Healthy Work

We just wanted to bring your attention to the fact that September is Smarter Workplace Awareness Month. All month long, SIOP will be releasing content about how to improve the workplace, including improving worker health. This includes releasing member-created content from the champions of the 2021 Top 10 Workplace Trends (pssst... your Healthy Work hosts are the champions for the Employee Health,...

In Episode 25, we discuss a  paper by Somaraju, Griffin, Olenick, Chang, & Kozlowski (2021) that explores really interesting feedback loops between types of conflict and psychological distress, particularly in a sample of people in a habitat meant to resemble a mission on Mars. Ultimately, conflict can breed more conflict, and relationship conflict and stress can feedback into one another, and...

In Episode 24, we discuss a  paper by Andel, Arvan, & Shen (2021) that explores how consuming news about COVID-19 can make you more anxious and less engaged at work, but that work may serve as a reprieve from this anxiety if you are called to it because it gives you a sense of purpose. On the other hand, if you're called to work because you want to help people, you may be worse off when consum...

In Episode 23, we discuss a  paper by Schilbach, Baethge, & Rigotti (2021) that explores the effects of challenge-type stressors versus hindrance-type stressors on novel stress reactivity. They found that being exposed to a moderate amount of challenges at work helped people react best to new stressors, compared to too few or too many challenges. There was no effect of hindrances. This is a pu...

In Episode 22, we discuss a  paper by Cangiano, Parker, and Ouyang (2021) that explores how proactivity and taking charge at work can make it hard to detach and recover at home. They found people who did take charge found it harder to detach and recover at night unless they were people who were motivated to be autonomous. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subsc...

In Episode 21, we are joined by Dr. Kimberly French, and expert in work-family conflict (and Keaton's spouse). Keaton and Kim discuss a  paper by Lawson, Lee, and Maric (2021) that explores the effects of reacting negatively to work-to-family conflict on sleep, distress, and health behaviors. People who tend to be more negatively reactive experience worse subjective sleep quality and more psycholo...

In Episode 20, we discuss a  paper by Simon and colleagues (2021) that explores how empathetic leaders suffer from giving negative feedback. Over the course of three studies, the authors show that leaders who are more empathetic perform worse and feel more distressed when they give negative feedback, compared to their less empathetic peers.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t...

In Episode 19, we discuss a  paper by Henderson & Horan (2021) that explores how sleep impacts our performance on the job as well as our attitudes about our job. Sleep, both quality and quantity, is important for job performance, sleep quality more so. Sleep is particularly important for attendance at work and general task performance. So dear listener, get some sleep! This is a public episode...

In Episode 18, we discuss a  paper by Andel, Shen, and our VERY OWN Arvan (2021) that explores how different types of job stress during the COVID-19 pandemic were linked to employee loneliness, which in turn predicted higher levels of depression and fewer helping behaviors on the job. Good news is that people higher in self-compassion were less likely to report being depressed even if they were lo...

In Episode 17, we discuss a  paper by Wu, Wang, Parker, & Griffin (2020) that explores how prolonged job insecurity can change your personality. Over 9 years, people who had extended periods of job insecurity were more neurotic, less conscientious, and less agreeable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healt...

In Episode 16, we discuss a  paper by Shockley, Clark, Dodd, & King (2021) that explores how couples handled their work and family demands while navigating working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Couples who were able to alternate days of going into work while the other partner stayed home with the child(ren) fared best. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with...

In Episode 15, we discuss a paper by Allen, Merlo, Lawrence, Slutsky, & Gray (2021) that explores how people balance work and non-work lives when working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. People who had a home office, and prefer work and non-work to stay separate found better balance. We discuss strategies people shared about creating boundaries and finding balance. This is a public episod...

In Episode 14, we discuss a paper by Chong, Huang, and Chang (2020) that explores the impact of COVID-19 induced setbacks on work tasks on employees' withdrawal and emotional exhaustion. Effects were particularly harmful for employees whose tasks relied heavily on others and these effects were exacerbated if organizations didn't provide necessary task-related support. This is a public episode. If...

In Episode 13, we discuss a paper by DiStaso and Shoss (2020) that examines how anticipated workload changes the relationship between current workload and emotional strain. Essentially, if you expect your workload to stay the same or go up, your current workload impacts your emotional strain, but if you expect it to go down, there is no relationship between current workload and emotional strain. S...

In episode 12, we discuss a paper by Vaziri, Casper, Wayne, & Matthews (2020) about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on how people navigate the balance between work and family. Although most people's patterns of work-family balance were unaffected by the pandemic (during the first month of U.S. quarantines) individual differences in preference and behaviors affected how people's patterns d...

In episode 11, we discuss a  paper  by Kuykendall, Craig, Stiksma, & Guarino (Online First) about the reasons people don't use all of their vacation days. People who feel they are generally able to disconnect from work on vacation and those who expect to be relaxed on vacation are more likely to use all of their vacation days, but people who feel that vacation might result in a financial burde...

We are SO excited to bring you this special episode of Healthy Work. We are joined by one of our favorite podcasts Workr Beeing. If you like what we do, you'll love them! Together we talk about why it's hard for the science of healthy work to make it into practice. We briefly discuss a relevant paper by Aguinis & Cascio. We definitely recommend you check out Workr Beeing on their website ( wor...

In this episode, we discuss a paper by Yu and Duffy (2020) about the effects of abusive supervision and how sometimes supervisors can make it seem like they're abusive to help you. Don't be an abusive supervisor, and don't be tricked into thinking it's good for you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork...

In Episode 9 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent  paper   by Smith, Martinez, & Gettle (2020) that explores how the perceived and actual healthiness of the food offered in workplace cafeterias affects employee's satisfaction, intention to quit, and perceived organizational support. Workplaces with healthier offerings have employees who feel more supported, and therefore, more satisfied and le...

In Episode 8 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent  paper by Du, Bakker, & Derks (2020) that found that having positive experiences with children, AND talking about them helped people perform better the next day at work and handle work demands better. This phenomenon of positive experiences at home helping you be better at work is called work-to-family enrichment. This is a public episode. If y...

In Episode 7 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent paper by Sayre, Grandey, & Chi (2020) that tested how experiences at work lead to after-work drinking. Employees who tried to actually experience the emotions they have to display at work actually drank less after work. Those who only faked the emotions drank more, but only if they have an emotionally demanding job.  This is a public episode. I...

In Episode 6 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent paper by Horan, Flaxman, & Stride (in press) that examined the effects of vacation on exhaustion and negative mood. Unless employees were high in perfectionism and worked during their vacation, employees vacation boosted their mood and made them less exhausted. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers o...

In Episode 5 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent paper by Crain and colleauges (2019) that experimentally tested an intervention in the workplaced designed to improve employee sleep. Employees with suportive supervisors, schedule control/flexibility, got more sleep on average each night even up to a year later, and felt like they had more sufficient sleep. If you want resources from this interven...

In Episode 4 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent paper by Sianoja, Syrek, de Bloom, Korpela, & Kinnunen (2018) that tested how walking in a park or doing relaxation techniques during lunch breaks boost experiences in the afternoon. Taking a walk or relaxing can increase concentration, decrease detachment, strain, and fatigue in the afternoon. This is a public episode. If you would like to dis...

In Episode 3 of Healthy Work, we discuss a recent paper by Baethge, Vahle-Hinz, & Rigotti that tests the effects of support from coworkers on a physiological indicator of stress (heart rate variability) throughout the day. People with more coworker support showed less physiologically stress throughout the day. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers o...