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The impact of vacation and job stress on burnout and absenteeism

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Abstract The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that vacation relief decreases psychological and behavioral strains caused by job stressors. We examined the impact of job stress and vacation on strain on 87 blue-collar employees in an industrial enterprise in central Israel. Whereas former respite research focused on the impact of vacation only on psychological strains such as burnout and job and life satisfaction, the current study also examined a behavioral strain, absenteeism. The employees completed questionnaires before and after vacation and again four weeks later. Our findings show that vacation alleviated perceived job stress and bumout as predicted, replicating findings that a respite from work diminishes levels of strain to lower than chronic, on-the-job levels. We found declines in burnout immediately after the vacation and a return to prevacation levels four weeks later, and a similar pattern with regard to absenteeism.
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... Thus, a rested employee is more productive and accurate in their work. Reference [40] also explains that not taking vacation leave can result in diminished job performance. Also, employees working in suboptimal conditions are less efficient, less creative, and more prone to errors. ...
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Effective leave management encompasses integrated processes that involve employees, supervisors and human resource managers. The study aimed to determine the impact of leave practices on employees’ well-being and organizational performance in Morogoro Municipality. The study used a mixed approach (triangulation) qualitative and quantitative approach based on an exploratory sequential design. The study involved 200 respondents including 87(43.5%) from the Department of Education, 62(31%) from the Department of Health, and 51(25.5%) were headquarter employees. The study used multi-stage, purposive, stratified and convenience sampling techniques to select the respondents. The data were collected using semi- structured interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. The study found that supportive leave policies and practices significantly enhance employee well-being by reducing stress, preventing burnout, and promoting a healthier work-life balance. Conversely, inadequate or poorly implemented leave policies contribute to high levels of presenteeism, decreased job satisfaction, and increased turnover rates that negatively affect organizational performance. Recommendations for action include promoting work-life balance, fostering a supportive organizational culture, addressing financial constraints, streamlining leave processes, monitoring and evaluating leave practices, mitigating presenteeism, tailoring policies to local needs, and engaging with stakeholders. Implementing these measures will improve employee well-being and enhance organizational performance, resulting in a more productive and motivated workforce in Morogoro Municipality and other areas.
... Adódhat a kérdés, hogy önmagában a pihenésnek, nyaralásnak is van-e ilyen hatása, tehát önmagában annak, hogy eltávolodunk a munkától. A nyaralások jótékony hatásai úgy tűnik, hogy hasonló mértékűek, bár hatásuk nem tart olyan sokáig: négy hét után a személyek visszatértek a vakációt megelőző stresszszintre (Westman & Etzion, 2001). A jótékony hatások egyes vizsgálatok szerint nem növelhetők a nyaralások hosszabbá tételével egy bizonyos szint felett: a 10 napnál hosszabb nyaralások nem csökkentették szignifikánsan jobban a kiégést, mint a 7-10 nap közöttiek (Etzion, 2003). ...
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A kiégés az egyik legsúlyosabb munkahelyi veszélyforrás, amely a pedagógusszakmát is erősen érinti. Narratív irodalmi összefoglalónkban a kiégés kutatásának kezdeteit is feltüntetve tekintjük át az aktuális kérdéseket a definíció, méréstan, a háttérokok és a prevenciós megközelítések terén – fókuszálva a tanárokkal kapcsolatos relevanciákra. A diverzifikált módszertan nehezíti az előfordulás pontos mérését és a kezelési protokollok kialakítását is. A kiégés kutatásának kezdetén a Maslach és munkacsoportja által létrehozott modell vált dominánssá, amely a mai napig a legelterjedtebb, de mivel sok kritika éri, számos új mérőeszköz alakult ki. Napjainkban a konszenzusra való törekvés a jellemző szintetizáló definíciókkal és mérőeszközzel. A munka- és szociálpszichológiai megközelítés mellett – amely ennek a cikknek is alapját képezi – a kiégés klinikai megközelítését is érintjük. A kiégés mint folyamat pontosabb feltérképezése pedig hozzájárul a személyre szabottabb prevenció kialakításához. A legújabb kutatási eredmények fényében összegezzük, hogy milyen egyéni és szervezeti szintű tényezők milyen differenciált hatással bírnak a kiégés mértékének alakulására. Végül kitérünk arra, hogy mindezeket az egyéni és szervezeti szintű tényezőket, illetve ezek interakcióit figyelembe véve melyek a leghatékonyabb prevenciós megközelítések – különösen az általános és középiskola világában.
