Associations between overtime and psychological health in high and low reward jobs

This study focused on the relationship between overtime and psychological health in high and low reward jobs, and in jobs with high and low external pressure to work overtime. Data were collected for 535 full-time employees of the Dutch Postal Service. In general, overtime was associated with negative work-home interference and negative home-work interference. Split-sample logistic regression analyses showed that employees reporting low rewards had elevated risks of burnout, negative work-home interference and slow recovery. In addition, the combination of overtime and low rewards was associated with negative home-work interference. A second analysis was conducted separately for employees who reported overtime in order to study the effects of external pressure to work overtime. In this subgroup, low rewards were associated with elevated risks of health complaints, emotional exhaustion and negative home-work interference. Moreover, employees who reported overtime and a high pressure to work overtime in combination with low rewards had elevated risks of poor recovery, cynicism, and negative work-home interference. The results suggest that even a limited number of hours of involuntary overtime is associated with adverse mental health, but only in low reward situations.

[1]  M. Roberton,et al.  Causes, coping and consequences of stress at work , 1995 .

[2]  Y. Fried,et al.  The effects of hours of work on health: A meta-analytic review. , 1997 .

[3]  Johannes Siegrist,et al.  Associations of effort-reward imbalance at work and reported symptoms in different groups of male and female public transport workers , 1998 .

[4]  T. Kristensen,et al.  Psychosocial work environment and mental health among travelling salespeople , 1999 .

[5]  J C Duchon,et al.  Extended Workdays in an Underground Mine: A Work Performance Analysis , 1994, Human factors.

[6]  D E Broadbent,et al.  Is a fatigue test now possible? , 1979, Ergonomics.

[7]  R. Repetti,et al.  Effects of daily workload on subsequent behavior during marital interaction: the roles of social withdrawal and spouse support. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[8]  Gunn Johansson,et al.  Working life : a social science contribution to work reform , 1983 .

[9]  Theo Meijman,et al.  Time and behavior at work. , 1994 .

[10]  T S Kristensen,et al.  Job stress and cardiovascular disease: a theoretic critical review. , 1996, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[11]  I.L.D. Houtman,et al.  Linear and nonlinear relations between psychosocial job characteristics, subjective outcomes, and sickness absence : baseline results from SMASH , 2000 .

[12]  T. Meijman.  Psychological Aspects of Workload , 1998 .

[13]  R. Repetti,et al.  Short-term effects of occupational stressors on daily mood and health complaints. , 1993, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[14]  J. Siegrist.  Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. , 1996, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[15]  Edwin Wagena,et al.  SWING. Ontwikkeling en validering van de "Survey Werk-thuis Interferentie—Nijmegen." , 2000 .

[16]  J. Grzywacz,et al.  Demography , 1986, Prehistoric Fisherfolk of Oman: The Neolithic Village of Ras Al-Hamra RH-5.

[17]  W. Schaufeli,et al.  The construct validity of two burnout measures , 1993 .

[18]  C. Cooper.  Working hours and health , 1996 .

[19]  E. Poutsma,et al.  EUROPEAN FOUNDATION for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions , 1999 .

[20]  M. Colligan,et al.  Extended workdays: Effects of 8-hour and 12-hour rotating shift schedules on performance, subjective alertness, sleep patterns, and psychosocial variables , 1989 .

[21]  R. Brennan,et al.  Fit as a mediator of the relationship between work hours and burnout. , 1999, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[22]  G. Margolin,et al.  The Relationship between Dual-Earner Couples' Daily Work Mood and Home Affect , 1994 .

[23]  C. Rutte,et al.  Antecedents and consequences of work-home interference among medical residents. , 1999, Social science & medicine.

[24]  van de Evert Vliert,et al.  Marital conflict about the division of household labor and paid work , 1996 .

[25]  H. Bosma,et al.  Job strain, effort-reward imbalance and employee well-being: a large-scale cross-sectional study. , 2000, Social science & medicine.

[26]  A. Craig,et al.  11 – Symptoms of Acute and Chronic Fatigue , 1992 .

[27]  Toon W. Taris,et al.  Construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey: A two-sample examination of its factor structure and correlates , 1999 .

[28]  R. Rosa.  Extended workshifts and excessive fatigue , 1995, Journal of sleep research.

[29]  G. Staines,et al.  Nonstandard work schedules and family life. , 1984 .

[30]  C. Cooper,et al.  Health and safety problems associated with long working hours: a review of the current position. , 1997, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[31]  J M Harrington.  Working long hours and health , 1994, BMJ.

[32]  M. Frese,et al.  Longitudinal studies in organizational stress research: a review of the literature with reference to methodological issues. , 1996, Journal of occupational health psychology.