A freelancing friend calls her state between projects "funemployed" –at least at the start. But unless you're part of a community of like-scheduled beings, unemployed weekdays may not provide the same sense of joy as do weekends. A new Stanford study reports that weekends feel better for both those employed and not, with reasons including more opportunities for social interactions during shared time off.
From a Stanford News article:
Emotional well-being rises by about 15 percent on weekends, the study shows. This reflects both more positive emotions like happiness and enjoyment, and fewer negative emotions like stress, anger and sadness. The findings are based on a study of 500,000 Americans in the Gallup Daily Poll and eight years of data from the American Time Use Survey.
Understanding the source of weekend well-being is the study's main focus. "Why are people happier on weekends? The tempting answer is not having to go to work, and not having to deal with your boss. But simply having time off work is not the answer," [Cristobal Young, PhD, an assistant professor in sociology who co-authored the study with Chaeyoon Lim, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison,] said.
"Weekends are a break from unemployment," Young later commented. "Unemployment is psychologically devastating,"
Previously: Study shows happiness and meaning in life may be different goals, Good news: Many studies recommend downtime for increased productivity and Study finds less time worked not always linked to happiness
Photo by Loimere
