After the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, many employees transitioned from in-office work to telework to slow down the spread of the virus. Building on the Job Demands-Resources model, we e...

In this study, we examine the relationships between proactive personality, work locus of control, and vocational satisfaction. Moreover, we argue that these relationships vary depending on employees' levels of education (i.e., employees with academic degrees versus without academic degrees). Drawing on Trait Activation Theory, we expected more pronounced relationships of proactive personality and work locus of control with vocational satisfaction for employees with academic degrees. We collected data of N = 2068 employees with a broad range of occupational backgrounds to test our assumptions. A partial disaggregation model revealed that both proactive personality and work locus of control were positively related to vocational satisfaction and that these relationships differed depending on the level of education. Regarding the relationship between proactive personality and vocational satisfaction, we only found evidence among employees with academic degrees. Although work locus of control and vocational satisfaction were significantly related among both groups of employees, the relationship was even more pronounced among employees without academic degrees. Consequently, our results underline the importance of taking inter-individual differences, such as the level of education, into consideration when looking at the effects of proactive personality and work locus of control on work-related well-being.

Summary: Drawing on enrichment theory and the identity‐based integrative crafting model, the present paper explores the impact of leisure crafting on creativity and meaning at work using both the compensation and the spillover perspectives. We hypothesized that leisure crafting relates to employee creativity, particularly when employees experience low work engagement; and that leisure crafting predicts meaning at work via employee creativity, particularly for employees with low work engagement. We also expected that cognitive developmental and affective leisure‐to‐work enrichment acts as the mediator in the link between leisure crafting and creativity. Study 1, a three‐wave survey study with 1‐week time intervals among 191 employees confirmed that the indirect effect of leisure crafting on meaning at work via creativity is stronger among employees reporting low work engagement. Study 2, a follow‐up study of a similar design among 421 employees revealed that leisure crafting leads to creativity via cognitive developmental resources and that leisure crafting leads to creativity via affective resources for employees who report low levels of work engagement. Our findings highlight that leisure crafting possesses the inherent capacity to enhance meaning at work through employee creativity (spillover), especially for those employees who experience a lack of fulfillment at work (compensation). We also refine work‐life enrichment theories by uncovering that leisure crafting may enrich work via different pathways for different employees.

Previous research identified time spent in physical activity, sleeping, and working as predictors of emotional exhaustion. However, this research did not take into account the interdependence of these time-use components. Since daily time is limited to 24 h, time spent in one specific activity (e.g., sleep) cannot be used for any other activity (e.g., physical activity). We conducted a one-week daily sampling study to assess the compositional effects of physical activity, sleep, and work on emotional exhaustion. Since the sample consisted of 104 undergraduate students, work was operationalized as study time. Participants wore accelerometers for one week continuously to assess sleep and physical activity. Also, they filled in questionnaires on study time and emotional exhaustion every morning. Multilevel and compositional data analyses were conducted. The multilevel analysis revealed significant between- (p = 0.012) and within-level (p < 0.001) associations of study time with emotional exhaustion. The compositional approach showed that time spent in physical activity was negatively related to emotional exhaustion (p = 0.007), whereas time spent studying was positively related to emotional exhaustion (p = 0.003), relative to the remaining two time-use components. In conclusion, our results show that emotional exhaustion is not only associated with work-related factors, but also with off-job physical activity.

This study examines the relationships between different job stressors and sports participation. Based on a large-scale representative sample (N = 1935), the paper tested if the number of different job stressors encountered in a job is related to sports participation. Moreover, we examined the relative impact of different stressors on sport participation. As predicted, the number of stressors encountered at work is negatively associated with leisure-time sports participation. When testing the relative effects of different job stressors, intense physical labor, shift and night work, and job insecurity (i.e., having a fixed-term contract or fearing unemployment) are negatively related to sports participation, whereas hazardous exposure (i.e. noise), bad working atmosphere, and long working hours are not related to sports participation. Hence, the total number of job stressors, but also the specificity of job stressors, should be taken into account by professionals in the fields of health research and physical activity promotion. Practioner Summary: In a large-scale representative sample, we examined if different adverse job conditions are negatively related to sports participation. We found that the number of different job stressors was negatively related to sports participation. In particular, intense physical labor, shift and night work as well as job insecurity had an impact.