An Investigation of Factors Impacting the Wellness of Academic Library Employees

The term “wellness” is fast garnering attention on how it affects one’s professional and personal life. This study explores the multi-dimensions of wellness and investigates factors that might impact the “wellness” of employees in academic libraries. The research topic was addressed through quantitative analyses of responses to multiple choice, ranking and qualitative analyses of responses to open-ended items. With a total of 1123 respondents, key findings include: there are statistical relationships between how respondents characterize themselves and how often they felt overwhelmed; the respondents’ age and how often they felt overwhelmed; the respondents’ age and how important they feel eating healthy is; the respondents’ current position and how important is being optimistic is to them.


Introduction
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed at work could negatively affect an individual's job satisfaction₁ and general well-being, and could in turn negatively affect the organization. As workers' health and general well-being suffer, companies have to spend more money on insurance premiums, which could then negatively impact their revenue and potentially lead to layoffs or even bankruptcies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), work stress costs American businesses over $300 billion a year. 2 Therefore, "wellness" as a concept is garnering attention in the workplace.
Many employers are providing wellness support to their employees as means for combating illness-related loss of productivity due either to absenteeism or to reduced productivity while at work (presenteeism). 3 These efforts comprise workplace wellness programs that focus primarily on the prevention of chronic disease, such as lifestyle risk factors and lifestyle management, and secondarily on improving disease control. Furthermore, "workplace wellness programs are a primary component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or healthcare reform law commonly referred to as the ACA. The ACA allows employers to reward workers who participate in wellness programs, and penalize those who refuse, with discounts or increases of as much as 30 percent of their insurance costs." 4 As a result, many of the workplace wellness programs tend to focus on nutrition and weight management activities as well as modify student behaviour and balance the needs of different user groups are cited as stressors." 14 Another recent study surveyed librarians to identify possible stressors such as role ambiguity, role overload, perceived stress, burnout, life satisfaction, work withdrawal, and health conditions. The findings of the study showed that academic librarians largely reported role ambiguity and role overload as common stressors in the profession. 15 The authors of that study defined "role ambiguity" as stemming from "unclear expectations about specific job-related responsibilities" and "role overload" as the perception of a job to be excessively demanding with the requirement to work harder, longer, and/or faster.
Wellness in academic libraries has been discussed in literature as an additional service that libraries can provide to their users. Some academic libraries have embraced the idea of wellness as a user service and outreach strategy in part because of their close connection to student life and student success on campus. Hinchliffe and Wong discuss using a "wellness wheel" approach for shifting an academic library's services to an integrative learning and student-centered endeavor. Possible ways of adopting a "wellness wheel" approach include partnering with other campus departments to bring wellness services into the library, developing collections to support a lay understanding of different wellness concepts, and creating wellness-related outreach focused on high-stress times in the academic calendar, such as finals week. 16 Mills and Lodge suggest that information professionals use the concepts of Emotional Intelligence and an understanding of the information environment to create positive librarian-user interactions. 17 However, when addressing wellness in the work of academic library workers, few studies have been published that holistically examine the ways workers, from students to top-level administration, view workplace wellness at their organization and that examine their own wellness beliefs and habits. One example of such a study focuses on the job satisfaction of professional and paraprofessional library staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study notes that differences in levels of satisfaction largely suggest that academic library professionals are more satisfied than their paraprofessional counterparts in the areas of work enjoyment, coworkers, promotion, pay, and overall satisfaction. 18

Dimensions of Wellness
Traditionally, the concept of wellness is viewed from two perspectives. The "clinical tradition" focuses on dealing with depression, anxiety, and stress, while the "psychological tradition" is about life satisfaction. 19 Dr. Bill Hettler followed the "psychological tradition" of wellness and created a model of an "active process through which the individual becomes aware of and makes choices toward a more successful existence." 20 He maintained that "wellness" could be divided into 6 basic dimensions: 1) Intellectual wellness measures the degree to which one engages his or her mind in creative, stimulating mental activities. An intellectually well person uses the resources available to expand his or her knowledge in improved skills, along with expanding potential for sharing with others. 2) Emotional wellness measures the degree to which one has an awareness and acceptance for one's feelings. This includes the degree to which one feels positive and enthusiastic about oneself and life. It measures the capacity to appropriately control one's feelings and related behavior, including the realistic assessment of one's limitations. 3) Physical wellness measures the degree to which one maintains cardiovascular flexibility and strength; the behaviors that help one to prevent and detect early illnesses; and the degree to which one chooses foods that are consistent with the dietary goals as prescribed by physicians and nutritionists.

