2024 - Reprints: Organizational Behavior and Human Resources

In this study, building on Hobfoll’s (1989) conservation of resources theory, we aimed to reveal the effect of subjective workload at baseline on the likelihood of developing new-onset of metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors during follow-up. We also aimed to find out whether an increase in job burnout mediates this association, and whether the extent of engagement in leisure-time physical activity (PA) attenuates the effect of workload on MetS. Using a three-wave longitudinal study design, we followed a sample of 1,966 Israeli employees free of MetS at baseline for 3.5 years on average. We controlled for multiple confounders, including objective workload (i.e., work hours). Subjective workload at baseline was associated with the risk of new-onset of MetS, yet this association was moderated by PA. Specifically, among participants with low PA (37 weekly minutes), a one-point increase in our five-point measure of subjective workload was associated with a 41% increase in risk of new-onset MetS, whereas among those with high PA (258 weekly minutes) it was associated with a 38% reduction in risk. Among participants who engaged in 148 weekly minutes of PA (as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), an increase in workload did not result in an increased risk of developing MetS. We did not find,however, any indication for a mediating effect of job burnout. Our findings suggest that engaging in PA while being overloaded not only protects employees from adverse outcomes but actually reverses the cardiovascular risk.

Much is known about stress and its resulting strain (i.e., negative outcomes such as burnout or impaired health), but not about how we perceive others' strain and what the outcomes of such strain perceptions are. We integrated the social-projection and stress-mindset literatures to investigate, for the first time, the effect of holding a stress-is-enhancing, versus a stress-is-debilitating, mindset on social judgments of a target's strain, on the perceiver's consequent perceptions of the target's promotability, and on his or her intention to voluntarily help the target. We argued that perceivers may project their own stress-mindsets onto others, resulting in egocentrically-biased judgments of the latter's strain. We conducted four experimental and correlational studies, among 971 fully-employed Americans and Israelis, using a novel stress-mindset manipulation. We predicted and found evidence that, independent of the effects of mood, individuals holding a stress-is-enhancing versus a stress-is-debilitating mindset were less likely to judge a target experiencing a heavy workload as suffering from burnout, somatic symptoms, or presenteeism (i.e., reduced productivity at work due to health problems). We also revealed two important downstream outcomes: whereas the lower strain judgments associated with a stress-is-enhancing mindset led to a higher estimate of the target's promotability, they also led to a lower likelihood of helping him. Taken together, our findings establish a causal link between stress-mindset and judgments of others' strain, thereby extending the novel notion of stress-mindset beyond intra-personal outcomes to inter-personal effects. Results provide a foundation for future work addressing the accuracy of judgment of others' stress experience.