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Daily Recovery Experiences: The Role of Volunteer Work During Leisure Time

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Eva J. Mojza
Eva J. Mojza
Eva J. Mojza
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Christian Lorenz
Christian Lorenz
Christian Lorenz
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Sabine Sonnentag at University of Mannheim
Sabine Sonnentag
Carmen Binnewies at University of Münster
Carmen Binnewies
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Abstract

This study focused on the role of volunteer work for daily recovery from work. In a 1-week diary study with 166 employees, we assessed the amount of time spent on volunteer work during leisure time, and the recovery facets of psychological detachment from work (i.e., mentally switching off from work), mastery experiences (i.e., pursuing challenging activities), and community experiences (i.e., cultivating relationships) every day before participants went to bed. Results from hierarchical linear modeling (n = 529 days) showed volunteer work during leisure time to be positively related to mastery experiences and community experiences suggesting volunteer work to contribute to successful recovery by creating new resources.
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Daily Recovery Experiences:
The Role of Volunteer Work During Leisure Time
Eva J. Mojza, Christian Lorenz,
and Sabine Sonnentag
University of Konstanz
Carmen Binnewies
University of Mainz
This study focused on the role of volunteer work for daily recovery from work. In a 1-week diary
study with 166 employees, we assessed the amount of time spent on volunteer work during leisure
time, and the recovery facets of psychological detachment from work (i.e., mentally switching off
from work), mastery experiences (i.e., pursuing challenging activities), and community experi-
ences (i.e., cultivating relationships) every day before participants went to bed. Results from
hierarchical linear modeling (n⫽529 days) showed volunteer work during leisure time to be
positively related to mastery experiences and community experiences suggesting volunteer work
to contribute to successful recovery by creating new resources.
Keywords: recovery, psychological detachment from work, mastery experiences, community
experiences, volunteer work
One important quality of leisure time is its poten-
tial to provide recovery opportunities from stressful
work (Zijlstra & Cropley, 2006). Recovery refers to
the process by which individual functional systems
that have been called upon during a stressful experi-
ence (e.g., during the workday) return to their pre-
stressor level (Meijman & Mulder, 1998). Successful
recovery has been shown to positively affect well-
being and performance (Binnewies, Sonnentag, &
Mojza, 2009b; Fritz & Sonnentag, 2005, 2006; Son-
nentag & Bayer, 2005). Several experiences during
leisure time contribute to successful recovery: Psy-
chological detachment from work (i.e., switching off
mentally from work), mastery experiences (i.e., pur-
suing challenging activities), and community experi-
ences (i.e., cultivating relationships; Sonnentag &
Fritz, 2007).
The purpose of our study is to examine the role of
volunteer work, as a specific form of leisure time
activity, for the recovery process. Volunteer work
needs to come into the focus of occupational health
psychologists as it is performed by many people
(TNS Infratest, 2007; United States Department of
Labor, 2009). Surprisingly, little is known about the
potential benefits of volunteer work activities for
recovery. Although it is known, for instance, that
job-related activities during leisure time are nega-
tively related to psychological detachment from work
(Sonnentag & Bayer, 2005), volunteer work activities
during leisure time have not been considered in the
context of recovery experiences.
We use the terms work or job to refer to paid work
(i.e., work within the occupation); we use volunteer
work as referring to volunteer work activities during
leisure time. We consider work time as time dedi-
cated to the regular job within the regular working
day and at the work place, while leisure time refers to
the time one spends off the regular job. Volunteer
work refers to “any activity in which time is given
freely to benefit another person, group, or cause.
Volunteering is a part of a cluster of helping behav-
iors, entailing more commitment than spontaneous
assistance but narrower in scope than the care pro-
vided to family and friends” (Wilson, 2000, p. 215).
In many countries, a great part of the population
engages in volunteer work activities. For example,
26.4% of the U.S. population volunteered in 2008
(United States Department of Labor, 2009) and 33%
of the European Union population volunteered in
Eva J. Mojza, Christian Lorenz, and Sabine Sonnentag,
Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz; Car-
men Binnewies, Department of Psychology, University of
Mainz.
