Overwhelmed, underchallenged, and distracted at work: associations with psychosocial outcomes

Abstract Aim We aimed to investigate the association of distractions at work and perceived occupational challenges with psychosocial outcomes among the adult German population. Subject and methods A quota-based online sample of the German adult population (representative in terms of gender, age group, and federal state) was used. We restricted our sample to the working population aged 18 to 64 years ( n = 2274 individuals). The mean age was 41.7 years (SD 12.7 years). Widely used and psychometrically sound tools were used to quantify the psychosocial outcomes. Multiple linear regressions were estimated. Results Overall, 19.5% felt somewhat underchallenged and 8.0% felt somewhat overwhelmed (the rest felt challenged just right) in their job. In the preceding 4 weeks, 15.1% of the respondents had never engaged in activities that did not directly contribute to their professional duties (rarely, 29.2%; sometimes, 37.4%; often, 13.6%; very often, 4.7%). Adjusting for covariates, regressions showed that a higher frequency of distractions at work (in particular often or very often compared to never) was consistently associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes, except for life satisfaction and ikigai. Additionally, being somewhat underchallenged (compared to challenged just right) was mostly unrelated to the psychosocial outcomes. In contrast, being somewhat overwhelmed was consistently associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes. Conclusion Frequent distractions at work and feeling overwhelmed in particular are associated with poor psychosocial outcomes. This study advances our current knowledge of the link between distractions at work and excessive demands and their psychosocial outcomes. We recommend cross-country comparisons and longitudinal studies.