Give me a better break: Choosing workday break activities to maximize resource recovery.

Abstract

Surprisingly little research investigates employee breaks at work, and even less research provides prescriptive suggestions for better workday breaks in terms of when, where, and how break activities are most beneficial. Based on the effort-recovery model and using experience sampling methodology, we examined the characteristics of employee workday breaks with 95 employees across 5 workdays. In addition, we examined resources as a mediator between break characteristics and well-being. Multilevel analysis results indicated that activities that were preferred and earlier in the work shift related to more resource recovery following the break. We also found that resources mediated the influence of preferred break activities and time of break on health symptoms and that resource recovery benefited person-level outcomes of emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. Finally, break length interacted with the number of breaks per day such that longer breaks and frequent short breaks were associated with more resources than infrequent short breaks.

Recovery during Lunch Breaks: Testing Long-Term Relations with Energy Levels at Work

“…We recommend that future studies, with longitudinal designs enabling appropriate mediation analysis, test whether lunchtime recovery experiences mediate the effects of lunchtime settings and activities on recovery. One earlier study found that spending the break inside versus outside one's office (outside = in the same building or outside the building) did not have an effect on recovery after breaks during the working day (Hunter & Wu, 2016). As our results suggest that where lunch breaks are spent could matter, it is important to note that our measure (outside = outside the office building) was different from the one used by Hunter and Wu (2016).…”

“…Research has shown that emotional exhaustion predicts mental and physical illness, such as depression and cardiovascular diseases (Ahola, 2007), as well as increased sickness absence (Toppinen-Tanner, Ojajärvi, Väänänen, Kalimo, & Jäppinen, 2005). Hunter and Wu (2016) found that resource recovery during workday breaks across one working week was associated with lower levels of exhaustion at the end of the week. As far as we know, the long-term effects between poor recovery during lunch breaks and exhaustion have not yet been examined.…”

“…More specifically, autonomy during lunch breaks was recognized as a moderator between lunch break activities and recovery outcomes: autonomy strengthened the positive effects of the activities. In addition, preferred work break activities have been associated with increased resources after the break (Hunter & Wu, 2016). Therefore break characteristics that enhance psychological detachment from work and allow control, may provide beneficial setting for recovery.…”

“…One earlier study found that spending the break inside versus outside one's office (outside = in the same building or outside the building) did not have an effect on recovery after breaks during the working day (Hunter & Wu, 2016). As our results suggest that where lunch breaks are spent could matter, it is important to note that our measure (outside = outside the office building) was different from the one used by Hunter and Wu (2016). Therefore we suggest that future studies use more comprehensive measures in differentiating where breaks are spent to disentangle these differing results.…”

“…When looking at recovery research on where breaks are spent, a recent 5-day diary study found no difference between spending breaks inside or outside the office in terms of resource recovery (Hunter & Wu, 2016). However, in this study carried out among 95 university staff members, the outside condition also included different spaces inside the office building (e.g., a break room), which may not offer as beneficial conditions for detachment from work as spaces outside the office building (e.g., a café or restaurant).…”