Category Archives: travel
Work-life Balance: Work Flexibility Increases Happiness – Maui Hawaii
Sunrise from balcony at Hana Kai Maui hotel
People are not created equal. Each of us has a unique body and mind. Consequently, we all have different needs with regard to sleep, diet and energy levels. Health professionals have guidelines on how to regulate the proper amount of sleep which includes a range of hours depending on your age. Some people have bodies that require more sleep while others require much less on average. We hear people say “I’m not a morning person.” or “I do my best work right after I wake up,” indicating that people are aware of their unique needs. Unfortunately, most jobs do not meet the individual’s unique energy needs.
The majority of workplaces have people run on a predictable routine in order to make money in a consistent and foreseeable manner, but this routine does not optimize the workers’ happiness, motivation or effectiveness. As a result, many of us have to force ourselves to be overworked, inconvenienced and/or medicated to get through each week. I recently read a paper on work flexibility from a collaboration between researchers at Penn State and the University of Chicago that indicated a flexible schedule can increase a worker’s happiness:
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Golden, Lonnie and Henly, Julia and Lambert, Susan, Work Schedule Flexibility: A Contributor to Employee Happiness? (December 1, 2013). Journal of Social Research and Policy, 2014
“If the scheduling of hours does not fit a worker’s preferred timing, individual welfare tends to be diminished (Barnett, 2004).”
“For example, among those not permitted to change their own work schedules toward their preferred schedules, 45 percent experience symptoms of “overwork,” three times the rate among those who are permitted (Galinsky, Bond & Hill, 2005).”
“This may be in part because workers that have more flexible daily schedules are also more likely to be working very long hours, perhaps as an act of reciprocation or exchange (e.g., see Golden, 2009; Kelliher & Anderson, 2010). Moreover, when combined with employee participation, schedule flexibility moderates adverse effects of longer hours, such as work-life conflict (Wang, 2011).”
“Control over work schedules, including days off, is associated with reduced fatigue, sleep problems and depression, which also promotes employee performance (Takahashi et al., 2011).”
“In sum, the empirical findings suggest that discretion over the timing of one’s work matters far more for happiness than does the duration of working time or income.”
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This research seems to indicate that having a flexible work schedule can be extremely beneficial to a worker’s happiness. Furthermore, work flexibility can have downstream effects that benefit the employer. I would also conjecture that commuting times would also be widely reduced if people were able to select their own schedule. Many people would opt for arriving/leaving work earlier or later if possible, instead of everybody flooding in by 9AM and out by 5PM.
I was recently able to negotiate a flexible schedule at my workplace that allowed me time to go on multiple vacations without compromising my results as an employee. Below, you will find various photos from my experiences the island of Maui, Hawaii.
A few words about Maui. I considered this trip more of an adventure than a vacation. Maui is rugged and only partially developed. The road to Hana and the Kahekili highway are legitimately dangerous. There are long sections of one-lane roads with no guard rails on cliff sides. One false move and it’s game over. Absolutely do NOT travel on either of these roads at night. I ended up on the Kahekili highway at night and it was by far the most intense driving I have ever done in my life. I strongly recommend renting a 4-wheel drive car.
There are resort areas that are obviously developed for tourists but are extremely costly and overpriced. You can definitely relax at one of these resorts if you are willing to pay for it, but potentially at the expense of a genuine island experience. The most commercial areas I visited are Kahului, Lahaina, Kihei, Wailuku and Paia. Additionally, I did not find that the native employees readily exhibited the same “Aloha spirit” that was apparent at most places on Oahu, HI.
Maui definitely did have its share of good things, too. My favorite part of Maui was definitely Mt. Haleakala. It’s an environment type I have never seen anywhere else; like the surface of Mars. You can drive to the 10,000ft high summit and see planes and clouds flying below you. There were also seemingly endless cliffside views and waterfalls on the road to Hana. The local cuisine was also very good. You can see photos of food I recommend below:
If you’re confused about some of the food names in the gallery captions above, then check out the definitions I mentioned in my post from Oahu, HI.
Overall, Maui was an exciting experience with more beautiful photo opportunities than anywhere I’ve traveled. However, I would preferably recommend Oahu to travelers if they could only afford to go to one Hawaiian island. Maui is more expensive, wild, and unaccommodating with a sprawling homeless population. There is an overtly apparent disconnect between the native culture and gentrified tourists.
Conclusions:
1.) Having a flexible work schedule can improve worker happiness, work-life balance and motivation.
