{"id":7731,"date":"2022-03-17T10:40:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T02:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=7731"},"modified":"2022-03-17T10:40:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T02:40:22","slug":"working-studying-in-off-hours-can-harm-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/working-studying-in-off-hours-can-harm-motivation\/","title":{"rendered":"Working, studying in \u2018off\u2019 hours can harm motivation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The traditional 9-to-5 work week has been replaced in many cases by hybrid hours tailored to individual needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But working a nontraditional schedule, and checking in at all hours of the day, night and weekends, is not necessarily beneficial for the 21st-century workforce, according to new Cornell University research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven if you\u2019re still working 40 hours a week, you\u2019re working during time that you\u2019ve mentally encoded as time off, or as time that should be for a vacation, and that can make you feel suddenly that your work is less enjoyable,\u201d said\u00a0Kaitlin Woolley, associate professor of marketing in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woolley and\u00a0Laura Giurge, assistant professor of behavioral science at London School of Economics and a former postdoctoral research fellow at Cornell, address the issue in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.obhdp.2022.104134\">Working During Non-Standard Work Time Undermines Intrinsic Motivation<\/a>,\u201d which published Feb. 26 in\u00a0<em>Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woolley and Giurge wanted to examine the effect of working \u2013 and studying, among college students \u2013 during nontraditional hours on job satisfaction and motivation. \u201cWe had this feeling that sometimes the ability to work when we want to could also impact how we feel about our work,\u201d Woolley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one study, the researchers approached Cornell students studying in a campus library on President\u2019s Day. They reminded half the participants that they were studying during a federal holiday; the other half did not receive this reminder. They then measured students\u2019 intrinsic motivation for their schoolwork \u2013 asking them how enjoyable, engaging, interesting and fun they found their materials to be. Students who were reminded the day was a federal holiday reported that their work was 15% less enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In another study, the researchers measured whether a simple calendar reminder on a federal holiday (MLK Day) would alter full-time workers\u2019 perception of work enjoyment. They found that work was 9% less enjoyable on the holiday Monday, compared with a typical Monday, despite engaging in similar work-related activities on both days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the third study, participants were surveyed on a Tuesday, with no reminder that it\u2019s a typical work day, then again on a Saturday. Some participants were reminded that it was Saturday, \u201ca weekend day,\u201d while others were given no reminder. Both groups reported lower levels of work satisfaction on the weekend day, although the effect was stronger in the reminder group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woolley and Giurge think part of this discrepancy has to do with the idea of \u201ccollective time off\u201d \u2013 having free time when friends and family are also off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe real benefit of time off on the weekend or on holidays is that it\u2019s not just that I have time off, but my family and friends have time off, too,\u201d Woolley said. \u201cAnd so one thing that we suggest for managers is, can you create a \u2018weekend shift\u2019 so people feel like they\u2019re in it together with other people?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of \u201cwork-life balance\u201d \u2013 setting boundaries between work and \u201cplay\u201d times \u2013 has been a priority for many employers and employees recently. Woolley said it can be hard for workers who feel pressured to achieve to commit to striking that balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard sometimes for workers who aren\u2019t in a position of power, whereas I think managers have the responsibility to create that environment for their employees,\u201d she said. \u201cI do think people are becoming more aware of the importance of that, and shaping their jobs and their life choices to allow for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working a nontraditional schedule, and checking in at all hours of the day, night and weekends, is not necessarily beneficial for the 21st-century workforce, according to new Cornell University research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2324,2183,1443,1749,1444],"class_list":["post-7731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-life-expectancy","tag-life-hacks","tag-stress","tag-stress-buster","tag-stress-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7732,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions\/7732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}