4)
Social wellness measures the degree to which one contributes to the common welfare of one's community. 5) Occupational wellness measures the satisfaction gained from one's work and the degree to which one is enriched by that work. 6) Spiritual wellness measures one's ongoing involvement in seeking meaning and purpose in human existence. It includes a deep appreciation for the depth and expanse of life and natural forces that exist in the universe. 21 For this study, the concept of "wellness" will refer to this multifaceted definition of holistic wellness that focuses beyond the scope of physical health and illness prevention.

Participants
To reach a range of academic library employees, the survey was distributed to the e-mail lists and Facebook pages listed in appendix A. The invitation included an explanation of the survey, a statement of the goal of the project, and a hyperlink to the survey. The survey (see appendix B), which was administered through Qualtrics, included a consent form and 20 questions consisting of a mix of multiple choice, ranking, yes/no, and open-ended questions. Upon completion of the survey, participants were presented with a message thanking them for their time. The survey was active between January 17 and February 13, 2015. Of the 1,123 total respondents, 906 fully completed the survey. Participation in the survey was voluntary. As an incentive for completing the survey, participants were presented with the option to enter a drawing for one of two $25 Amazon gift cards (provided out of personal funds of the co-investigators). Only respondents who chose to record their e-mail addresses in the survey were entered into the drawing. To protect respondents' confidentiality, all identifying information was stripped from responses before analysis, leaving no way to tie responses to a particular e-mail address. All other responses were completely anonymous. The survey instrument was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of University of Alabama, which was one of the researchers' institutions at the time of survey distribution.

Survey Design
The survey questionnaire began with a screening question that required respondents to indicate the type of library in which they worked. Respondents who do not work at academic libraries are directed to a thank-you message and the end of the survey. The research design of this study was nonexperimental. It sought to examine the correlational relationships of library employees' perceptions of wellness and their behavior contributing toward their well-being, as well as their outlook on life and demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, position in their organization, and the size of their libraries). An additional aim of the survey was to explore library employees' views of the role of academic libraries in promoting and providing wellness support to users and to explore some of the workplace wellness programs provided to the respondents. These data and results will be presented in a separate paper. The focus of this paper is on analyzing library employees' perception of wellness and their behavioral and perceptional aspects of the survey data.

Results
The research objective of this study was to investigate 1) whether library employees are feeling overwhelmed; 2) If so, what are the possible causes? What actions are they taking to relieve the feeling? and 3) How much do library employees value the different dimensions of wellness and their behavior in achieving wellness in the different dimensions?
The survey begins with a screening question asking respondents to indicate what types of libraries they worked at. A total of 1,098 individuals responded. Respondents who selected "nonacademic" (n = 2) were directed to the end of the survey. Of the remaining respondents, 75 percent (n = 819) selected "four-year academic library", 11 percent (n = 126) selected "two-year academic," and 14 percent (n = 151) selected the "other academic library" option. This distribution is shown in figure 1.
The survey identified respondents' current positions at their libraries. Of the 974 individuals who responded to this question, 72 percent (n = 697) indicated that they were in Professional Librarian positions, which was by far the largest group, followed by Administration (16%; n = 151), and Support Staff (10%; n = 96). A small percentage, 1 percent (n = 11) were Student Employees.
Respondents were also asked to indicate their gender and age. Of the 969 responses, 13 percent were Male (n = 128), and 87 percent were Female (n = 841); 4 percent were 25 years old and under (n = 34), 33 percent were between 26 and 35 years old (n = 317), 24 percent were between 36 and 45 years old (n = 235), 19 percent were between 46 and 55 years old (n = 180), and 21 percent were 56 years old and over (n = 203). This distribution of respondents' age is shown in figure 2.
Respondents were asked to indicate how long they have worked in libraries. Of the 972 responses, 3 percent (n = 28) indicated less than 1 year. A total of 26 percent

FIGURE 1
At which type of institution do you work?
The survey asked respondents to indicate how optimistic or pessimistic they would characterize themselves. Out of 1,085 responses, only 1 percent (n = 8) characterize themselves as "very pessimistic," while a much larger percentage of the respondents (18%; n = 199) characterized themselves as "very optimistic." Seventeen percent (n = 180) characterized themselves as "somewhat pessimistic," and a similar percentage of people (14%; n = 154) saw themselves as "neither pessimistic nor optimistic." The largest group of respondents (50%; n = 544) saw themselves as "somewhat optimistic." This distribution is shown in figure 3.
Respondents were asked how often they felt overwhelmed in the past 6 months. Out of 1,081 responses, the largest percentage (48%; n = 524) answered "sometimes," followed by "frequently" (34%; n = 370). Four percent (n = 45) reported that they always felt overwhelmed, while 12 percent (n = 129) rarely felt overwhelmed, and 1 percent (n = 13) never felt overwhelmed in the past 6 months. This distribution is shown in figure 4.

