Healthy Work

In Episode 69 we are joined by Dr. Alice Brawley Newlin who talks about her recently published paper (Brawley Newlin, 2023). We chat about her findings that depending on how you measure it well well over half of gig workers are financially dependent upon their gig work, especially men and those that are married.You can find Dr. Alice Brawley Newlin at her website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 68 we are joined by Dr. Ji Woon Ryu who talks about her recently published paper (Ryu et al., 2023). We chat about their findings that perceived mistreatment at work results in worse outcomes for Black employees than White employees, including costing up to 100 minutes of sleep! You can find Dr. Ryu at her website (https://www.jiwoonryu.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 67 we are joined by Dr. Gordon Sayre who talks about his recently published paper (Sayre & Conroy, 2023). We chat about their review of all of the literature linking work pay and health and wellbeing. In addition to identifying four key features of pay that can impact wellbeing, we answer the question “does money make you happy?”.You can find Gordon here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 66 we are joined by Dr. Malissa Clark who talked about her recently published book, Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business--and How to Fix It. We chat about what workaholism is (and isn’t), the biggest myth about workaholism, what to do about workaholism, and the experience of getting to chat personally with people experiencing workaholism.Dr. Clark can be found on her personal website (https://www.malissaclark.com/), her LinkedIn profile, or her University of Georgia Lab Page.You can buy her book at all major book retailers, and here’s a link to buy it through bookshop.org to support your local bookstore. (https://bookshop.org/p/books/never-not-working-why-the-always-on-culture-is-bad-for-business-and-how-to-fix-it-malissa-clark/19691615) And if you’re interested in Workaholics Anonymous, here’s a link to their website (https://workaholics-anonymous.org/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 65 we are joined by Dr. Elisabeth Stelson who talked about a recent paper (Stelson, Dash, McCorkell, Wilson, Assaf, Re’em, and Wei) that examined what it’s like to have long COVID and try to return to the workplace. So many important and powerful themes came up, but I was most struck by the fact that not only do we have a moral imperative to create systems and structures to support workers with disabilities, who want and need to work, but that it makes good business sense.Dr. Stelson can be found here (https://scholar.harvard.edu/estelson) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 64 we are joined by Dr. Zachary Mercurio who talked about a recent paper (Mercurio, Myles, Adams, & Clifton, 2023) that examined what it is that leaders do to help followers find their work meaningful. They created a really useful scale that workers and leaders alike can use to assess themselves or their leaders on six key groups of behaviors.Find Zack Mercurio here (https://www.zachmercurio.com/) or on LinkedIn (@ZachMercurio) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 63 we start the new year off with the awesome Dr. Ussama Khan who talked about a recent paper (Khan, Patel & Barnes, 2023) that examined the impact of air quality on leader’s behaviors. They found that subordinates working in other cities rated leaders as more abusive and disengaged on days when the leader reported worse air quality!You can find Dr. Khan here. If you’re in the US, you can also check your air quality index here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 62 we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Christopher Wiese who talked about a recent paper (Wiese, Li, Tang, & Brown, 2023) that examined how different aspects of your commute impact your work and wellbeing. The quality of your commute, not the length of the commute, is what really predicts outcomes!You can find Dr. Wiese here and on the website formerly known as twitter here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 61 we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Mindy Shoss who talked about a recent paper (Shoss et al., 2023) that examined how different aspects of precarious employment determined whether people came to work sick (or sent their kids to childcare) with COVID or COVID-like symptoms at the height of the pandemic. Feelings of powerlessness and concerns about job security were key predictors!You can find Dr. Shoss here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 60, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Drake Van Egdom. He talked about a recent paper (Van Egdom et al., 2023) that explored the interaction of both mothers’ and fathers’ parental leave on mothers’ return to work, separation anxiety, and breastfeeding. Parental leave for both parents had key impacts!You can find Dr. Van Egdom here and on the website formerly known as Twitter here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 59, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Rebecca Brossoit. She talked about a recent paper (Brossoit et al., 2023) that explored the impacts of a broad workplace intervention targeting supervisor support and sleep training on sleep and workplace safety. They found that the intervention improved safety largely through improved sleep quality!You can find Dr. Brossoit here. You can also find more resources on Total Worker Health here. You can also find more from the Oregon Healthy Workforce center here. Also, the project that provided the data for the paper received a variety of funding listed below:The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 820 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, Maryland, 21702-5014, United States, is the awarding and administering acquisition office. The published work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, through the Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program—Comprehensive Universal Prevention/Health Promotion Interventions Award, under Award W81XWH-16-1-0720 (to Leslie B. Hammer). Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense. The published work was also partly supported by the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at Oregon Health & Science University via funds from the Division of Consumer and Business Services of the State of Oregon (ORS 656.630 to Leslie B. Hammer). Additionally, work on the published article was supported by Grant T03OH008435 (to Tori L. Crain and Jordyn J. Leslie) awarded to Portland State University, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Health and Human Services (HHS). The remarks made in this interview by Dr. Brossoit are solely the responsibility of Dr. Brossoit and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 58, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Katrina Burch. She talked about a recent paper (Rollins & Burch, 2023) examining the impact of work interference with school on college student alcohol consumption. They found that for students who believed alcohol will relieve stress and tension, days when work interfered with school were more likely to result in the students drinking!You can find Dr. Burch here. C. Faith Rollins is an alumna of Western Kentucky University's I-O program and is now a Human Resources Generalist for Athens Paper. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 57, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Drs. Jenna McChesney and Lori Foster. They talked about their most recent paper (McChesney & Foster, 2023). They conducted an experiment to see if disclosing anxiety and depression on LinkedIn harms potential job prospects. They find that it very well might!You can find Dr. McChesney on the website formerly known as twitter at @jenna_mcchesney or her faculty website https://www.meredith.edu/directory/jenna-mcchesney/.You can find Dr. Foster on her personal website https://www.lorifoster.org/ or her faculty website https://chass.ncsu.edu/people/llfoster/.You can find the UN Sustainable Development goals at https://sdgs.un.org/goals.You can find the WHO and ILO joint policy brief on mental health at work at https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240057944.Remember that we provide transcripts for our episodes on our substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 56, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Dr. Valentina Reyes. She talked about her most recent paper (Reyes, Unanue, Vignoles, & Van den Broeck, 2023). Dr. Reyes outlines what it means to be materialistic at work and how that can hinder your ability to meet your psychological needs, ultimately leading to feelings of burnout. You can find Dr. Reyes on her faculty website (https://www.udp.cl/academico/valentina-reyes-ahumada/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 55, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Steven Zhou. He talked about his most recent paper, (Zhou, Aitken, & Kuykendall, 2023). In a Healthy Work first, we are covering a theory paper! Steven outlines his definition of callings, including an updated understanding of callings that can help people navigate finding fulfillment in these modern economic times.You can find Steven on the website formerly known as twitter @szzhou4 or his website www.stevenzhou.us.Check out our previous episode on the downside of certain occupational callings during COVID-19: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5LfixWmHt7aL6lPlhELhl6 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

