engage in recovery-enhancing lunchtime activities, they will experience...

The COVID-19 pandemic and remote working challenge employees' possibilities to recover from work during their off-job time. We examined the relationship between off-job crafting and burnout across the COVID-19 crisis. We used a longitudinal research design, comprising one wave collected before the onset of the pandemic, in March 2019 (T1), and one...

We investigated the relationship between age, resilience, job demands and resources, and self-regulation in 1715 university employees during the COVID-19 pandemic (February 2021) by means of an online survey with closed and open questions. Correlation, regression, and qualitative analyses showed that older employees reported higher resilience than...

The aim of this study was to investigate employees’ self-reported creativity before and after vacation and to examine the impact of recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, mastery, meaning, autonomy, affiliation) on changes in creativity. The DRAMMA model of Newman et al. provides the theoretical background of our approach. Longitudinal data...

Link: https://soundcloud.com/kohinakampus/the-social-impact-of-work-rest-balance?in=kohinakampus/sets/sustainability-podcast&si=11d485a8f61d4f5db3b586a2ad0d68f8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing In this podcast our guest, Dr Jessica de Bloom, talks about the importance of rest and recovery from work, and the surprisi...

Employees of all ages can proactively shape their behavior to manage modern work–life challenges more effectively and this is known as crafting. Our goal is to better understand employees’ motives for engaging in crafting efforts in different life domains to fulfil their psychological needs. In a survey study with two measurement waves, we examined...

The relationship between recovery experiences and cognitive failures among Finnish teachers The aim of this study was to investigate how recovery experiences during off-job time (i.e., detachment from work, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation) are related to self-reported cognitive failures among Finnish teachers. Cognitive fail...

Most studies on psychological restoration and favorite places have addressed restoration in green or blue outdoor settings whereas the interest around built and indoor settings has been scarce. In this study, we analyzed restorative experiences in favorite indoor and outdoor urban places using a top-down approach by including psycho-environmental v...

In an intensifying working life, it is important for employees to proactively shape their lives beyond work to create opportunities for satisfying personal needs. These efforts can be beneficial for creating and sustaining well-being in terms of vitality. In this study, we focused on off-job crafting (OJC) for meaning and OJC for affiliation, conce...

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, practically overnight, a large share of the working population transitioned to working from home: involuntarily, unprepared and often full-time. While writing this blog, around 50% of the Dutch workforce works from home. This sparked a lot of new research and the surprising successes and challenges of working from ho...

Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ mind...

In March 2020, the world was hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic which led to all-embracing measures to contain its spread. Most employees were forced to work from home and take care of their children because schools and day cares were closed. We present data from a research project in a large multinational organization in the Nether...

While academic research on recovery was rather segregated between occupational health psychology and management research at the beginning of the 20s century and streams of research developed independently, recent developments hint at a closing divide and better integration of recovery research across disciplines. This for example becomes evident in...

The present study focused on within‐workday recovery, which has received less scholarly attention than has recovery outside work. We examined six break recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning and affiliation) as possible mediators between daily emotional job demands, positive and negative affect both in the afternoo...

It is well established that leisure vacations markedly improve well-being, but that these effects are only of short duration. The present study aimed to investigate whether vacation effects would be more lasting if individuals practiced meditation during the leisure episode. Meditation is known to improve well-being durably, among others, by enhanc...

We used ecological momentary assessments to examine the predictive value of the episodic process model to explain within-person fluctuations in job performance across the working day. Our sample consisted of 330 employees in knowledge-intensive jobs working fairly regular office hours, who responded to digital hourly surveys across one entire worki...

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in psychological need satisfaction and its role in promoting optimal functioning. The DRAMMA model integrates existing need and recovery models to explain why leisure is connected to optimal functioning (i.e., high well-being and low ill-being). It encompasses six psychological needs: detachmen...

Background: While work-related rumination increases the risk of acute stressors developing into chronic load reactions and adverse health, mental detachment has been suggested as a way to interrupt this chain. Despite the importance of mentally detaching from work during leisure time, workers seem to struggle to disengage and, instead, experience...

In recent years, there has been heightened interest in the active role of employees in shaping activities and experiences in their pursuit of optimal functioning (i.e., feeling and performing well), referred to as job-, leisure-, home-, and work-life balance crafting. Various perspectives have emphasized distinct dimensions within the crafting proc...

Purpose The study had three aims. We investigated, first, how six recovery experiences (i.e., detachment, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation) during off-job time suggested by the DRAMMA model (Newman et al. in J Happiness Stud 15(3):555–578. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9435-x, 2014) are related to well-being (i.e., vital...