FIGURE 3
How would you characterize yourself?

FIGURE 4
In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed?
The survey then asked respondents to rank which of the following (Health, Family, Work, Life Fulfillment, Finance, and Other) typically overwhelmed them the most ("1" being the most overwhelming, and "6" being the least overwhelming). There were 1,003 responses to this question, and the largest number of respondents selected "Work" as the number one most overwhelming aspect (n = 455). A low mean value (0-6) indicates higher rankings of the aspect overall. "Work" has a mean value of 2.12, which is noticeably lower than all the other aspects ("Finance" = 3.11; "Family" = 3.11; "Life Fulfillment" = 3.45; "Health" = 3.49; and "Other" = 5.71).
Respondents were asked what they tend to do when they feel overwhelmed. A list of 22 choices were given, and the respondents were asked to select all that applied. A total of 1,035 respondents replied to this question. The number one answer was "Eat More" (49%; n = 506), followed closely by "Avoid Social Interactions" (47%; n = 491), and "Watch TV/Movies" (44%; n = 460). "Eat Less Healthy (40%; n = 418) and "Sleep Less" (40%; n = 416) rounded up the top five responses. At the other end of the responses, answers with the fewest selection were mostly contradictory activities to the top five choices; they were therefore consistent with their overall results. The bottom five answers were "Smoke More" (2%; n = 23), "Eat Healthier" (3%; n = 35), "Eat Less (7%; n = 74), "Socialize with Others" (7%; n = 75), and Meditate (9%; n = 95). This distribution is shown in figure 5.

FIGURE 5 When I feel overwhelmed. I tend to (check all that apply)
Next the researchers were interested in determining the importance of each wellness dimension to the respondents. The choices were: 1) Eating healthy (physical wellness); 2) Exercising regularly (physical wellness); 3) Pursuing continuing education for my career (occupational wellness); 4) Giving (social wellness); 5) Living consistently with my values and beliefs (spiritual wellness); 6) Being optimistic (emotional wellness); and 7) Challenging my mind with intellectual and creative pursuit (intellectual wellness).
Respondents were given five choices from "Very Important" (value = 5) to "Not Very Important" (value = 1). The middle three values were "Somewhat Important" (value = 2), "Moderately Important" (value = 3), and "Important" (value = 4). As there is not negative importance, the authors used a unipolar five-point scale. The choices were presented at the top of a matrix table with increasing values from left to right. The endpoints of the response scale were maximally differentiated. The authors adhered to the common Likert scale practice of assigning "somewhat important" a lower value than "moderately important." 22 A high mean value indicates respondents consider the activity important. Out of the seven activities, "Living consistently with my values and beliefs" has the highest mean value (4.19), followed closely by "Challenging my mind with intellectual and creative pursuit" (4.14) and "Eating healthy" (4.08). The activity with the lowest mean value is "Pursuing continuing education for my career" (3.38). The full table is shown in figure 6.
When comparing what respondents considered important with how often respondents engage in those activities, the results are consistent. When asked how frequently they engage in these activities, respondents were given five choices from "A great deal" (value = 5) to "Not at all" (value = 1). The middle three values were "Quite a bit" (value = 4), "Somewhat" (value = 3), and "Very little" (value = 2). As there is not negative frequency, the authors used a unipolar five-point scale. The choices were presented at the top of a matrix table with increasing values from left to right. The endpoints of the response scale are maximally differentiated. The authors adhered to the common Likert scale practice of assigning "Quite a bit" a lower value than "A great deal." 23 A higher mean value indicates that respondents engage more frequently in the activity. Out of the seven activities, "Living consistently with my values and beliefs"

FIGURE 6
How important are these activities to you? has the highest mean value (3.98), followed closely by "Eating healthy" (3.83), and "Challenging my mind with intellectual and creative pursuit" (3.75). The activity with the lowest mean value is Giving (such as contribute to the common welfare of our community, live in harmony with others; donating time, money, talent; practicing kindness) (3.18). This distribution is shown in figure 7.

