Along with the dynamic changes in the environment, constant changes are also noticed in the work’s timings and patterns. According to the American Time Use Survey of 2018, it can be observed 30% of the employees are reported to be working on weekends and holidays. Furthermore, the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19 has resulted in a global shift to remote work, which has bedimmed the boundaries between working shifts and non-working shifts.
However, it is being said that most people feel positively productive while working on the weekends when others fail to boost their motivation and keeping themselves. In that sense, our research looks on the opposite side of the coin and finds out that the people who engage themselves in entertaining and exciting activities are the ones who feel intrinsically motivated. Our data also illustrates how professional works during leisure time can hamper motivation and cause internal conflict between personal and professional lives.
How is the Intrinsic Motivation Impacted due to Weekend Working?
Some essential data from the sample of 1,298 U.S. employees have been analyzed. Some employees have been working on weekends and some who have been working only from Monday to Friday. From this dataset, we have observed that the people who work on some weekend days feel less intrinsically motivated than the other set of employees. Some potential confounding factors that include the level of education, weekly working hours, household incomes, and life satisfaction, in general, hold the relationship between professional work time and intrinsic motivation consistently.
All the other surveys that are being conducted conclude that working on weekends and holidays effectively reduces people’s intrinsic motivation for their respective works.
To give an instance, we can refer to two studies’ conclusions. In one study, some students were interviewed who were studying in the campus library on a federal holiday. During the session, we reminded them that it was a holiday. When they realized that they were studying on a day when others have their day off, they felt less motivated to study.
How Does Working on a Holiday Undermine Intrinsic Motivation?
We, humans, have a common habit of categorizing things. For example, people see “Monday” as the start of the week and categorize the day as starting with their work. Quite similarly, weekends or vacations are categorized as leisure times, and working on those days makes people feel demotivated and impatient. This impatience might also impact the nature and quality of the work produced.
What should be Done When You Need to Work on a Day Off?
In certain job roles, working on weekends or during vacations cannot be avoided. In that case, intrinsic motivation can be pumped up by continually reminding and labeling the days as “work-time.” People will feel more engaged and interested if they always remind themselves that weekends are also for getting ahead with work.
Are All Motivations Hampered While Working in Time-Off?
Extrinsic motivations include receiving a salary or supporting a family. But without intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation cannot work. Hence, under certain circumstances, if it is needed to work during week offs, it’s essential to reframe the reason mentally.
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