This paper interrogates the phenomenon of boredom at work by considering Ernst Jünger’s potential contribution. We contend that Jünger offers an important yet overlooked alternative to the dominant perspectives of boredom in Management and Organization Studies (MOS), which are largely composed of ‘simple’ psychological diagnoses and managerial prescriptions. Such studies largely understand boredom as a localised experience at work which can be overcome by targeted managerial prescriptions, techniques and interventions. In contrast we show how Jünger understands boredom from a ‘profound’ perspective as a central feature of modernity. This is premised on Jünger’s broader critique of the bourgeois values that define 20th and 21st century managerial work and organization. Jünger’s cultural-historical perspective is therefore aligned to the discrete field of Boredom Studies. By addressing how Jünger understands ‘work’ as the defining feature of the modern age, his critique situates the phenomenon of boredom at work within the broader social, institutional and cultural order of the 21st Century. While Jünger does not set out to provide a theory of boredom as such, we reconstruct such a theory through an exegesis of his writing on ‘work’ and ‘danger’. This reveals boredom and danger as phenomenologically intertwined concepts, which is an understanding of boredom that has not been considered in MOS or Boredom Studies. It is through this, we argue, that Jünger’s conception of work holds the potential for a powerful critique and understanding of boredom at work under the contemporary regime of neoliberal managerialism.

The present study examines the joint roles of leadership and stressors for presenteeism of scientific staff. Leaders may have an impact on employees’ health, both directly through interpersonal interactions and by shaping their working conditions. In the field of science, this impact could be special because of the mentoring relationships between the employees (e.g., PhD students) and their supervisors (e.g., professors). Based on the job demands-resources framework (JD-R), we hypothesized that the pressure to be present at the workplace induced by supervisors (supervisorial pressure) is directly related to employees’ presenteeism as well as indirectly via perceptions of time pressure. The conservation of resources theory (COR) states that resource loss resulting from having to deal with job demands weakens the resource pool and therefore the capacity to deal with other job demands. Thus, we hypothesized that accumulation of work moderates the relationship between supervisorial pressure and time pressure, such that the relationship is stronger when accumulation of work is high compared to if accumulation of work is low. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 212 PhD students and postdocs of 30 scientific institutions in Germany. Analysis was performed using the SPSS macro PROCESS (Hayes, 2013). Supervisorial pressure was directly associated with higher presenteeism of employees and indirectly through increased time pressure. Moreover, supervisorial pressure and accumulation of work interacted to predict time pressure, but in an unexpected way. The positive relationship between supervisorial pressure and time pressure is stronger when accumulation is low compared to if accumulation of work is high. It seems possible that job stressors do not accumulate but substitute each other. Threshold models might explain the findings. Moreover, specific patterns of interacting job demands for scientific staff should be considered in absence management.

A core construct in the lifespan theory of socioemotional selectivity, future time perspective (FTP) refers to individuals’ perceptions of their remaining time in life. Its adaptation to the work context, occupational future time perspective (OFTP), entails workers’ perceptions of remaining time and opportunities in their careers. Over the past decade, several quantitative studies have investigated antecedents and consequences of general FTP and OFTP in the work context (i.e., FTP at work). We systematically review and critically discuss this literature on general FTP (k = 17 studies) and OFTP (k = 16 studies) and highlight implications for future research and practice. Results of our systematic review show that, in addition to its strong negative relationship with age, FTP at work is also associated with other individual (e.g., personality traits) and contextual variables (e.g., job characteristics). Moreover, FTP at work has been shown to mediate and moderate relationships of individual and contextual antecedents with occupational well-being, as well as motivational and behavioral outcomes. As a whole, findings suggest that FTP at work is an important variable in the field of work and aging, and that future research should improve the ways in which FTP at work is measured and results on FTP at work are reported.

Based on an integration of job design and lifespan developmental theories, Truxillo et al. (2012) proposed that job characteristics interact with employee age in predicting important work outcomes. Using an experimental policy-capturing design, we investigated age-differential effects of four core job characteristics (i.e., job autonomy, task variety, task significance, and feedback from the job) on job attraction (i.e., individuals' rating of job attractiveness). Eighty-two employees between 19 and 65 years (Mage = 41, SD = 14) indicated their job attraction for each of 40 hypothetical job descriptions in which the four job characteristics were systematically manipulated (in total, participants provided 3,280 ratings). Results of multilevel analyses showed that the positive effects of task variety, task significance, and feedback from the job were stronger for younger compared to older employees, whereas we did not find significant age-differential effects of job autonomy on job attraction. These findings are only partially consistent with propositions of Truxillo et al.'s (2012) lifespan perspective on job design.

Researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in entrepreneurship as a means to fight youth unemployment and to improve financial stability at higher ages. However, only few studies so far have examined the association between age and entrepreneurial activity. Based on theories from the lifespan psychology literature and entrepreneurship, we develop and test a model in which perceived opportunities and skills explain the relationship between age and entrepreneurial activity. We analyzed data from the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), while controlling for gender and potential variation between countries. Results showed that age related negatively to entrepreneurial activity, and that perceived opportunities and skills for entrepreneurship mediated this relationship. Overall, these findings suggest that entrepreneurship research should treat age as a substantial variable.

The Editorial on the Research Topic. Advances in Research on Age in theWorkplace and Retirement.