Analysis of Data and Discussions
Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (20, N = 976) = 0.01, P = .05) between how many hours respondents worked in a typical week and the number of full-time employees working in the respondent's library building. Respondents who work in libraries with a higher number of employees tend to work more hours in a typical week. While not captured in this study, a possible

FIGURE 7
How frequently do you engage in these activities? explanation could be that libraries with a higher number of employees are likely to be serving larger user populations, and therefore require more staff power to operate.
With the trend of library budgets being stagnant or decreasing in recent years, it is very possible that larger libraries, even with a higher number of staff and librarians, are still short staffed, which results in their employees working longer hours on average.
Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (20, N = 1081) = 0.00, P = .05) between how many hours respondents work in a typical week and how often they felt overwhelmed in the last 6 months. Respondents who work "51-60 hours" or "60 hours or more" tend to feel overwhelmed much more frequently than respondents who work fewer hours in a typical week, including those who work a more "regular" schedule of 31-40 hours per week.

FIGURE 9 In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Respondents who work over 60 hours a week)
This could mean that library employees in larger libraries are more prone to feeling overwhelmed.
Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is no statistically significant relationship (X 2 (4, N = 969) = 0.29, P = .05) between gender and how respondents characterize themselves (as optimistic or pessimistic); nor is there a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (4, N = 969) = 0.74, P = .05) between gender and how many hours respondents work in a typical week. However, Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (4, N = 969) = 0.00, P = .05) between gender and how often respondents felt overwhelmed in the last 6 months.
Female respondents tend to be more frequently overwhelmed in the past 6 months than male respondents. According to the survey on Stress and Gender 24 from the American Psychological Association (APA), "women are more likely than men to report that their stress levels are on the rise. They are also much more likely than men to report physical and emotional symptoms of stress." In APA's data, "Almost half of

FIGURE 10
In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Male respondents)

FIGURE 11 In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Female respondents)
all women (49 percent) surveyed said their stress has increased over the past five years, compared to four in 10 (39 percent) men." The difference of the percentage is similar to the finding on academic library employees.
Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (16, N = 1079) = 0.00, P = .05) between how the respondents characterize themselves and how often they felt overwhelmed in the last 6 months. The pattern suggests that the more optimistic respondents tend to feel overwhelmed less frequently than the pessimistic respondents.
While this finding could suggest that a positive attitude could have a positive effect on countering stress or feeling overwhelmed, it is also possible that respondents were more optimistic because they felt less stress in their work or in general.
Chi-square statistical analysis also shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (16, N = 969) = 0.02, P = .05) between respondents' ages and how often they felt overwhelmed in the last 6 months. The pattern indicates that respondents

FIGURE 12
In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Respondents who characterize themselves as very optimistic)

FIGURE 13
In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Respondents who characterize themselves as somewhat optimistic) "56 years and older" tend to feel overwhelmed less frequently than respondents in the "26-35" and "36-45" age ranges. There is also a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (16, N = 969) = 0.00, P = .05) between respondents' ages and how they characterize themselves. Respondents in the "26-35" and "36-45" age groups tend to be more pessimistic overall than the other age groups.
There is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (20, N = 969) = 0.00, P = .05) between respondents' ages and how many hours they spend on work in a typical week. However, even though a higher percentage of respondents "56 years old and over" work more than 41 hours a week than the other age groups, the group as a whole felt overwhelmed less frequently than the younger groups. These two findings are also consistent with the online survey of 2,020 U.S. adults, conducted in 2013 by Harris Interactive for APA, which finds that the Millennials generation (aged 18-33) reported higher than average stress. The APA survey finds that 19 percent of Millennials have been told they have depression, compared with 14 percent of Generation Xers (ages 34-47); 12 percent of Baby Boomers (ages 48-66) and 11 percent of those ages 67 and older. 25

FIGURE 14
In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Respondents who characterize themselves as neither optimistic nor pessimistic)

