Nonwork orientations are related to higher career and life satisfaction

When planning a career, many people take nonwork orientations into account, such as family, personal interests and civic engagement. Our team has conducted a study among over 500 employees in German and found that people who strongly consider the role of the family in career planning report more satisfaction with their career and their lives in general. Surprisingly, nonwork orientations also showed no negative effects on earnings.

Read the full media release at the University of Bern Media Relations Website

Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., Nagy, N., & Spurk, D. (2016). All in the name of work? Nonwork orientations as predictors of salary, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 95–96, 45-57, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.006.

The anger of receiving an email from your boss after work hours

The increase in communication technologies makes it easier to schedule work more flexibly  – but also makes a separation of work and nonwork more difficult. Receiving an email from one's boss after working hours can trigger anger that leads to work-nonwork conflict, according to a US study. Anger reactions were particularly pronounced when the email had a negative affective tone and required a lot of time to read and complete the requested task. On the other hand, emails with a positive tone increased happiness after work hours. Supervisors should thus be careful how they frame emails sent after work hours and use off-hours communication as a way to express praise and appreciation rather than raising challenging demands.

Academy of Management Journal