‘Inhale… Exhale… Send e-mail’ ________________________________________________ A study examining the role of trait mindfulness on workplace telepressure and its impacts on well-being, psychological complaints and work-life balance among workers.
Summary
The technological development evolves rapidly, in all facets of society. Therefore the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has become inevitable on the workfloor. The advancement of these technological devices is blurring boundaries between work and off-work. Employees’ preoccupation and continuous urge for responding quickly to work-related messages via ICT, is labelled as workplace telepressure (Barber & Santuzzi, 2015). Earlier research suggested that workplace telepressure interferes needed work recovery and causes health-related outcomes. However, a ‘mindful’ individual may have more capacity to counteract against this disruption of recovery, because of their self-regulating behaviour and attentional processes between job stressors and psychological detachment. This study was set out with the initial aim to assess whether trait mindfulness is related to workplace telepressure and, in turn, whether trait mindfulness buffers the effect of workplace telepressure on wellbeing, psychological complaints and work-life balance of employees. Based on cross-sectional research, data were collected (N=160) among Dutch working adults during the beginning phase of COVID-19. It is possible, due to this period, that participants are more likely to experience workplace telepressure compared to normal circumstances. The findings suggest that trait mindfulness is related to lower levels of workplace telepressure. As expected, other results highlighted increased negative health outcomes when workplace telepressure was high. Trait mindfulness did not functioned as a moderator between workplace telepressure and its negative outcomes. Exploratory analyses suggested that mindfulness might have a mediating role on telepressure and health outcomes. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed.