Workload and Mental Well-Being of Homeworkers

Abstract

Objective: Based on the Conservation of Resources theory, this cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between workload experienced by employees when working at home and their mental well-being. Work-family conflict, sleeping problems, and work engagement are proposed as mediators. Methods: A sample of 11,501 homeworkers was drawn from the sixth wave of the European Working Condition Survey data set. Results: Unlike the expected, the higher the workload, the higher the mental well-being of employees. However, as expected, high workload was correlated with lower well-being when indirect effects through work-family conflict, sleep problems, and work engagement were considered. Similarly, the total effect of workload on mental well-being was negative. Conclusions: The study suggests that organizations should pay more attention to the amount of workload experienced by their homeworkers because it may be harmful to their health and well-being.

The Role of Techno-Stress and Psychological Detachment in the Relationship between Workload and Well-Being in a Sample of Italian Smart Workers: A Moderated Mediated Model

“…In our first hypothesis, we have considered a negative relation between workload in smart working and well-being. Previous research shows a negative relation between workload and several factors related to well-being (Angioha et al 2020;Sadiq 2022;Zappalà et al 2022;Zinke et al 2023).…”

“…However, Bowling et al (2015) highlighted how the workload is positively associated with perceived stress and how this correlation brings consequences at the level of well-being (Barbieri et al 2021b;Hernandez et al 2021;Nhung Nguyen and Tuan 2022;Pace et al 2021;Schaufeli and Taris 2014). Zappalà et al (2022) identified a negative impact of the workload on well-being in a homeworkers sample. Aalto et al (2018) achieved the same results in a sample of physicians, and they found that workload was negatively associated with well-being.…”

Evaluation of the Association Between Sedentary Time and Low Work Engagement in the Work Environment After COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Japanese Workers

“…The inclusion criteria for the control variables were defined as factors that had an effect on either exposure or outcome based on a previous study [17]. The following variables were employed, based on the results of previous studies [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. For each variable, several categories were created and dummy variables were assigned in order from 0 to the next before they were used in the analysis.…”

How Transformational Leadership Affects the Off-work Recovery of Daily Personal Energy Resources via Work Engagement: Resource and Demand-based Pathways

“…Workload can be defined as the intensity or the extent of work assigned to an employee in a specific time frame (Inegbedion et al, 2020). We focus on this demand because nowadays, overload is "widespread and chronic" (Kelly & Moen, 2020a, p. 48, particularly in emerging remote work settings characterized by higher work intensification, working at high speed to meet tight deadlines, and overwork (Kelly & Moen, 2020b;Zappalà et al, 2022). The recent research landscape shows inconsistent patterns of findings for daily within-individual variations of workload and relations to daily recovery experiences (Sonnentag et al, 2022).…”