title: Vacation effects on behaviour, cognition and emotions of compulsive and non-compulsive workers: do obsessive workers go 'cold turkey'?
abstract: Compulsive workers often face psychological and physical health disturbances because of working long hours and an obsessive preoccupation with work during off-job time. Prolonged respite episodes may either relief these employees from their daily stressors to recover or trigger withdrawal symptoms. Our research question was as follows: How do (1) work hours, (2) rumination and (3) affective well-being unfold for compulsive workers compared with non-compulsive workers across long vacations? In a longitudinal field study, work hours, rumination and affective well-being were assessed in 54 employees 2 weeks before, during and in the first, second and fourth week after a long summer vacation. Working compulsively was assessed 3 weeks before vacation. Work hours decreased during and increased after vacation. Levels of rumination dropped during vacation and remained below baseline until 2 weeks after vacation. Initial differences in rumination between obsessive and non-obsessive workers disappeared during and directly after vacation. Affective well-being rose during vacation and returned to baseline directly after vacation. Increases in affective well-being during vacation as well as decreases after vacation were greater in obsessive workers than in non-obsessive workers. Vacations seem to temporarily offset characteristic differences between obsessive and non-obsessive workers, decrease rumination and improve affective well-being.
authors.affiliation: Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands; School of Social Sciences & Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Bloom
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radstaak
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geurts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003192:Compulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006693:Holidays / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: holiday; rumination; stress; work hours; workaholic