Recent comments in /f/science

AutoModerator t1_jck2rd7 wrote

Reply to A novel cancer therapeutic, combining antibody fragments with molecularly engineered nanoparticles, permanently eradicated gastric cancer in treated mice, a multi-institutional team of researchers found by giuliomagnifico

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

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Tumbleweed48 t1_jck0kl0 wrote

Reply to People with dark personality traits are better in finding novel ways to cause damage or harm others: Study reveals that people with more pronounced dark personality traits tend to have more malevolent creativity by DreamingForYouAlways

I can’t believe it! What a revelation!

In a follow up study, it’s been shown that angry bastards get in more conflicts. An even more detailed study will follow, as soon as we get another grant and our bruises heal.

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Fleinsuppe t1_jcjysra wrote

Reply to Heavy workloads make employees feel a greater need for a break, but new research finds they may actually discourage employees from taking breaks at work despite causing high levels of stress, fatigue, and poor performance. by Wagamaga

As a nursing student having experienced the hospital environment, the guilt of using breaks is palpable. Partly because urgent patient care needs are unpredictable, but mostly because you leave your patients with coworkers who now have double responsibility. There is also the anxiety of not finishing the workload before end of shift.

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BigBennP t1_jcjvv6d wrote

Reply to Heavy workloads make employees feel a greater need for a break, but new research finds they may actually discourage employees from taking breaks at work despite causing high levels of stress, fatigue, and poor performance. by Wagamaga

I had to dig for a minute to find it. The sampling is a little bit questionable but not in a way that seriously impairs this study I think.

The sample is 107 people that signed up for a Mechanical Turk poll about their work habits. 27% came from customer service jobs, 17% came from Information Technology and 11% came from research and development.

I suspect that if you had a better sample you would find that this way of thinking is very endemic Within "high pressure high reward positions."

Customer service workers can be busy but it is the supervisor's job to put bodies on the line. They often use guilt trips about how busy they are and how they are short-handed. That particular in the last two years the prevailing sentiment seems to be that that's the company's problem and not the individual's

On the other hand for people like a software developers or lawyers or accountants, you are usually working with a team of people on a specific task and you have a workload that is individually assigned to you. Being busy means that you have more work than you can reasonably complete and often it will simply be waiting there for you when you return.

I suspect that would be the core demographic of people who say things like " God I'm so burned out I need to take a break, but I have too much work to do."

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Wagamaga OP t1_jcju97z wrote

Reply to Heavy workloads make employees feel a greater need for a break, but new research finds they may actually discourage employees from taking breaks at work despite causing high levels of stress, fatigue, and poor performance. by Wagamaga

Researchers from the University of Waterloo found employees often kept working despite wanting to pause. One potential reason is employees may have felt pressure to continue working to get everything done on time.

"Our research provides a comprehensive account of the processes involved in the decision to take a break and provides insights into how employees and managers can make more effective use of breaks at work, potentially improving both well-being and performance," said James Beck, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Waterloo.

To conduct the study, researchers asked 107 employees about their reasons for taking a break and not taking one. They then surveyed another 287 employees twice daily over five days about their sleep quality, fatigue, performance concerns, workload, and the number of breaks they take each day.

The researchers also found that although previous research has shown that breaks can benefit employee well-being and performance, they may resist taking breaks if they feel supervisors discourage breaks in their workplace. Although there may be a misconception that breaks are unproductive, Phan notes that many employees take breaks because they are committed to staying focused and maintaining high levels of performance.

"We recognize that it may not always be possible for employees to take more breaks, but if employers can promote employee well-being by addressing the conditions that can make work unpleasant, they may be able to reduce the number of breaks needed," said Dr. Vincent Phan, first author of the study, which he led as part of his doctoral thesis in industrial and organizational psychology at Waterloo.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10869-022-09866-4

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AutoModerator t1_jcju68v wrote

Reply to Heavy workloads make employees feel a greater need for a break, but new research finds they may actually discourage employees from taking breaks at work despite causing high levels of stress, fatigue, and poor performance. by Wagamaga

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

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