Background: Employees dealing with job demands such as high workload and permeable work-life boundaries could benefit from bottom-up well-being strategies such as off-job crafting. We have developed a hybrid off-job crafting intervention to promote off-job crafting, a proactive pursuit to adjust one's off-job time activities to satisfy one's psych...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether beneficial vacation effects can be strengthened and prolonged with a smartphone-based intervention. In a four-week longitudinal study among 79 Finnish teachers, we investigated the development of recovery, well-being, and job performance before, during, and after a one-week vacation in three groups:...

Age has not received much attention in research on work stress recovery. The present study addressed this research gap by studying whether age moderates the relationship between recovery experiences (detachment from work and relaxation) during workday breaks and recovery outcomes (need for recovery and job burnout) among teachers. Both lunchbreaks...

What goes on in workers' minds after a stressful work day and what is it about their jobs that got them thinking like this? This Special Issue of the German Journal of Human Resource Management (GHRM) aims to bridge the gap between research on cognitive recovery processes (e.g., detachment, work reflection, rumination, problem-solving pondering) th...

The aim of this three‐wave longitudinal study conducted among 664 Finnish employees was to examine the cross‐lagged relationships between various work‐related ruminative thoughts (affective rumination, problem‐solving pondering, lack of detachment from work) during off‐job time and employee well‐being (exhaustion, vigour). We tested normal, reverse...

Longitudinal research on the relationship between job demands and job performance and its underlying mechanisms is scarce. The aims of this longitudinal three‐wave study among 920 Finnish employees were to ascertain whether (1) challenge job demands (i.e., workload, cognitive demands) and self‐reported job performance are positively related over ti...

Vanishing boundaries between work and non-work make it increasingly difficult for employees to recover from job stress. Our current understanding of the interactions between work and non-work domains, and workers´ role in deliberately shaping their on- and off-job experiences and replenishing psychological resources, is still in its infancy. De Blo...

The goal of this empirical study was to provide a detailed picture of the short- and long-term development of affective well-being before, during, and after vacation. Specifically, we investigated employees’ positive and negative affect and examined whether the Christmas holiday casted its shadow on employees’ affect during December. Further we ide...

Background. Research shows that vacationing can increase well-being. However, these effects do not seem to last long. Research on written reminiscing suggests that positive holiday memories may temporarily raise well-being, thereby buffering or undoing job stress and prolonging positive vacation effects. Satisfaction of six psychological needs is e...

Personal social media use at work is usually deemed counterproductive work behaviour reducing employee productivity. However, we hypothesized that it may actually help employees to coordinate work and nonwork demands, which should in turn increase work-related creativity. We used ecological momentary assessment across one working day with up to ten...

We examine the relationships among employees’ use of energy management strategies and two occupational well-being outcomes: job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Based on conservation of resources theory, it was hypothesized that employees with high job demands would benefit more from using energy management strategies (i.e., including prosoci...

Non-work social media use at work has seen a dramatic increase in the last decade and is commonly deemed counterproductive work behavior. However, we examined whether it may also serve as a micro-break and improve work engagement. We used ecological momentary assessment across one working day with up to ten hourly measurements in 334 white-collar w...

We aimed to identify longitudinal leisure activity profiles among working adults and their links to recovery experiences and job performance. Leisure activities, recovery experiences, and job performance were investigated in 831 employees using survey data collected in spring 2013 (T1) and 2014 (T2). Through latent profile analysis (LPA) four stabl...

We investigated relations between various types of self-reported nature exposure at work and at home, and well-being among employees (N = 664) across two years. An electronic questionnaire was delivered three times, once a year. We identified seven employee groups with different long-term trajectories of four well-being indicators (vitality, happin...

- Emotional labor is a common job stressor among health care professionals and therefore more research evidence is needed concerning its buffers. - Age-specific knowledge regarding the buffers of different job stressors is needed as health care professionals in industrialized countries are aging. - The results showed that recovery from work bufferi...

Considering the increasing demands of various occupational interventions, this study aimed at examining the impact of relaxation exercises and park walks during lunch breaks on physiological recovery (i.e., on changes in cortisol excretion and blood pressure). In a four-week randomized controlled trial, 153 knowledge workers in seven companies were...

Only few studies so far have examined recovery from work during workday breaks. In this intervention study, based on the effort-recovery model and the conservation of resources theory, we examined how to enhance recovery during lunch breaks. More specifically, we examined the within-person effects of lunchtime park walks and relaxation exercises on...

