Can we recover at work? : exploring on-the-job recovery

Abstract

Research has extensively documented the negative consequences associated with the experience of stress. An expanding body of psychological research has focused on the concept of recovery, and suggests that individuals can help mitigate the impact of stress during the workday by engaging in recovery activities during leisure time. To date, research has almost exclusively focused on the benefits of recovery during off-work time. As such, the potential to pursue recovery while on-the-job has yet to be thoroughly investigated. The present study served three purposes. Study 1 consisted of the development of a measure of on-the-job recovery. Similar to research on off-job recovery, there is evidence for a four-factor model of on-the-job recovery consisting of mastery, control, relaxation and distraction activities. The goal of Study 2 was the validation of the newly developed On-the-Job Recovery scale (OTJR), and an analysis of the predictive ability of OTJR above and beyond a measure of off-job recovery. Results provided evidence that on-the-job recovery can be conceptualized as a distinct recovery experience, and offers unique prediction of important organizational and individual characteristics. Study 3 examined the daily relationships between on-the-job recovery activities and measures of need for recovery and situational well-being through the administration of a daily diary survey. Although multilevel analyses assessing the impact of time indicate that the time-varying effects of the OTJR subscales are small, there was evidence that OTJR does play an important role in situational well-being and the need for recovery dependent upon the workday. Taken together, the results suggest that on-the-job recovery represents an important expansion of the recovery literature and may represent a cost-effective strategy that can be implemented by organizations to support employee health and well-being.