Workload
Workload can be the flip side of performance and success and can jeopardise the sustainability of research performance. In the long term, high workloads can also lead to burnout and other health risks and pose a structural risk for an organisation. Therefore, organisations should always keep an eye on the problem of workload, even if their primary goal is to maximise research output.
This chapter highlights several pieces of the puzzle of workload, starting with the types of contract, working hours, and the distribution of working hours (among individual tasks), and moving on to specific pressures in everyday work, known as stressors. The analyses are also an important building block for understanding sustainable, quality-assuring work environments.