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The effort-recovery model (based on Meijman, 1989; Van Veldhoven, 1996; Meijman & Mulder, 1998).
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Citations
... The effort-recovery theory suggests that periods of work with high demands and stress should be followed by a sufficient recovery to prevent effects that otherwise lead to a considerable need for recovery (NFR) [30]. NFR has been referred to as "a collection of symptoms, temporary feelings of overload, irritability, social withdrawal, lack of energy for new effort, and reduced performance" [31]. NFR is known as an important precursor to psychological overload and health problems [1,32,33]. ...
... Employees giving at least 6 positive answers, i.e., scoring ≥ 6/11 or 54.5%, were considered to have a high NFR, and respondents scoring less than this were considered to have a low NFR. This cut-off point has been proposed in previous studies, suggesting that employees with a 'high' NFR have a greater risk of developing physical and/or psychological health complaints [31,34,47]. ...
... However, the average NFR in the present study appeared higher than that in previous studies of office workers [34] and other occupations [1]. Approximately, one third of the employees reported to experience a 'high' NFR, a development which could have implications for health [31]. However, further investigations into this was beyond the scope of this study, but does represent an issue for future research studies. ...
Work time control may offer opportunities, but also implies risks for employee recovery, influenced by increased work-related ICT use and overtime work. However, this risk-opportunity tradeoff remains understudied. This study aimed to test two different models of associations between work time control, work-related ICT use, overtime work, and the need for recovery. These models were constructed based on data on office workers with flexible work arrangements. Cross-sectional data were obtained with questionnaires (n = 2582) from employees in a Swedish multi-site organization. Regression models treated the three determinants of the need for recovery either as independent, or as linked in a causal sequence. The test of independent determinants confirmed that more work time control was associated with less need for recovery, whereas more ICT use and overtime work were associated with a higher need for recovery. In a test of serial mediation, more work time control contributed to a greater need for recovery through more ICT use and then more overtime work. Work time control also had a competitive, indirect effect through a negative association with overtime work. Our results suggest that work time control is beneficial for employee recovery, but may for some be associated with more work-related ICT use after regular working hours, thus increasing recovery needs. Policies that support work time control can promote recovery, but employers must attend to the risk of excessive use of ICT outside of regular working hours.
... Given that emotional exhaustion can result from prolonged, inadequate recovery of resources expended at work (van Veldhoven, 2008), engaging in sustained WRE use during nonwork hours is likely to have an indirect relationship with emotional exhaustion through the mechanisms of psychological detachment and WFC. Psychological detachment has consistently been found to have a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion/burnout (Etzion et al., 1998;Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007;Sonnentag et al., 2010), with some studies supporting a mediating effect of WFC (Dettmers, 2017;Medrano & Trógolo, 2018). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employees to work from home (WFH) and more heavily rely on technology to conduct work, calling for further empirical investigation into the effects of work-related technology and the WFH environment on employee wellbeing. This study investigates the relationship between work-related email (WRE) use during nonwork hours and emotional exhaustion in a sample of U.S. employees required to WFH during the pandemic, with results suggesting that psychological detachment and work-family conflict (WFC) play important roles in this relationship. Furthermore, telepressure (i.e., the preoccupation/urge to promptly respond to WRE) moderated the relationship between WRE use and psychological detachment, which offers insight into the psychological processes behind WRE use after hours. Direct and indirect effects between WRE use and emotional exhaustion were also compared to effects generated using data from an independent sample of pre-pandemic in-office employees to determine whether the pandemic context has amplified the observed relationships. Results show that all direct/indirect effects, except for the effect of WRE use after hours on psychological detachment, were stronger in those required to WFH. These findings shed light onto the similarities and differences between the current and pre-pandemic work landscapes and have important implications for lawmakers, organizational leaders, and employees.
... Another instrument is the 'Recovery Experience Questionnaire' (REQ; Sonnentag 2007) drawing on mood regulation and job-stress recovery literature, it assesses how individuals recuperate and unwind from work. Both the NfR and REQ scales presented good psychometric properties (Sonnentag 2007;van Veldhoven 2008). Although it is important to have measurement instruments with good validity evidence (American Educational Research Association 2014), it is not enough and one should be able to decide which intervention to choose based on evidence. ...
ObjectivesThis is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To compare the effectiveness of different individual interventions in recovery from work.
