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This paper aims to explore, which characteristics of activity-based offices are related to the position of workers on the burnout – engagement continuum.

Literature review and an online survey amongst knowledge workers in the Netherlands, which provided data of 184 respondents from 14 organisations. The data has been analysed by descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, factor analyses and path analysis, to test the conceptual model.

Five physical work environment constructs were identified of which three showed to have significant relations with employees’ position on one of the three dimensions of the burnout – engagement continuum. Distraction has a direct and indirect (through overload) negative relation with the individual strain (meaning increased exhaustion). Office comfort has indirect positive relations (through recognition and appreciation) with the interpersonal strain (meaning increased involvement). The possibility for teleworking has an indirect positive relation (through control) on the self-evaluation strain (meaning increased efficacy).

The findings show that in the design and management of a healthy physical work environment, corporate real estate managers and human resource managers should particularly pay attention to lowering distraction, providing comfortable workplaces and considering the option of teleworking to some extent.

This paper provides new insights into the impact of distinct activity-based workplace characteristics on workers’ position on the burnout – engagement continuum.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize distracted driving by quantifying the response time and response intensity to an emergency stop using the driver’s physiological states.

Field tests with 17 participants were conducted in the connected and automated vehicle test field. All participants were required to prioritize their primary driving tasks while a secondary nondriving task was asked to be executed. Demographic data, vehicle trajectory data and various physiological data were recorded through a biosignalsplux signal data acquisition toolkit, such as electrocardiograph for heart rate, electromyography for muscle strength, electrodermal activity for skin conductance and force-sensing resistor for braking pressure.

This study quantified the psychophysiological responses of the driver who returns to the primary driving task from the secondary nondriving task when an emergency occurs. The results provided a prototype analysis of the time required for making a decision in the context of advanced driver assistance systems or for rebuilding the situational awareness in future automated vehicles when a driver’s take-over maneuver is needed.

The hypothesis is that the secondary task will result in a higher mental workload and a prolonged reaction time. Therefore, the driver states in distracted driving are significantly different than in regular driving, the physiological signal improves measuring the brake response time and distraction levels and brake intensity can be expressed as functions of driver demographics. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study using psychophysiological measures to quantify a driver’s response to an emergency stop during distracted driving.

Since more than 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental disorders, interventions that promote mental health have been called for. Mindfulness-based coping (MBC) is an intervention based on coping skills from cognitive behavioral therapy integrating mindfulness practices. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the MBC program for psychiatric outpatients. The study employed a mixed research method with a qualitative approach using semi-structured patient interviews and clinical assessments from patients' therapists and a quantitative approach using instruments measuring mindful coping, mental ill health, and life satisfaction. The study sample included 38 psychiatric outpatients from a district psychiatric outpatient service in Norway. Results suggested that although use of the different skills varied, participants had a positive experience with the program and positive changes in psychological functioning were observed. Findings provide knowledge regarding the design of interventions integrating mindfulness to promote more adequate psychological coping.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow in their work.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative critical incident technique-inspired questionnaire.

The findings suggest that workers in the software industry perceive that the most obvious obstacles to experiencing flow are related to work not presenting enough cognitive challenges and situational barriers related to the characteristics of the job (e.g. workdays having too many interruptions and distractions, timetables often being considered too tight for creative exploration and problem solving and having negative user experiences with development tools).

The findings provide insights into flow barriers, specifically barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow.

This paper aims to study employee mental health in relation to workplace design and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) when working from home, which has received little attention. The trend toward hybrid working urges for more knowledge.

Through a mixed data collection method, this study analyzed potential relationships (between mental health, workplace design and IEQ) from information obtained through a cross-sectional survey, repeated point-in-time surveys and desk-based IEQ sensors at home. Data were collected in April 2020 during a national COVID-19 lockdown in The Netherlands amongst 36 subjects. They all worked full time from home in this period and together completed 321 point-in-time surveys. The three data sets were combined and analyzed using bivariate and path analysis.

Outcomes indicate that subjective and objective IEQ conditions, workplace suitability and distraction affect employee mental health in the home workplace in a similar way as in the office. Being satisfied with the noise level increases concentration, self-reported well-being and engagement. High sound pressure levels (>58 dB) increased tension or nervous feelings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore employee mental health in relation to simultaneously assessed (perceived and measured) multiple IEQ parameters in the home workplace.

The “what is beautiful is good” (WIBIG) effect implies that observers tend to perceive physically attractive people in a positive light. The authors investigate how the WIBIG effect applies to user personas, measuring designers' perceptions and task performance when employing user personas for the design of information technology (IT) solutions.

In a user experiment, the authors tested six different personas with 235 participants that were asked to develop remote work solutions based on their interaction with a fictitious user persona.

The findings showed that a user persona's perceived attractiveness was positively correlated with other perceptions of the persona. The personas' completeness, credibility, empathy, likability and usefulness increased with attractiveness. More attractive personas were also perceived as more agreeable, emotionally stable, extraverted and open, and the participants spent more time engaging with personas they perceived attractive. A linguistic analysis indicated that the IT solutions created for more attractive user personas demonstrated a higher degree of affect, but for the most part, task outputs did not vary by the personas' perceived attractiveness.

