Summary
This paper reviews empirical evidence on psychological detachment from work during nonwork time. Psychological detachment as a core recovery experience refers to refraining from job-related activities and thoughts during nonwork time; it implies to mentally disengage from one's job while being away from work. Using the stressor-detachment model as an organizing framework, we describe findings from between-person and within-person studies, relying on cross-sectional, longitudinal, and daily-diary designs. Overall, research shows that job stressors, particularly workload, predict low levels of psychological detachment. A lack of detachment in turn predicts high strain levels and poor individual well-being (e.g., burnout and lower life satisfaction). Psychological detachment seems to be both a mediator and a moderator in the relationship between job stressors on the one hand and strain and poor well-being on the other hand. We propose possible extensions of the stressor-detachment model by suggesting moderator variables grounded in the transactional stress model. We further discuss avenues for future research and offer practical implications. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework

Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers' self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Self-discipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.

Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective.

Physical activity and depression: Towards understanding the antidepressant mechanisms of physical activity.

Domain-Specific Physical Activity and Mental Health: A Meta-analysis.

Job-stress recovery during nonwork time is an important factor for employee well-being. This article reviews the recovery literature, starting with a brief historical overview. It provides a definition of recovery that differentiates between recovery as a process and recovery as an outcome. Empirical studies have shown that recovery activities (e.g., physical exercise) and recovery experiences (e.g., psychological detachment from work) are negatively associated with strain symptoms (e.g., exhaustion) and positively associated with positive well-being indicators (e.g., vigor). Recovery activities and recovery experiences suffer when employees face a high level of job stressors. Psychological mechanisms underlying recovery seem to be similar across different temporal recovery settings (e.g., work breaks, free evenings, vacations) and seem to be enhanced in natural environments. Intervention studies have pointed to a diverse set of strategies for how everyday job-stress recovery can be supported. This article discusses 5 avenues for future research, with a particular focus on individual and contextual factors that may influence recovery as well as highlighting more complex temporal patterns than those uncovered in previous research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Advances in recovery research: What have we learned? What should be done next?

In this diary study, we tested the recovery potential of exercise activities during leisure time and examined the psychological mechanisms underlying the relation between exercise activities and affect. We hypothesized that spending time on exercise activities after work will be related to subsequent affect in the evening, and that psychological detachment from work, sense of belonging, and physical self-perceptions explain why exercise activities are related to subsequent affect. One-hundred and twenty-six participants from diverse occupations completed a diary twice a day over five consecutive work days. Multilevel analyses showed that exercise activities after work were related to positive, but not to negative affect in the evening. As proposed, psychological detachment, sense of belonging, and physical self-perceptions mediated the relation between exercise activities after work and positive affect in the evening.

Exercise after work, psychological mediators, and affect: A day-level study.

Summary
This study investigates antecedents of procrastination, the tendency to delay the initiation or completion of work activities. We examine this phenomenon from a self-regulation perspective and argue that depleted self-regulatory resources are an important pathway to explain why and when employees procrastinate. The restoration of self-regulatory resources during episodes of non-work is a prerequisite for the ability to initiate action at work. As sleep offers the opportunity to replenish self-regulatory resources, employees should procrastinate more after nights with low-quality sleep and shorter sleep duration. We further propose that people's social sleep lag amplifies this relationship. Social sleep lag arises if individuals' preference for sleep and wake times, known as their chronotype, is misaligned with their work schedule. Over five consecutive workdays, 154 participants completed a diary study comprising online questionnaires. Multilevel analyses showed that employees procrastinated less on days when they had slept better. The more employees suffered from social sleep lag, the more they procrastinated when sleep quality was low. Day-specific sleep duration, by contrast, was not related to procrastination. We discuss the role of sleep for procrastination in the short run and relate our findings to research highlighting the role of sleep for well-being in the long run. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

http://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5964&context=lkcsb_research

When do you procrastinate? Sleep quality and social sleep lag jointly predict self-regulatory failure at work

Interaction effects of effort–reward imbalance and overcommitment on emotional exhaustion and job performance.

Ambulatory assessments of hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis responses to acute natural stressors yield evidence on stress regulation with high ecological validity. Sampling of salivary cortisol is a standard technique in this field.



In 21 healthy student teachers, we assessed cortisol responses to a demonstration lesson. On a control day, sampling was repeated at analogous times. Additionally, the cortisol awakening response (CAR) was assessed on both days. Participants were also exposed to a laboratory stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test, and rated their individual levels of chronic work stress.



In pre-to-post-stress assessment, cortisol levels declined after the lesson. However, post-stress cortisol levels were significantly higher compared with those on the control day. Also, the Trier Social Stress Test yielded higher cortisol responses when using the control day as reference baseline. Associations between the CAR and chronic stress measures were observed solely on the control day. There were no significant associations between cortisol responses to the natural and laboratory stressors.



Our results indicate that a control day might be an important complement in laboratory but especially in ambulatory stress research. Furthermore, associations between chronic stress measures and the CAR might be obscured by acute stress exposure. Finally, responses to the laboratory stressor do not seem to mirror natural stress responses. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cortisol responses to naturalistic and laboratory stress in student teachers: comparison with a non-stress control day.

We investigate how emotional exhaustion (EE), the core component of burnout, relates to cognitive performance, job performance and health. Cognitive performance was assessed by self-rated cognitive stress symptoms, self-rated and peer-rated cognitive impairments in everyday tasks and a neuropsychological test of learning and memory (LGT-3); job performance and physical health were gauged by self-reports. Cross-sectional linear regression analyses in a sample of 100 teachers confirm that EE is negatively related to cognitive performance as assessed by self-rating and peer-rating as well as neuropsychological testing (all p < .05). Longitudinal linear regression analyses confirm similar trends (p < .10) for self-rated and peer-rated cognitive performance. Executive control deficits might explain impaired cognitive performance in EE. In longitudinal analyses, EE also significantly predicts physical health. Contrary to our expectations, EE does not affect job performance. When reversed causation is tested, none of the outcome variables at Time 1 predict EE at Time 2. This speaks against cognitive dysfunctioning serving as a vulnerability factor for exhaustion. In sum, results underpin the negative consequences of EE for cognitive performance and health, which are relevant for individuals and organizations alike. In this way, findings might contribute to the understanding of the burnout syndrome. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Nicolas Feuerhahn

Papers

Exercise after work, psychological mediators, and affect: A day-level study.

When do you procrastinate? Sleep quality and social sleep lag jointly predict self-regulatory failure at work

Interaction effects of effort–reward imbalance and overcommitment on emotional exhaustion and job performance.

Cortisol responses to naturalistic and laboratory stress in student teachers: comparison with a non-stress control day.

Emotional Exhaustion and Cognitive Performance in Apparently Healthy Teachers: A Longitudinal Multi-source Study