... To complement this biological and neuroendocrinological perspective on the negative long-term health effects of stress and provide a framework for how short-term spillover effects of stress accumulate the need for a recovery concept be introduced [16]. A need for recovery arises when an individual has problems using resources to adaptively cope with demands that induce stress [17]. Need for recovery is a conscious emotional state that is related to the temporal depletion of resources following effort to meet demands and is characterized by feelings of mental exhaustion [18]. ...
... These two hypothesized buffering effects are depicted as circles 1 and 2 in Figure 1, which represent the conceptual model for this study and were based on a previous publication [39]. The model is based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping [10], the Job Demands-Resources Model of Burnout [40], the Effort-Recovery Model [17], and the Conservation of Resources Theory [19]. In short, it depicts that demands are appraised as stress when resources are low, that stress leads to mental exhaustion when resources to cope with the demands are lacking, and that mental exhaustion limits resources to deal with future demands, unless there are sufficient recovery opportunities. ...
Background:
The emergence of smartphones and wearable sensor technologies enables opportunities to easily and unobtrusively monitor physiological and psychological data related to an individual's resilience. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has promise as a biomarker for resilience based on between-subject population studies, but observational studies that apply a within-subject design and use wearable sensors in order to observe HRV in a naturalistic context of real-life are needed.
Objective:
This study explores whether resting HRV and Total Sleep Time (TST) are indicative of and predictive for the within-day accumulation of the negative consequences of stress and mental exhaustion. The tested hypotheses are that (1) demands are positively associated with stress and resting HRV buffers against this association, (2) stress is positively associated with mental exhaustion and resting HRV buffers against this association, (3) stress negatively impacts subsequent-night Total Sleep Time (TST) and (4) prior-evening mental exhaustion negatively impacts resting HRV, while prior-night TST buffers against this association.
Methods:
Twenty-six interns used consumer-available wearables (Fitbit Charge 2 and Polar H7), a consumer-available smartphone app (Elite HRV), and an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) smartphone app to collect resilience-related data on resting HRV, TST, as well as perceived demands, stress and mental exhaustion on a daily basis during 15 weeks.
Results:
Multiple linear regression analysis of within-subject standardized data collected on 2379 unique person-days showed that having a high resting HRV buffered against the positive association between demands and stress (hypothesis 1), as well as between stress and mental exhaustion (hypothesis 2). Stress did not affect TST (hypothesis 3). Finally, mental exhaustion negatively predicted resting HRV on the subsequent morning, but TST did not buffer against this (hypothesis 4).
Conclusions:
To our knowledge, this study provides first evidence that having a low within-subject resting HRV may be both indicative of and predictive for the short-term accumulation of the negative effects of stress and mental exhaustion, potentially forming a negative feedback loop. If these findings can be replicated and expanded upon in future studies, they may contribute to the development of automated resilience interventions that monitor daily resting HRV and aim to give users an early warning signal when a negative feedback loop forms in order to prevent the negative impact of stress on long-term health outcomes.
Clinicaltrial:
... Thus, the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998) suggests that the investment of mental and physical resources to respond to job-related demands results in a depletion of resources (e.g., energy) and "a need to recover" (van Veldhoven, 2008). As recovery will only occur when the depleted systems are no longer taxed during off-job time, two experiences indispensable to the facilitation of successful recovery are psychological detachment from work and relaxation during off-job time . ...
This chapter focuses on intensified working life via the intensified job demands (IJDs) model from the perspective of recovery from work by paying particular attention to the potentially mediating and buffering roles of recovery in the linkages between IJDs and their consequences. In empirical analyses, we examined the buffering role of psychological detachment from work during off-job time in the relationship between intensified job demands and job performance and meaning of work. We found that high psychological detachment, as a recovery experience, buffered against work intensification over time in relation to job performance and meaning of work. Thus, good detachment from work during off-job time mitigated longitudinally the association between work intensification and job performance and meaning of work. However, overall the prospective buffering effects of detachment were modest in our two-wave data as were also the longitudinal direct effects of IJDs and psychological detachment on job performance and meaning of work. More research would be needed to test the suggested theoretical model more comprehensively.
... Regarding regularity and timing, Restorative Rounds, Slow Swimming, The Sabbath, and Singing in Community all highlight the need for regular weekly or daily engagement with the restorative space, while A Marking Holiday and A Rural Retreat suggest a more sporadic use of restorative spaces. While these differences may be a function of practicality, they may also highlight differing needs for recovery (van Veldhoven, 2008) or different psychological resource endowments (Halbesleben et al., 2014). ...