... A clear consensus is that vacation experiences contribute positively to people's lives in a variety of ways. Physical health (Gump & Matthews, 2000), happiness (Nawijn, 2011), and burnout prevention (Westman & Etzion, 2001) have been linked to tourism experiences. The construct of subjective well-being has been pervasive in this literature (Mitas & Kroesen, 2019). ...
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Maximizing theory differentiates between individuals who accept minimally sufficient purchase options and those who strive to maximize their value for money. Maximizers are less satisfied with their decisions and suffer diminished subjective well-being. We analyzed 376 questionnaires and conducted 12 interviews of working Germans to extend maximizing theory to vacations, which are more complex, experiential, and hedonic than products studied in previous research on maximizing. Path analysis of questionnaire data showed significant, negative indirect effects of maximizing on subjective well-being through aspects of the vacation decision process and subsequent vacation satisfaction. Deductive thematic analysis of interviews showed that maximizers’ time-consuming searching through alternatives created doubt and stringent expectations, thus explaining how maximizing degrades vacation satisfaction and subjective well-being. Thus, we suggest that individuals be conscious of the personal resources and expectations that they invest in vacation decisions. Furthermore, the tourism industry should emphasize inspiration and customization instead of variety.
... Another person from the WLC mentioned that vacations can have positive effects for him/her, but that these would quickly subside. Prior studies also emphasize that vacations can have positive effects on health and well-being, but with a return to baseline levels after 2 to 4 weeks [111][112][113]. This fading of the vacation effects could explain why evidence of the intervention's effectiveness was largely not apparent until the follow-up measurement. ...
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Stress increases among the working population in Germany. Workplace stress management interventions are therefore becoming increasingly important, especially in the public sector, which has a higher structural risk for work-related stress than other organizations. Currently, face-to-face formats dominate, but promising digital offerings are being developed. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a stress management intervention as a face-to-face and self-guided digital format, referring to the Job Demands-Resources Model. The preregistered study applied a randomized control group design in which N = 65 public service employees were assigned to face-to-face training, an online course, or waitlist control group. Participants completed online questionnaires before the intervention, shortly after the intervention, and six weeks later. Although trends for reductions in emotional exhaustion and perceived stress were evident among the intervention groups, mixed analyses of variance showed no interaction effects between the time and group on the outcomes. The main effects showed a significant decrease in stress levels regardless of the group and significant differences between intervention groups, with the online course reporting the lowest stress level. The results indicate that digital and analog stress management interventions can have desired effects within occupational health management. However, many unpredictable events (e.g., illness, vacation during the intervention) seem to influence the effectiveness in the workplace setting, and so further research is needed.
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Background Integrating stress-reduction interventions into the workplace may improve the health and well-being of employees, and there is an opportunity to leverage ubiquitous everyday work technologies to understand dynamic work contexts and facilitate stress reduction wherever work happens. Sensing-powered just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) systems have the potential to adapt and deliver tailored interventions, but such adaptation requires a comprehensive analysis of contextual and individual-level variables that may influence intervention outcomes and be leveraged to drive the system’s decision-making. Objective This study aims to identify key tailoring variables that influence momentary engagement in digital stress reduction microinterventions to inform the design of similar JITAI systems. Methods To inform the design of such dynamic adaptation, we analyzed data from the implementation and deployment of a system that incorporates passively sensed data across everyday work devices to send just-in-time stress reduction microinterventions in the workplace to 43 participants during a 4-week deployment. We evaluated 27 trait-based factors (ie, individual characteristics), state-based factors (ie, workplace contextual and behavioral signals and momentary stress), and intervention-related factors (ie, location and function) across 1585 system-initiated interventions. We built logistical regression models to identify the factors contributing to momentary engagement, the choice of interventions, the engagement given an intervention choice, the user rating of interventions engaged, and the stress reduction from the engagement. Results We found that women (odds ratio [OR] 0.41, 95% CI 0.21-0.77; P=.03), those with higher neuroticism (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.39-0.81; P=.01), those with higher cognitive reappraisal skills (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.91; P=.04), and those that chose calm interventions (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23-0.78; P=.03) were significantly less likely to experience stress reduction, while those with higher agreeableness (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.10-2.76; P=.06) and those that chose prompt-based (OR 6.65, 95% CI 1.53-36.45; P=.06) or video-based (OR 5.62, 95% CI 1.12-34.10; P=.12) interventions were substantially more likely to experience stress reduction. We also found that work-related contextual signals such as higher meeting counts (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.49-0.78; P<.001) and higher engagement skewness (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.51-0.79; P<.001) were associated with a lower likelihood of engagement, indicating that state-based contextual factors such as being in a meeting or the time of the day may matter more for engagement than efficacy. In addition, a just-in-time intervention that was explicitly rescheduled to a later time was more likely to be engaged with (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.32-2.38; P<.001). Conclusions JITAI systems have the potential to integrate timely support into the workplace. On the basis of our findings, we recommend that individual, contextual, and content-based factors be incorporated into the system for tailoring as well as for monitoring ineffective engagements across subgroups and contexts.