2.) There is a quantifiable improvement between workers allowed flexibility vs. those who follow a strict routine.
3.) Work flexibility can reduce burn-out.
4.) A flexible work schedule can benefit a worker’s happiness more than giving them an increase in pay.
-SD
Vacation Improves Well-being – Oahu Hawaii
Nu’Uanu Pali Lookout, Oahu HI
Lately, I’ve been researching more about how to improve overall happiness. In the past, I’ve found information on factors that effect happiness through reward chemistry, usually in the context of stress or addiction. That research did not offer an obvious solution to cope with unhappiness or the symptoms that result from it. However, in my recent searches, I think I found a direct way to improve well-being. The answer is vacation.
Most people have to work full-time jobs 40+ hours per week to survive or sustain their finances. Working this much consistently does not necessarily lead to a happier life, but almost certainly does lead to burn-out. Burn-out can detract from your life in a way that is not easily perceptible and can lead to depression, anger and a broken home life. This often results in coping behavior that can further damage your health or finances. It’s important to frequently take time away from the unrelenting work cycle to recuperate.
The Department of Physiology at the University of Vienna, Austria designed a study to validate that vacation improves well-being. You can find the study here with some relevant excerpts below:
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G. Strauss-Blasche, C. Ekmekcioglu and W. Marktl, Does vacation enable recuperation? Changes in well-being associated with time away from work. Occup Med (Lond). 2000 Apr;50(3):167-72.
“The current study sought to investigate the short- and long-term effects of vacation on well-being and to document factors moderating these effects. It was found that well-being generally improved from 10 days before vacation to 3 days after vacation”
“These results are supported by the findings of Westman and Eden, who found that the feeling of burn-out declined during vacation.”
“The results also show that one of the ways to promote recuperation is to take time for one’s self and for one’s needs. This notion is supported by Caldwell and Smith who define leisure in correspondence to Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre as ‘that experience or stream of consciousness associated with self-determined participation in any activity/experience which is characterised by pleasure, enjoyment, fulfilment, competence and control’ ”
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From this study, it appears we positively anticipate an upcoming vacation and experience some residual emotional benefits post-vacation. Furthermore, the perception of freedom we get during self-directed recreational activities on vacation can contribute to our well being.
To reinforce the value of vacation, I will be having a series of upcoming posts dedicated to additional research I’ve done on this topic. Included in each post will be an album with pictures from one of my recent vacations. Below, you will find various photos from my experiences the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
We know from reference 1 in my post about consumption that novel (new) surroundings/experiences can elicit a variety dopamine responses. Therefore, it is safe to postulate that vacations to drastically new environments can cause changes in neuroplasticity, potentially increasing neuronal flexibility. The idioms “broaden your horizons”, “live a little” and “get outside your comfort zone” come to mind.
On vacation, I try to have many unique experiences that I cannot reproduce during my regular life in order to efficiently maximize my reward system benefits. In addition to seeing new landscapes and trying new activities, I like to broadly sample the local cuisine and “take a chance”. Below you can find a secondary album containing pictures of the best food I tried at Oahu:
For clarification, I tried the traditional Hawaiian dishes at The Highway Inn. Rough definitions of each dish are below:
Kalua pork – pulled-pork slow roasted underground
Chicken Long Rice – like chicken soup with glass noodles
Pipikaula – like thick broiled beef-jerky
Laulau – pork & butterfish inside tarot leaves
Poi – tarot paste
Lomi salmon – like raw salmon pico de gallo
Coconut Haupia – dense coconut pudding
Squid Lu’au – like creamed spinach with squid & ink
Overall, Oahu, HI was a great experience. It included a variety of delicious foods tending toward Asian inspired flavors. There were beautiful landscapes everywhere. I would definitely recommend hiking outside Honolulu, the beaches, exploring Waikiki, Honolulu Zoo and trying native Hawaiian cuisine. Also, plan to rent a car to maximize your exploration potential. You might want to scope out some cheaper parking alternatives before you go, and brush up on your budgeting potential to save for the flight there. Don’t let the rat race perpetually tear down your emotions. Vacation is worth much more to your mental health than the dollars you spend on it.
Conclusions:
1.) Vacations can significantly reduce burn-out.
2.) The emotional benefits of vacation can be anticipatory and retroactive.
3.) New experiences can yield dopamine reward signalling and likely improve components of neuroplasticity.
-SD
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