The nature of academic work has changed dramatically in recent decades, resulting in part in decreased well-being among faculty. In this article, we discuss these changes and their effects, with a focus on coping through restorative spaces. While faculty members may frequently conceal their restorative spaces in fear of how our time spent in them may be criticized, we seek to shed light on this important coping tool through sharing six unique restorative space narratives. Drawing from these vignettes, we encourage faculty members to share their own stories of restoration in their academic communities to counter the busyness narrative that pervades many academic spaces, and we call on colleges and universities to acknowledge and support the creation of restorative spaces for academics within their institutions.
... The Effort-Recovery Model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998) not only highlights the load effects of job demands, but places particular emphasis in the recovery process. The investment required to cope with these demands depletes the available resources and creates a need for recovery (van Veldhoven, 2008). ...
... We propose that, in light of the Effort-Recovery Model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), rumination mediates the relationship between both under-and over-stimulation at work and burnout. When facing a suboptimal condition at work (either bored or overloaded), an individual should have additional difficulties in the recovery process due to the 'load effects' (van Veldhoven, 2008), which should translate into higher levels of burnout. ...
Although boredom poses serious consequences for employees and organizations, research has paid little attention to this phenomenon, especially when compared to other job experiences such as overload. Building upon the Effort‐Recovery Model, our study examines the impact of these two sub‐optimal experiences, characterized by under‐ and over‐stimulation, on burnout via three facets of rumination. Using a time lagged design with three measurement moments and a sample of 152 participants, we found partial support for our hypotheses. Boredom and overload led to emotional exhaustion and disengagement two weeks later, via an increase in affective rumination. Overload also increased emotional exhaustion via reduced detachment, yet boredom reduced emotional exhaustion by facilitating detachment. These findings stress the importance of addressing boredom as a pervasive, although often silent, workplace phenomenon.
... This effort-reversal process takes place both within and between the work shifts and relates to an array of available opportunities to recover. Work breaks, holidays, and beginning and ending times of the workday all represent recovery opportunities ( Van Veldhoven 2008). For the next day at work to start without residual symptoms, the effort-reversal process of the worker has to be successfully completed on a daily basis (Demerouti et al. 2009). ...
... These researchers also identified long-term consequences in terms of a failing mechanism of recuperation. Moreover, Van Veldhoven (2008) described how long-term fatigue-related syndromes, for example, burnout or exhaustion, mean experiencing both a high NFR and an inability to recuperate. In line with this, the fact of two distinguishable states of fatigue-on one hand, exhaustion (Maslach et al. 1996), and on the other hand, NFR-has been confirmed (Siltaloppi et al. 2009). ...
... Logically, these causes of effort need also to be included in the amount of effort that is the subject of the reversal process. Van Veldhoven (2008), relying on Meijman (1989), described how different job characteristics such as situational characteristics affect how the work demands create load effects. Therefore, the total amount of cumulative effort that appears as NFR could in part be explained by the effort moderation or reversal. ...
Objective
To examine three levels of need for recovery (NFR) after work in relation to effort from work demands, demand compensatory strategies, effort-moderating or -reversing resources, and health including health behaviors. A further purpose was to examine occupational characteristics determining NFR.
Methods
5000 engineers, carpenters, nurses, and home care nurses were invited to participate. NFR k-means clusters were calculated from 1289 participants. The effect from three levels of NFR regarding demands, compensatory strategies, resources at work, health, and health behaviors was examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc analysis. Prevalence ratios (PRs) of suboptimal health for three levels of NFR were calculated using Poisson regression. Linear stepwise multiple regression predictors explaining NFR were examined also occupation wise.
Results
NFR centroids at 5.8/33, 13.1/33, and 21.0/33 points were identified. ANOVA showed corresponding effects from NFR levels on work demands and compensatory strategies. The inversed proportion concerned levels of resources at work. Only the low NFR cluster negated regular health effects. The other two cluster groups also repeatedly worked while ill and presented PRs concerning health effects from 1.9 to 3.9 when compared to the low NFR group. Making good quality work, recovery opportunities, and thinking of work when off work were the most important predictors of NFR among 1289 participants with also occupation-wise interpretable profiles.