The WIBIG effect applies when designing IT solutions with user personas, but its effect on task outputs appears limited. The perceived attractiveness of a user persona can impact how designers interact with and engage with the persona, which can influence the quality or the type of the IT solutions created based on the persona. Also, the findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.

The findings point to the need to incorporate hedonic qualities into the persona creation process. For example, there may be contexts where it is helpful that the personas be attractive; there may be contexts where the attractiveness of the personas is unimportant or even a distraction.

Because personas are created to closely resemble real people, the authors might expect the WIBIG effect to apply. The WIBIG effect might lead decision makers to favor more attractive personas when designing IT solutions. However, despite its potential relevance for decision making with personas, as far as the authors know, no prior study has investigated whether the WIBIG effect extends to the context of personas. Overall, it is important to understand how human factors apply to IT system design with personas, so that the personas can be created to minimize potentially detrimental effects as much as possible.

Many employees experience a “locked at the job” situation and are not satisfied with their current job and at the same time, perceive limited job opportunities. This study examines the process that individuals who experience locked at the job go through and the coping mechanisms individuals use.

A total of Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted. Of the participants, 12 were locked at the job at the time of the interview and 18 participants experienced locked at the job in the past.

The authors identified three phases. Regarding the first phase “becoming locked at the job,” various individual and work environmental causes could be identified. In the second phase “being locked at the job,” the authors identified three levels: low-, medium- and high-locked individuals. Emotion-regulated coping strategies were mainly reappraisal, positive distraction and behavioral avoidance. The third phase “ending locked at the job” revealed that a locked at the job situation often comes to an end either by taking control independently or by external force. Especially, the role of the direct supervisor was decisive during the entire locked at the job process.

In the practical implications, the authors suggest to discuss locked at the job throughout the entire workplace and create an open culture acknowledging that individuals may find themselves in such a situation.

To date, no qualitative study has been conducted before from this perspective. Therefore, it is extremely important to look at this relatively unknown phenomenon from this perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of driver demographic characteristics on the driving safety involving cell phone usages.

A total of 1,432 crashes and 19,714 baselines were collected for the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 naturalistic driving research. The authors used a case-control approach to estimate the prevalence and the population attributable risk percentage. The mixed logistic regression model is used to evaluate the correlation between different driver demographic characteristics (age, driving experience or their combination) and the crash risk regarding cell phone engagements, as well as the correlation among the likelihood of the cell phone engagement during the driving, multiple driver demographic characteristics (gender, age and driving experience) and environment conditions.

Senior drivers face an extremely high crash risk when distracted by cell phone during driving, but they are not involved in crashes at a large scale. On the contrary, cell phone usages account for a far larger percentage of total crashes for young drivers. Similarly, experienced drivers and experienced-middle-aged drivers seem less likely to be impacted by the cell phone while driving, and cell phone engagements are attributed to a lower percentage of total crashes for them. Furthermore, experienced, senior or male drivers are less likely to engage in cell phone-related secondary tasks while driving.

The results provide support to guide countermeasures and vehicle design.

COVID-19 has changed the way we teach and learn, including service-learning (S-L). This study examines the impacts of the work-from-home (WFH) mode on the work performance and learning outcomes of student interns on an eight-week S-L internship programme, and the key factors in terms of its success.

A qualitative research methodology is adopted by interviewing nine student interns and four supervisors from three community partner organisations (CPOs) to understand their experiences of how the WFH mode has impacted intern work performance and learning outcomes. Thematic analysis is used for the data analysis.

The interns uncover a number of negative WFH impacts on the S-L internship, including ineffective communication and management practice, low work efficiency and quality, a lack of task variety and learning opportunities and distractions in the home environment. Furthermore, five critical factors for WFH success are also identified, including prior preparation, effective communication systems, personal motivators at work, the nature of the job in relation to it being suited to the WFH mode, and organisational support.

The study examines impacts on student work performance and learning outcomes in an S-L summer internship programme operating under the WFH mode as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key success factors and practical recommendations have been developed for enhancing the future success of S-L internships operating under the WFH mode.

The purpose of this paper is to understand factors that affect viewing of television news programmes by people living with dementia, and to identify dementia-friendly design principles for television news programmes and factors for personalising object-based media broadcast.

Extensive public involvement comprising two discussion groups with people with dementia and family carers informed the study design and provided supplementary secondary data. Primary data collection comprised a focus group interview with people with dementia (n=4) and family carers (n=4). Past viewing experiences and perceived barriers and facilitators to viewing television were explored. Participants commented on an array of video clips comprising varying segments of fictional news programmes, plus control versions of each segment.

Four themes were identified: content (general comments, context, type of media and pace); presenter (body language, clothing and accent); background (location and studio appearance); and technical aspects (graphics, sound, colours, camera, transitions, general issues).

Limitations included a modest sample size which is offset by exemplary public involvement in informing the study design.

Measures ensured research involvement and participation was made accessible to people living with dementia.

Participants benefited from sharing views with peers and expressed enhanced wellbeing from knowing their participation could lead to improved television viewing, an important social occupation, for people with dementia in the future.

This study is the first to be published which focusses on dementia-friendly television news programmes.