FIGURE 15 In the last 6 months, how often did you feel overwhelmed? (Respondents who characterize themselves as somewhat pessimistic)
These relationships could suggest several possible causes: 1) Respondents work longer hours because their workload is heavier than others and need more time to complete their work. Respondents who are younger might be more aggressive in taking on more work, as they are either at the beginning or the prime of their careers. A higher workload is therefore the main cause of their feeling overwhelmed. This reasoning could also explain why the oldest group, who worked longer hours than other groups, did not feel overwhelmed as frequently as some other groups. 2) Respondents work longer hours because they are not as productive as others and find it difficult to complete their work in the regular work hours; therefore, they have to work longer hours. Younger respondents might be less proficient in their work at the earlier stages of their career and are still learning. They feel overwhelmed because of their lack of competency. Applied to the oldest group, who might possibly be the most experienced, this reasoning could also explain why they did not feel overwhelmed as often. 3) Respondents work longer hours because they feel obligated to be at work or doing work outside regular work hours. Younger respondents who are at earlier stages of their career might want to impress their supervisors by working longer hours. The perception of obligation is therefore the main cause of feeling overwhelmed in this scenario. Future studies could ask more in-depth questions on causes of respondents feeling overwhelmed. In terms of how respondents value the different dimensions of wellness, Chi-square statistical analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship (X 2 (16, N = 969) = 0.03, P = .05) between respondents' ages and how important is "Eating Healthy" (physical wellness) to them. A much higher percentage of respondents in the "56 and over" age group viewed it as "very important" than other age groups, while the two youngest age groups (25 and under, and 26-35) have the lowest percentage of respondents selecting "very important" as their answers. However, there is no statistically significant relationship (X 2 (16, N = 963) = 0.22, P = .05) between respondents' ages and how frequently they engage in "Eating Healthy." As people age, it makes sense to be more aware of the importance of a healthy diet. However, since there is no statistically significant relationship between respondents' ages and how frequently they actually eat healthy, it could be said that simply having the awareness of the importance of a healthy diet does not necessarily translate to the behavior of eating healthy.
There are also significant statistical relationships between age and "Pursuing continuing education for my career" (X 2 (16, N = 969) = 0.00, P = .05); "Giving" (X 2 (16, N = 969) = 0.00, P = .05); "Being Optimistic" (X 2 (16, N = 966) = 0.00, P = .05). The younger respondents tend to place more importance on pursuing continued education for their career than their older colleagues, which makes sense as the younger respondents are likely to be in the growth period of their careers. Respondents in the "26-35" and "36-45" age groups have the lowest percentage of people selecting "Very Important" for "Giving." The same two age groups also tend to place less importance in "Being Optimistic." One interpretation of this finding is that the age groups might not have the financial security to allow them to "give" at this stage of their lives. From starting and/or raising families, to possibly not commanding high salaries at this stage of their lives, it is also understandable to not feeling optimistic or placing a lot of importance on the giving dimension of wellness.

Conclusions and Future Directions
This study reveals that most academic library employees feel overwhelmed quite frequently. While age and working overtime are factors, the attitude of the individual also has an impact. Work is the number one cause of respondents feeling overwhelmed. When respondents felt overwhelmed, they tended to "Eat More," "Avoid Social Interactions," "Watch TV/Movies," "Eat Less Healthy," and "Sleep Less." Age again seems to be an important factor regarding respondents' perception of the different dimensions of wellness. It could be argued that people in different stages of their lives place different values on the different dimensions of wellness. For example, younger respondents tend to value continuing education more than their older counterparts do, and the older respondents place more importance on eating healthy than their younger colleagues do. Overall, respondents placed higher importance on their spiritual wellness and intellectual wellness than physical wellness.
Further research into what affects academic library employee wellness can include an examination of the different types of academic libraries. Does the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (that is, Research University versus community college) have an impact on perceptions and attitudes toward wellness? For Professional Librarians, does faculty status (tenure vs. non-tenure track) or academic professional/staff status have an impact on wellness? What relationship does the student to librarian or student to library worker ratio have on academic library employee wellness? Additional investigation of this nature could prove valuable for academic libraries and institutions of Higher Education as employers to develop programs and policies to support employee wellness.
As this study suggests, library employees value more than just the physical aspect of wellness. The next step for the researchers will be to explore the potential of workplace wellness programs that cater to multiple dimensions of wellness by analyzing the data collected in the survey on the types of workplace wellness programs offered by the respondents' employers and the types of workplace wellness programs respondents would personally be interested in. Additional research would need to be conducted on workplace wellness efforts in both libraries and other industries that extend benefiting employees beyond physical wellness. The results of this study are important to academic libraries because they show that simply focusing on the physical aspect of wellness may not be the most effective way to support library employees. With the knowledge that library employees highly value living consistently with their values and beliefs, libraries could positively affect their employees' spiritual wellness by creating shared visions, paying attention to their motivation, personal life vision, and career goals. In addition, library employees value challenging their minds with intellectual and creative pursuits. Libraries could provide suitable professional development opportunities and support to help positively affect intellectual wellness as well.

Bibliography
Ardell, D.B. "The History and Future of Wellness." Health Values 9, no. 6 (1985) We are conducting this survey to learn more about the perceptions and behaviors of people who work academic libraries in the concept of work/life quality and wellness. If you decide to participate, you will take a survey that should take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
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Contact: If you have any questions or concerns about this study, you can contact us at: Leo Lo at leolo@ua.edu or Bethany Tschaepe at tschaepeb@uhd.edu. You are under no obligation to participate in this study.
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