Recovery From Work

Recovery From Work

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

Time away from work in which a person steps back from it.

What it is

In a daily-diary study of 147 employees over five workdays, recovery on one day was linked with work engagement and proactive behaviour on the following workday. The design is correlational.

In effect

The article on why burnout hits people who like their jobs uses it to explain why a liked job still needs a point at which work steps back.

What it does not say

The design is correlational, so the link between recovery and next-day engagement does not show that recovery causes it. The sample was 147 employees over five workdays.

Sources

  1. Sonnentag, S. (2003). Recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: A new look at the interface between nonwork and work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(3), 518-528.