Maryana is out on parental leave, but the show must go on. We're excited to bring you a series of interviews with authors of recent papers on occupational health and wellbeing. The format will largely be the same as previous episodes, but instead of Maryana or Keaton explaining the paper, you get the author doing it in their own words. Look out for the first episode of this series on Monday. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 54 we chat about a paper by Darouei, Delanoeije, & Verbruggen. Across two studies of around 80 employees each, on average, people who perceived work interruptions at home positively were more engaged and less stressed. That said, on days when there was a work interruption at home, it didn't matter how you perceived that particular interruption, it didn't affect engagement or strain. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 53 we chat about a paper by Seulki "Rachel" Jang, Ho Kwan Cheung, & Michael Ford. In a study of over 100 workers, they found that feeling like your company cares about health and wellbeing predicts feeling less exhausted and, in turn, fewer insomnia symptoms. However, they found that this was not the case for people with high BMI. We talk a bit in our episode about limitations of the BMI, especially at an individual level, but if you want to know more we provide the link to two other podcast episodes by maintenance phase below.Paper: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joop.12457Maintenance Phase episode on BMI: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Hm6oJt40eeAHhKseCtju8Maintenance Phase episode on workplace wellness interventions: https://open.spotify.com/episode/71WyoWszjT2j0kF6ySUsxAMaintenance Phase episode on the link between body fat and health outcomes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/54Rt3Unq8epTwSMmSuCWei This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In episode 52 we chat about a paper by Nicola von Allmen, Andreas Hirschi, Anne Burmeister, and Kristen Shockley. They published a meta-analysis (a study of all the studies on a topic) on work-nonwork interventions. They found that largely, the most impactful interventions were those that directly increased personal resources such as time, mindfulness, and resilience. They also found that not nearly enough studies explored reducing demands as an intervention.Paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-79121-001 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com

In Episode 51, we chat about a paper by Smith and colleagues (2023) about deciding to exercise after work. The study found that most days, people are in a slightly energy depleted but not highly emotional state, which means that the decision to work out is largely up to their trait health orientation. On days when it's all bad mood and low energy (thanks to high work demands), working out is less likely, and on days when things are going great, great mood and high energy (thanks to low work demands), working out is more likely. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthywork.substack.com