Background: Multiple studies have shown that people who have experienced a serious health problem such as an injury tend to overrate the quality of health they had before that event. The main objective of this study was to test whether the phenomenon of respondents overrating their past health can also be observed in people from the general population. A second aim was to test whether habitual optimism is indeed focused on events in the future. Method: A representatively selected community sample from Leipzig, Germany (n = 2282, age range: 40–75 years) was examined. Respondents were asked to assess their current health, their past health (5 years before), and their expected future health (in 5 years) on a 0–100 scale. In addition, the study participants completed several questionnaires on specific aspects of physical and mental health. Results: Respondents of all age groups assessed their health as having been better in the past than it was at present. Moreover, they also assessed their earlier state of health more positively than people 5 years younger did their current state. Habitual optimism was associated with respondents having more positive expectations of how healthy they will be in 5 years time (r = 0.37), but the correlation with their assessments of their current health was nearly as high (r = 0.36). Conclusion: Highly positive scores of retrospectively assessed health among people who have experienced a health problem cannot totally be accounted for by a response to that health problem.

Assessing the pilot’s cognitive state is of increasing importance in aviation, especially for the development of adaptive assistance systems. For this purpose, the assessment of mental workload (MWL) is of special interest as an indication when and how to adapt the automation to fit the pilot’s current needs. Thus, there is a need to assess the pilot continuously, objectively and non-intrusively. Neurophysiological measurements like electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) are promising candidates for such an assessment. Yet, there is evidence that EEG- and fNIRS-based MWL measures are susceptible to influences from other concepts like mental fatigue (MF), and decrease in accuracy when MWL and MF confound. Still, there are only few studies targeting this problem, and no systematic investigation into this problem has taken place. Thus, the validity of neurophysiological MWL measures is not clear yet. In order to undertake such a systematic investigation, I conducted three studies: one experiment in which I investigated the effects of increasing MWL on cortical activation when MF is controlled for; a second experiment in which I examined the effects of increasing MF on cortical activation when MWL is controlled for; and a further comparative analysis of the gathered data. In order to induce MWL and MF in a controllable and comparable fashion, I conceived and used a simplified simulated flight task with an incorporated adapted n-back and monitoring task. I used a concurrent EEG-fNIRS measurement to gain neurophysiological data, and collected performance data and self-reported MWL and MF. In the first study (N = 35), I induce different four levels of MWL by increasing the difficulty of the n-back task, and controlled for MF by means of randomization and a short task duration (≤ 45 minutes). Higher task difficulty elicited higher subjective MWL ratings, declining performance, increased frontal theta band power and decreased frontal deoxyhaemoglobin (HbR) concentration. Furthermore, fNIRS proved more sensitive to tasks with low difficulty, and EEG to tasks with high difficulty. Only the combination of both methods was able to discriminate all four induced MWL levels. Thus, frontal theta band power and HbR were sensitive to changing MWL. In the second study (N = 31), I. I induced MF by means of time on task. Thus, I prolonged the task duration to approx. 90 minutes, and controlled for MWL by using a low but constant task difficulty derived from the first experiment. Over the course of the experiment, the participants’ subjective MF increased linearly, but their performance remained stable. In the EEG data, there was an early increase and levelling in parietal alpha band power and a slower, but steady increase in frontal theta band power. The fNIRS data did not show a consistent trend in any direction with increasing MF. Thus, only parietal alpha and frontal theta band power were sensitive to changing MF. In the third study, I investigated the validity of two EEG indices commonly used for MWL assessment, the Task Load Index (TLI) and the Engagement Index (EI). I computed the indices from the data of the two experiments, and compared the results between the datasets, and to single band powers. The TLI increased with increasing MWL, but was less sensitive than theta band power alone, and varied slightly with increasing MF. The EI did not vary with MWL, and was not sensitive to gradually increasing MF. Thus, neither index could be considered a valid MWL measure. In sum, neurophysiological measures can be used to assess changes in MWL. Yet, frontal HbR was the only measure sensitive to MWL that did not also vary with MF, and further research is needed to conclude if this finding holds true under different task characteristics. Thus, the tested EEG and fNIRS measures are only valid indications of MWL when confounding effects of MF are explicitly controlled for. I discuss further influences on the tested EEG and fNIRS measures, possible combinations with other data sources, and practical challenges for a neurophysiological MWL assessment. I conclude that neurophysiological measures should be used carefully outside the laboratory, as their validity will likely suffer in realistic settings. When their limitations are understood and respected, they can help to understand the cognitive processes involved in MWL, and can be a valuable addition to an MWL assessment.

Burnout has become more prevalent, mainly in social jobs, and there is evidence that certain personality traits protect against burnout. Only recently, studies have focused on investment traits like Need for Cognition (NFC), the stable intrinsic motivation to seek out and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. This study had three aims: First, the replication of findings by Grass et al. (2018), who investigated NFC and the burnout subscale reduced personal efficacy in student teachers, in a sample of 180 teachers. Second, investigating the role of perceived demands and resources in the context of NFC and burnout. And finally, creating an exploratory model for further research. The results indicated that unlike the student sample, the teachers’ association of NFC and reduced personal efficacy was mediated by self-control but not reappraisal. Teachers with higher NFC and self-control also had lower burnout because they experienced their resources as fitting to the demands.

Multistage tests are a widely used and efficient type of test presentation that aims to provide accurate ability estimates while keeping the test relatively short. Multistage tests typically rely on the psychometric framework of item response theory. Violations of item response models and other assumptions underlying a multistage test, such as differential item functioning, can lead to inaccurate ability estimates and unfair measurements. There is a practical need for methods to detect problematic model violations to avoid these issues. This study compares and evaluates three methods for the detection of differential item functioning with regard to continuous person covariates in data from multistage tests: a linear logistic regression test and two adaptations of a recently proposed score-based DIF test. While all tests show a satisfactory Type I error rate, the score-based tests show greater power against three types of DIF effects.