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In this meta-analysis, we investigate the impact and conditions under which vacations affect employees’ well-being and its fade-out trajectories after returning to work. In addition to the reanalysis of data from a previous meta-analysis (De Bloom et al., 2009 with literature search until 2008), a new systematic literature search was conducted in various databases (time period: 2009–2020). Data from 13 studies (N = 1,428) were analyzed with an average vacation duration of 11 days (range: 4–23). Our results show that vacations improve well-being (d = 0.25), with changes observed across various well-being facets, such as positive affect, negative affect, stress, and exhaustion (ds = 0.18–0.38), but not life satisfaction (d = 0.10). However, well-being improvements fade after returning to work, with no significant differences from pre-vacation levels after the first post-vacation week (ds ≤ 0.12). Vacation duration, gender distribution, and occupational study group did not moderate the reported effects. The studies reported many factors that may shape vacation effects, including stress- and recovery-related traits, vacation and recovery experiences, and job characteristics. Our findings indicate that vacations positively affect an employee’s well-being. Interestingly, extending the vacation duration does not maximize its benefits. Given that well-being declines rapidly after the first post-vacation week, we therefore recommend planning and taking regular short vacations throughout the year. More research is required to establish evidence-based guidelines for vacations exceeding 3 weeks and the interplay of personal, recovery, job, and vacation factors in influencing well-being.
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Importance Vacation has been shown to be an important restorative activity in the general population; less is known about physicians’ vacation behaviors and their association with burnout and professional fulfillment. Objective To examine the number of vacation days taken per year and the magnitude of physician work while on vacation and their association with physician burnout and professional fulfillment, by individual and organizational characteristics. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional survey of US physicians was conducted between November 20, 2020, and March 23, 2021. Data analysis was performed from March to July 2023. Main Outcomes and Measures Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Index, and professional fulfillment was measured using the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index. Number of vacation days taken in the last year, time spent working on patient care and other professional tasks per typical vacation day (ie, work on vacation), electronic health record (EHR) inbox coverage while on vacation, barriers to taking vacation, and standard demographics were collected. Results Among 3024 respondents, 1790 of 3004 (59.6%), took 15 or fewer days of vacation in the last year, with 597 of 3004 (19.9%) taking 5 or fewer days. The majority, 2104 respondents (70.4%), performed patient care–related tasks on vacation, with 988 of 2988 (33.1%) working 30 minutes or more on a typical vacation day. Less than one-half of physicians (1468 of 2991 physicians [49.1%]) reported having full EHR inbox coverage while on vacation. On multivariable analysis adjusting for personal and professional factors, concern about finding someone to cover clinical responsibilities (odds ratio [OR], 0.48 [95% CI, 0.35-0.65] for quite a bit; OR, 0.30 [95% CI, 0.21-0.43] for very much) and financial concerns (OR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.36-0.66] for quite a bit; OR, 0.38 [95% CI, 0.27-0.54] for very much) were associated with decreased likelihood of taking more than 3 weeks of vacation per year. Taking more than 3 weeks of vacation per year (OR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.45-0.98] for 16-20 days; OR, 0.59 [95% CI, 0.40-0.86] for >20 days vs none) and having full EHR inbox coverage while on vacation (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.63-0.88) were associated with lower rates of burnout on multivariable analysis, whereas spending 30 minutes or longer per vacation day on patient-related work (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.22-2.04 for 30-60 minutes; OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.41-2.77 for 60-90 minutes; OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.36-2.73 for >90 minutes) was associated with higher rates of burnout. Conclusions and Relevance In this cross-sectional study of 3024 physicians, the number of vacation days taken and performing patient-related work while on vacation were associated with physician burnout. System-level efforts to ensure physicians take adequate vacation and have coverage for clinical responsibilities, including EHR inbox, may reduce physician burnout.
