Does workplace telepressure get under the skin? Protocol for an ambulatory assessment study on wellbeing and health-related physiological, experiential, and behavioral concomitants of workplace telepressure.

BACKGROUND: The daily working life of many employees requires the use of modern information and communication technology (ICT) devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. The double-edged nature of digital work environments has been increasingly highlighted. Benefits such as increased flexibility come at a personal cost. One of the potential downsides is workplace telepressure, i.e., the experience of urge and preoccupation to quickly reply to work-related messages and demands using ICT. There is initial - mainly survey-based-evidence that workplace telepressure may have negative effects on a variety of wellbeing and health outcomes. AIMS AND HYPOTHESES: Adopting the Effort-Recovery Model and the concept of allostatic load as theoretical frameworks, the present study aims to investigate the hypothesis that workplace telepressure is significantly associated with increased "wear and tear", in the form of more psychosomatic complaints, worse sleep quality (self-reported and actigraphy-based), worse mood, and biological alterations (lower cardiac vagal tone, lower anabolic balance defined as the ratio of salivary dehydroepiandrosterone to salivary cortisol, and higher salivary alpha-amylase). Additionally, the study aims to investigate the hypothesis that connection to work defined as work-related workload and work-related perseverative cognition plays a significant role in the mediation of these relationships. METHODS: To test our hypotheses, we will conduct an ambulatory assessment study with a convenience sample of 120 healthy workers regularly using ICTs for job communication. For one week, participants will be asked to complete electronic diaries assessing their level of workplace telepressure, psychosomatic complaints, sleep quality, mood, work-related workload, and work-related perseverative cognition. They will also continuously wear the Bittium Faros 180L ECG monitor, the wrist-worn actigraph MotionWatch 8, and perform saliva sampling five times per day. DISCUSSION: This study will be the most comprehensive ambulatory investigation of workplace telepressure and its psychophysiological concomitants to date and constitutes an important step towards understanding how high levels of workplace telepressure may lead in the long term to secondary alterations (e.g., hypertension, chronic inflammation) and disease (e.g., heart disease). The findings of this study are also anticipated to contribute to guiding the development and implementation of interventions, programs, and policies relevant to employees' digital wellbeing.

When Thoughts Have No Off Switch: The Cost of Telepressure and Message-based Communication behaviour within Boundary-crossing Contexts.

Communication technology enables employees to be constantly connected at the cost of potentially blurring the boundaries between work and private life, which can be detrimental to their well-being. The present study utilised a quantitative diary approach (N = 269 employees, N = 1256 data points) to provide further evidence on the association between telepressure and ruminative thoughts within boundary-crossing contexts (i.e., including work-related behaviour and cognitions during leisure time as well as private-related behaviour and cognitions at work). On a day-to-day level, we examined if context-incongruent telepressure had a positive effect on context-incongruent affective rumination through context-incongruent message-based communication behaviour. Multilevel analyses supported our hypothesised mediation models. Altogether, findings reveal that quickly replying towards messages or its related cognition (i.e., telepressure) may result in a resource-draining experience in terms of affective rumination within both boundary-crossing contexts. Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research avenues are discussed.

Private life telepressure and workplace cognitive failure among hospital nurses: The moderating role of mobile phone presence.

AIM: To examine whether the presence of a mobile phone has a moderating role in the relationship between nurses' private life telepressure and workplace cognitive failure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional quantitative study using self-report questionnaires. METHODS: Data were collected between December 2019 - January 2020. In total, 849 Registered Nurses from three Belgian hospitals completed the online survey. Data were analysed with hierarchical regression analyses and simple slope tests. RESULTS: Overall, the positive relationship between private life telepressure and workplace cognitive failure was moderated by mobile phone presence. Specifically, the experience of private life telepressure did only relate to higher workplace cognitive failure when nurses kept their mobile phone nearby (i.e. in their pockets). Additional exploratory analyses revealed that this moderation effect only held among nurses in young adulthood and regardless of the notification settings of their mobile phone. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings indicate the unintended risk of mobile phone presence at work as it relates to higher workplace cognitive failure in nurses who experience private life telepressure. Ensuring there are clear organizational policies and practises in place to store away personal belongings of healthcare personnel during work hours would therefore seem beneficial for hospitals. IMPACT: Considering the increased presence of mobile phones nowadays, a more detailed understanding is necessary on how these devices might distract personnel in a healthcare setting. The present study gives further insight into this topic and shows that in particular nurses in young adulthood who experience telepressure towards personal messages report more cognitive failure when their personal mobile phones are present, even when they do not actually use these devices. This furnishes additional evidence in support of hospitals' formal policy to forbid personal mobile phones of healthcare personnel when at work.

Detachment from Work: A Diary Study on Telepressure, Smartphone Use and Empathy.

Technology has drastically reshaped the workplace over the past decades. While it provides organizations and their employees a variety of benefits, there is also a growing perception that technological advancements (e.g., the evolution from telephone to smartphone) in the workplace may have a negative impact on employees' mental health. Using a diary approach, we examined the direct effect of workplace telepressure during off-job hours on psychological detachment from work and the potential mediating role of work-related smartphone use during off-job hours in this relation. In addition, employees' individual differences in empathy was proposed to act as a cross-level moderator of the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use. A sample of 80 employees, representing a wide range of occupations and organizations, completed a daily survey on five successive workdays (N = 337-400 day-level observations). Results of multilevel analyses yielded no direct effect of workplace telepressure on psychological detachment on a day-to-day basis. Yet, the results supported a negative indirect effect of daily workplace telepressure during off-job hours on daily psychological detachment, mediated via daily work-related smartphone use during off-job hours. Additionally, the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use was not strengthened by the affective component nor the cognitive component of other-oriented empathy. Our study highlights the importance of a clear organizational policy regarding work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and provides valuable input for strategies aiming to ameliorate employees' psychological detachment and proper smartphone use.