Conclusions
Three levels of NFR meant corresponding levels of work demands, work-demand compensatory strategies, and unfavorable health behaviors. An inversed proportion of resources related to the same levels of NFR. Low NFR meant no regular health effects which could guide limit values regarding salutary NFR. Important predictors of NFR were resources making a good quality work, recovery opportunities, and reversely effort from rumination when off work. Occupation-wise predictors could guide interventions.
... It illustrates our hypotheses on how the accumulation of the negative consequences of stress has a cyclical nature and how it can contribute to a loss spiral. This framework is based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping [9], the Job Demands-Resources Model of Burnout [10], the Effort-Recovery Model [11] and the Conservation of Resources Theory [5]. ...
... Afterwards, an individual's need for recovery, characterized by feelings of exhaustion and reduced vigor to undertake new activities, depends on the individual's ability to utilize the available resources to adaptively cope with the demands [9] [10]. A high need for recovery (i.e., little vigor to undertake activities), has a negative impact on an individual's resources to appraise and cope with new demands -unless there is sufficient recovery to alleviate this effect [11]. Aside from causing a perceived need for recovery, stress can also decrease sleep quality [12] and psychological detachment [13], which are aspects of recovery [14]. ...
... Recovery refers to the recuperation from potential load effects after the exposure to certain demands [11]. The concept of recovery consists of two components that are known to limit the spillover of a perceived need for recovery from the previous day to the next day: (1) sleep and (2) being able to psychologically detach from work during leisure time [42]. ...
Occupational stress can cause health problems, productivity loss or absenteeism. Resilience interventions that help employees positively adapt to adversity can help prevent the negative consequences of occupational stress. Due to advances in sensor technology and smartphone applications, relatively unobtrusive self-monitoring of resilience-related outcomes is possible. With models that can recognize intra-individual changes in these outcomes and relate them to causal factors within the employee's context, an automated resilience intervention that gives personalized, just-in-time feedback can be developed. This paper presents the conceptual framework and methods behind the WearMe project, which aims to develop such models. A cyclical conceptual framework based on existing theories of stress and resilience is presented as the basis for the WearMe project. The operationalization of the concepts and the daily measurement cycle are described, including the use of wearable sensor technology (e.g., sleep tracking and heart rate variability measurements) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (mobile app). Analyses target the development of within-subject (n=1) and between-subjects models and include repeated measures correlation, multilevel modelling, time series analysis and Bayesian network statistics. Future work will focus on further developing these models and eventually explore the effectiveness of the envisioned personalized resilience system.
... To be specific, job demands may deplete the individual resources needed to carry out one's working duties, therefore inducing employees to face the necessity to recover and to experience a state of exhaustion [29]. Need for recovery has been defined as an early symptom of work-related fatigue that describes the early stages of strain accumulation and successively translates into a long-lasting condition of energy depletion, such as emotional exhaustion [30]. Consistent with this description, empirical research has revealed that intervention strategies aimed at reducing emotional exhaustion and fatigue are influenced by the initial level of need for recovery, since the latter represents an antecedent of persisting symptoms of work-related fatigue and exhaustion [31]. ...
... As far as the relationship between need for recovery and emotional exhaustion is concerned, our findings showed that need for recovery led to more emotional exhaustion 4 and 8 months later. This is consistent with the Effort-Recovery model [64], particularly with the assumption that need for recovery represents the early stages of strain accumulation (i.e., cumulative process) which may translate into long-term detrimental outcomes, such as health symptoms (e.g., emotional exhaustion), if the worker has not enough time and possibilities to recuperate [30]. ...
Academic literature has recognized teaching as a particularly stressful occupation, specifically, the research confirmed the central role of emotional dissonance in the experience of emotional exhaustion. Albeit previous studies confirm the existence of circular dynamics involving job demands and individual's well-being, studies focusing on the long-term relationships between job demands, need for recovery, and emotional exhaustion are still lacking. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore how emotional dissonance, need for recovery, and emotional exhaustion are related over time. By using the general framework of the health impairment process of the Job Demands-Resources model, these paths were investigated by means of a three-wave longitudinal design (n = 107 schoolteachers). Results of structural equation modeling analyses generally supported our hypotheses. Specifically, it was found that the model with reciprocal relationships between emotional dissonance and exhaustion on the one hand, and between need for recovery and exhaustion on the other, exhibited the best fit with the data.
