Employees tend to avoid taking breaks despite high levels of stress (article)

“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.

The researchers hope that their findings will aid in promoting employee well-being and that future research will explore broader structural and contextual factors that influence break-taking.”

My Takeaways:

• One of the ways to work efficiently and effectively is to properly take breaks during your work to help let your body and mind recover for a bit before working more. However, this article shows that sometimes workers may be reluctant to take breaks even when they’re highly stressed.

• Some reasons include misconceptions that breaks are generally a negative thing to ask for by their superiors and asking for breaks may put them in an unfavorable position with the higher-ups. Additionally some employees believe that they are better off without a break, unwilling for some off time to interfere with their productivity and high levels of performance.

• While there may be situations in which the aforementioned statements/beliefs are true, the majority of research does support that a healthy break taking behavior is one of the contributors to workplace success and efficiency. Therefore supervisors and employee alike taking initiative in promoting break times may prove the best result.

Full article is here!

#Work #Breaks #Stress

How can we contribute to a culture where taking breaks is normalized and seen as helpful to the work environment?