The aim of this 2-year longitudinal study was to identify long-term patterns of work-related rumination in terms of affective rumination, problem-solving pondering, and lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time. We also examined how the patterns differed in job demands and wellbeing outcomes. The data were collected via questio...

The tourism industry thrives on the notion that holiday travel improves wellbeing. However, scientific evidence that holiday travel is more beneficial than spending free time at home is lacking. Using the Effort-Recovery and the Limited Resources model as theoretical basis, this study investigates whether workers behave, think, and feel differently...

Lunch breaks constitute the longest within-workday rest period, but it is unclear how they affect recovery from job stress. We conducted two randomized controlled trials with 153 Finnish knowledge workers who engaged for 15 minutes daily in various prescribed lunch break activities for ten consecutive working days. Participants were randomly assig...

Adequate energy management during the working day is essential for employees to remain healthy and vital. Research has investigated which energy management strategies are frequently used and which are most beneficial, but the results are inconclusive and research is still scarce. We aim to extend the current knowledge by considering individual diff...

Work-related rumination is not a single construct, but consists of a dimension associated with negative emotions or affect (affective rumination), and a dimension associated with reflective thinking and applying strategies to solve problems (problem-solving pondering). In this threewave longitudinal study across two years (N = 630) we investigated...

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 et al, 2014, p1) is becoming increasingly common in health-care; interve...

In der heutigen Arbeitswelt sind Arbeitnehmer einer steigenden kognitiven und emotionalen Belastung ausgesetzt, was mehr denn je zu einem Bedürfnis nach Erholung führt, um verlorene Ressourcen wiederzuerlangen und Wohlbefinden und Gesundheit zu erhalten. Freizeit – und Urlaube im Speziellen – stellen eine solche prototypische Erholungsmöglichkeit d...

We investigated two-directional relations between various types of exposure to the natural world, at work and at home, and employee well-being. In total, 841 employees answered an electronic questionnaire twice with a one-year interval. Path analysis indicated that frequent physical activity in natural surroundings during free time predicted greate...

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 show experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted...

This study had two aims. First, we examined whether lunch break settings, activities, and recovery experiences were associated with lunchtime recovery cross-sectionally. Second, we investigated whether lunchtime recovery was related to energy levels (i.e., exhaustion and vigor) across a 12-month period. We collected longitudinal questionnaire data...

This one-year follow-up study (N = 841) investigated the relationship between boundary crossing behavior from work to non-work and work-related rumination (i.e., affective rumination, problem-solving pondering and lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time). This relationship is important to examine as work-related rumination is...

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...

A holiday may provide working people with outstanding opportunities to reconnect with their partners and engage in fulfilling social interactions in a stress free atmosphere. In a longitudinal study, following 35 Dutch employees before, during and after their summer vacation, we investigated if and how tourist experiences affect romantic relationsh...

This study explored the relationship between cultural leisure activities, recovery experiences and two outcomes among hospital workers. The differences in recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, mastery and control) and outcomes (work engagement and subjective recovery state) among hospital personnel (N=769) were analysed by the type (recepti...

The aim of the present study conducted among 1,106 Finnish employees was to identify boundary management profiles based on cross-role interruption behaviors from work to nonwork and from nonwork to work. Adopting a person-oriented approach through latent profile analysis, five profiles were identified: Work Guardians (21% of the employees), Nonwork...

‘How long should a man’s vacation be?’ was the title of an article in the New York Times in 1910, in which businessmen, academics and politicians discussed whether vacations for the working classes were necessary and why. Today, European workers enjoy a minimum of 20 days paid annual leave (plus statutory days) and the tourism industry employs more...

It has been shown that recovery (i.e., unwinding from one’s job demands) is important for reducing the negative effects of job stress. Consequently, poor recovery from job stress deserves research attention as a risk factor in the job stress–strain relationship. Recovery can occur both during free time (i.e., evenings, weekends, vacations) and with...

We examined energy management during work, recovery experiences after work and their connections to health, work engagement, and job performance. 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-...

Purpose: The present study aimed at identifying subgroups of employees with similar daily energy management strategies at work and finding out whether well-being indicators and job characteristics differ between these subgroups. Methods: The study was conducted by electronic questionnaire among 1,122 Finnish employees. First, subgroups of employee...

This paper contributes to the understanding of the meaning of shared services and motives for introducing shared services in government organizations. We review and clarify definitions of shared services and derive a definition applicable for the government context. Based on an extensive literature review, we present an empirically grounded researc...