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Purpose The goals of this review are to identify key theories, constructs and themes in the international business travel (IBT) literature and to propose a model based on findings, theories and constructs drawn from adjacent research literature. Design/methodology/approach The authors reviewed the business travel (BT) literature to identify conceptual and empirical articles on IBT published from 1990 to 2022. Only 53 publications were suitable for review. The authors reviewed them using an open coding system. Findings The IBT literature is dispersed across several disciplines that use different methods, focus on different aspects of travel and emphasize different positive and negative outcomes that IBT engenders. The publications employed a diverse range of methods, including review and conceptual (11), quantitative (28) and qualitative methods (14). The samples were diverse in country, age, marital status and tenure. Many publications were descriptive and exploratory. The few that based their research on theory focused on two stress theories: Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory. Research limitations/implications Experimental and longitudinal designs are needed to reduce the causal ambiguity of this body of mostly correlational and cross-sectional research. The authors discuss the impact of emerging advances in virtual global communication technology on the future of IBT. Practical implications More research is needed on positive aspects of IBT. Human resource (HR) people should be aware of these issues and are encouraged to decrease the deleterious aspects of the international trips and increase the positive ones. Social implications Increasing well-being of international business travelers is important for the travelers, their families and the organization. Originality/value This is the first IBT review focused on the theoretical underpinnings of research in the field. The authors offer a model for IBT and introduce adjustment and performance as important constructs in IBT research. The authors encompass crossover theory to add the reciprocal impact of travelers and spouses and label IBT a “double-edge sword” because it arouses both positive and negative outcomes.
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Happiness is one of the central concerns of many disciplines and also one of the most controversial topics of all time. Researches show there are many factors that affect happiness. Travelling is considered as one of these factors. In this study, it is aimed to determine whether travelling for vacation makes a significant difference on the level of happiness and which tour package affects happiness most. The study has a quasi-experimental and longitudinal design. Experimental group consisted of two sub-groups that included individuals who took a cultural tours or sea, sun and sand tours, and the control group consisted of participants who did not travel for vacation in the last six months and had no vacation plans in the next six months. The questionnaire was applied to the experimental group (and control group at the same time) 15 days before and 15 days, 2 months and 6 months after the vacation. As a result of the analyses, it was confirmed that the level of happiness does not change depending on demographic factors, but the study revealed that travelling for vacation has an effect on the level of happiness that lasts longer than two months. Results show happiness level of the experimental group was higher than the control group, and travelling for vacation really increased the level of happiness. Between the two different tour packages tourists participating in cultural tours have greater level of happiness.
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This meta-analysis examined how demand and resource correlates and behavioral and attitudinal correlates were related to each of the 3 dimensions of job burnout. Both the demand and resource correlates were more strongly related to emotional exhaustion than to either depersonalization or personal accomplishment. Consistent with the conservation of resources theory of stress, emotional exhaustion was more strongly related to the demand correlates than to the resource correlates, suggesting that workers might have been sensitive to the possibility of resource loss. The 3 burnout dimensions were differentially related to turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and control coping. Implications for research and the amelioration of burnout are discussed.
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In this field study a preliminary social exchange model was proposed that related perceived inequity in the employment relationship to subsequent absenteeism and turnover intention. From an equity perspective, it was hypothesized that absenteeism and turnover intention are indirectly related to perceived inequity in the exchange relationship with the organization, mediated by feelings of resentment and poor organizational commitment. By employing covariance structure modelling, the model was tested among mental health care professionals (N = 90). The results demonstrated that the relationship between perceived inequity and turnover intention was fully mediated by poor organizational commitment, which was, in turn, partially triggered by feelings of resentment that were associated with perceived inequity. In contrast, there was a strong direct link between inequity in the employment relationship and absenteeism, not mediated by resentment and poor organizational commitment. It was concluded that absenteeism and turnover intention can both be considered to be withdrawal reactions to perceived inequity, but that the two reactions differ in their underlying dynamics. The implications of these findings were discussed.