The Full-Plate Experience: An Experiential State Of Work Overload?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Pride ◽  
Dave C. Munz
Author(s):  
Pablo A. Lizana ◽  
Gustavo Vega-Fernadez ◽  
Alejandro Gomez-Bruton ◽  
Bárbara Leyton ◽  
Lydia Lera

Background: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were already reporting a low quality of life (QoL) perception, with a significant impact on mental and physical health due to various stress factors associated with work overload. The objective of this study was to evaluate the QoL impact on Chilean teachers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis was performed following a longitudinal design on a sample of 63 Chilean teachers in pre-pandemic and COVID-19 pandemic timeframes. QoL perception, along with teachers’ sociodemographic data, was evaluated via the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. Sociodemographic variables presented no significant variations in pre-pandemic and pandemic comparisons. QoL, however, showed a significant decrease during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic measurement (p < 0.01). In each gender, there were significant differences between pre-pandemic and pandemic timeframes, with a greater impact among women in the mental and physical component summary variables and seven of the eight QoL scales (p < 0.01). Between age categories, people under 45 presented significant differences (p < 0.05) between pre-pandemic and pandemic timeframes in all summary dimensions and measurements. In conclusion, Chilean teachers’ QoL perception has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings could be related to work overload due to teleworking or feelings of uncertainty, loneliness, and fear that the pandemic and its associated confinements will worsen.


2013 ◽  
Vol 113 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Ling I Hsu ◽  
Fan-E Mo

Introduction: Matricellular protein CCN1 is expressed in myocardial infarction, pressure overload, and ischemia in mice, and in patients with a failing heart. Despite its well-documented angiogenic activities, CCN1 promotes fibroblast apoptosis in some contexts. The role of CCN1 in an injured heart was not clear. We assessed the hypothesis that CCN1 plays a detrimental role and mediates cardiac injury through its proapoptotic activities. Methods and Results: To test the role of CCN1 in cardiac injury, we employed two different myocardial injury models in mice, including a work-overload-induced injury created by isoproterenol treatment (ISO; 100 mg/kg/day; s.c. for 5 days; n= 6 for each group) and an injury induced by the cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin (DOX, single dose of 15 mg/kg; i.p. sacrificed after 14 days). Ccn1 expression was induced in the damaged myocardium in both injury models. A line of knock-in mice carrying an apoptosis-defective Ccn1 mutant allele, Ccn1-dm , which has disrupted integrin α 6 β 1 binding sites, were tested in the ISO- or DOX -induced cardiac injury. Myocardial damage was seen in tissues from wile-type (WT) hearts after receiving ISO. Ccn1 dm/dm (DM) mice possessed remarkable resistance against ISO or DOX treatments and exhibited no tissue damage or fibrosis compared to WT mice after H&E or Masson’s trichrome stainings. DM mice were resistant to both ISO- and DOX-induced cardiac cell apoptosis, indicating that CCN1 is critically mediating cardiomyocyte apoptotic death in cardiac injury. Moreover, we found that death factor Fas ligand (FasL) and its receptor Fas were upregulated in WT mice receiving ISO or DOX treatments by immunohistochemical staining, compared with the PBS-control. 8-OHdG-positive, a marker for oxidative stress, cardiomyocytes were increased by ISO or DOX treatments as well. In contrast, the expression of Fas/FasL, and the 8-OHdG-positive cardiomyocytes in the myocardium of DM mice were not changed by ISO or DOX. Conclusions: We identify CCN1 as a novel pathophysiological regulator of cardiomyocyte apoptosis in cardiac injury. Blocking apoptotic function of CCN1 effectively prevents myocardial injury in mice. CCN1 and its receptor α 6 β 1 represent promising future therapeutic targets in cardiac injury.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Shantz ◽  
Lilith Arevshatian ◽  
Kerstin Alfes ◽  
Catherine Bailey

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Ingusci ◽  
Fulvio Signore ◽  
Maria Luisa Giancaspro ◽  
Amelia Manuti ◽  
Monica Molino ◽  
...  

The radical changes deriving from the COVID-19 emergency have heavily upset some of the most familiar routines of daily work life. Abruptly, many workers have been forced to face the difficulties that come with switching to remote working. Basing on the theoretical framework proposed by the Job Demands-Resources model, the purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of work overload (workload and techno overload), on behavioral stress, meant as an outcome linked to the health impairment process. Furthermore, the aim of the study was to explore the mediating role of job crafting, considered as a second-order construct consisting of two dimensions (increasing structural resources and increasing challenging demands) in the abovementioned relation. Participants were 530 workers experiencing remote working or work-from-home during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy (March–May 2020). Hypotheses were explored by using three different latent variables, measured reflexively through indicators on a 5-point scale, extracted from validated questionnaires. Data analysis was performed through Structural Equation Modeling; to test the mediation, bootstrap validation was computed (n = 2,000). Results showed that the mediation of job crafting was partial. More specifically, the direct effect between work overload and behavioral stress was positive; moreover, the indirect, negative effect through the mediation of job crafting was also significant. Therefore, results showed that job crafting can play a crucial role as a protective factor supporting the activation and adjustment of suitable resources; these resources can be useful to deal with the negative effects of work overload, particularly under the condition of heavy remote working and use of technologies, on individual outcomes. Starting from the current global scenario of the pandemic that has not yet ceased its effects, the study suggested decisive theoretical and practical implications. Accordingly, findings extended the current trends in occupational health psychology research, with special reference to the mainstream topic “work and COVID-19” in the Italian context. Finally, results can give suggestions to companies engaged in managing change, recommending that they build a collaborative workplace at the individual and collective level to implement job crafting interventions and enrich the personal and organizational resources of workers, which is useful cope with the current demands.


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