Participant Information Sheet

Overview

We are currently researching how people balance work and life and your help is much appreciated. Do you keep strict boundaries between work and personal life? Are you able to relax and unwind after working? Or do you find that work creeps into your leisure time? Perhaps there are demands at home that make your work and/or recovery challenging?

We invite you to participate in our experience sampling study that investigates these questions. Experience sampling involves brief questions throughout the day, so you can tell us how it really is in the moment, as you are experiencing your work and leisure. Through this research, we aim to identify and understand the day-to-day factors that may impact your experiences and choices, and learn new strategies to help employees cope with the daily grind.

Participants need to be adult workers who are based in any Australian time zone, with access to the internet during work and non-work time. Participation involves brief online surveys each workday (i.e., on waking, end of workday, before bed) over three work weeks. Surveys are brief, automated, and mobile enabled, so can be completed on any device with internet access.

What does participation involve?

Participation in this study involves completing an initial survey (takes ~ 20 minutes) and then three daily surveys, each workday, over the course of three work weeks:

• A 'on waking' survey (takes ~3-5 minute; available 5:30am-8:30am) involves questions about your state of wellbeing sometime in the morning before you start work for the day.
• An 'end of the work' survey (takes ~7-10 minutes; available 3:30pm-6:30pm) involves questions about your work day and state of wellbeing at the end of it before you leave work to travel home.
• A 'before bed' survey (takes ~5-7 minutes; available 8:30pm-11:30pm) involves questions about what activities you spent your time on during your leisure time that evening, as well as your state of wellbeing just before you go to sleep.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?

Upon completion of the surveys, you will be entered into a prize draw. At the end of the study, winners will be drawn to win one of three $200 gift cards. You will also receive an individual feedback report about your experiences. We’ll be able to reveal to you a few things you may not otherwise realise about how you spend your day. There will be some insight about the effectiveness of your recovery strategies for your energy levels, as well as how your results compare at home versus at work. This report will also include some research-based tips prepared by the UQ researchers, on some of the latest evidence-based strategies to help improve recovery and well-being on a daily basis.

What are the possible risks and disadvantages of taking part?

Participation in this study should involve no physical or mental discomfort, and no risks beyond those of everyday living. If, however, you should find any question or procedure to be invasive or offensive, you are free to omit answering or participating in that aspect of the study.

Participation and Withdrawal

If you decide to participate in this research, please keep in mind that your participation is voluntary. If you do not wish to take part, you do not have to. If you decide to take part you may skip any questions in this study that you do not wish to answer. If you decide to take part and later change your mind, you are free to stop at any time, and you would not need to give any explanation for your decision to stop participating. If you choose to stop participating, please let us know and your data will not be used in the research. Please note however, that if you decide to withdraw after data has been de-identified, which will occur once data collection is completed, we will not be able to identify your responses and delete these from the study.

Should you decide to withdraw during the data collection phase, please email us, and all of the information collected from/about you can be destroyed and will not be used in the research. Please be aware that after the data has been collated and de-identified, we will not be able to identify your data for withdrawal.

Proceeding to complete the initial baseline survey is taken as your consent to participate in the research. Your decision of whether you take part, do not to take part, or to take part and then withdraw, will not affect your relationship with the University of Queensland.

Who can participate?

• Adults (i.e., over 18 years of age) residing in any Australian time zone during the data collection period;
• Employed in one company/position who are working during the data collection period;
• Working full-time or part-time hours, but the hours need to be at least 28 hours per week or ~80% full time equivalent, and you need to be working mostly during the day-time, during typical business hours (i.e., for this study it is ok if you work a four-day pattern or shorter work days over five days, and for this pattern to be variable day to day or week to week, as long as most of your scheduled work occurs during day-time business hours, so ~9am-5pm Monday-Friday); and
• Those with internet access across the three time points of the surveys, at both home and work (i.e., on a computer or mobile device) during the data collection period.

If you have any more questions about participation please contact the researcher using the contact details provided (Stacey Parker, s.parker@psy.uq.edu.au).

What will happen to the information about me?

All information collected about you will remain confidential. During data collection, only members of the UQ research team will know your computer-generated code, for the purposes of recruitment, survey reminders, and to link your survey responses over time. Importantly, no personally identifying information (e.g., name or contact details) will be stored with your baseline survey or daily survey responses. After your data has been collected and merged together, then your data will be de-identified by the UQ research team (i.e., we will remove your unique computer-generated code and any other potentially personally identifying information). All data will be safely secured using an encrypted password. De-identified data may be used in additional research and made available to other researchers through collaboration and dissemination of the research findings.

Can I hear about the results of this research?

If you would like to learn more about the results of this research, please reach out to the lead researcher, Associate Professor Stacey Parker (s.parker@psy.uq.edu.au).

Who can I contact if I have concerns about the project?

This study has been cleared in accordance with the ethical review processes of the University of Queensland and within the guidelines of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (#2023/HE000290). You are, of course, free to discuss your participation with project staff (email: s.parker@psy.uq.edu.au, or phone: +61 7 3365 6423). If you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact the UQ Human Research office on +61 7 3365 3924 or e-mail: humanethics@research.uq.edu.au.

Sincerely,
Associate Professor Stacey Parker
School of Psychology
University of Queensland