This research was funded by a grant from the German
Research Foundation (DFG; SO 295/4-1, 4-2) that is grate-
fully acknowledged. We thank Claudius Bornemann, Julia
Meyer-Schwickerath, and Signe Seiler for their involve-
ment in data collection and Jessica de Bloom, Daniel Fleis-
cher, Verena Friedrich, Charlotte Fritz, Jennifer L. Sparr,
and Maya Yankelevich for helpful comments on earlier
versions of this paper.
Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-
dressed to Eva J. Mojza, Department of Psychology, Uni-
versity of Konstanz, Postbox 42, D-78457 Konstanz, Ger-
many. E-mail: Eva.Mojza@uni-konstanz.de
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
2010, Vol. 15, No. 1, 60–74 © 2010 American Psychological Association
1076-8998/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0017983
60
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... Boundary violations can be stressors because they are unscheduled interruptions that incur costs for the person, and they decrease the chances of recovery (either because they take time or because they keep work/family mentally present) [17,35,36]. For this reason, we intend to understand how boundary violations compromised the recovery of university teachers in lockdown, especially because university teachers have great difficulty in recovering [37,38]. Furthermore, psychological detachment from work is important for well-being and flourishing [39,40]. ...
... This is an important fact, as it can be an example of the additional difficulties that arise in situations of health crisis. When university teachers had their professional activities interrupted by the family, it affected their recovery (e.g., they had to help their children with a school activity, they probably had to extend their working hours to complete all their tasks) [38]. Similarly, when university teachers saw their family lives disturbed by work (e.g., interrupting a family task to answer a call from a colleague) they probably kept thinking about work, which hindered their recovery or ability to psychologically distance themselves from work. ...
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... Recovery activities include but are not limited to engaging in hobbies, physical exercise, or meeting friends (Sonnentag et al., 2022). They are positively related to wellbeing (e.g., Rook & Zijlstra, 2006;Sonnentag, 2001;Sonnentag & Zijlstra, 2006) and organizational functioning (e.g., de Bloom et al., 2018;ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012), likely because they are proximal antecedents of recovery experiences with the latter referring to "what people are experiencing while performing these activities" (Sonnentag, 2018, p. 171; see also de Bloom et al., 2018;Eschleman et al., 2014;Mojza et al., 2010). ...
... Third, we provide novel insights into the relationship between recovery activities and recovery experiences. Although earlier studies have already investigated recovery activities in relation to experiences, these studies have adopted the categorical approach or have focused on single recovery activities and/or experiences (e.g., de Bloom et al., 2018;Mojza et al., 2010;ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012). Using the newly developed dimensional approach, our study provides novel insights as it encompasses a broader range of seven different RAC and informs on their unique relation with three key recovery experiences. ...
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... Findings on the effects of these activities on detachment from work are mixed. Two daily diary studies examining the effects of daily time spent on volunteering during leisure time found positive and nonsignificant (Mojza et al., 2010) relationships with evening detachment from work. ...
... Cangiano et al. (2019); Cangiano et al. (2021); Lanaj et al. (2021); Rodríguez-Muñoz et al. (2018)Nonwork Role Activities Volunteer workWithin-person − Volunteer work during leisure time tends to facilitate off-job time detachment, although some studies did not find this effect.Mojza et al. (2010); ...
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... As expected, our study indicates that boundary violations are an impediment to the recovery of teachers who were telecommuting in mandatory con nement during COVID-19. When teachers had their professional activities interrupted by the family, it affected their recovery (e.g., they had to help their children with a school activity, they probably had to extend their working hours to complete all their tasks) [44]. Similarly, when teachers saw their family lives disturbed by work (e.g., interrupting a family task to answer a call from a colleague) they probably kept thinking about work, which hindered their recovery or ability to psychologically distance themselves from work. ...
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Full-text available
  • Sep 2023
Background This study aimed to explore the role of psychological detachment from work in the relationship of boundary violations and flourishing, as well as gender differences. We developed and tested a moderate mediation model where psychological detachment was the explanatory mechanism of the relationship between boundary violations with flourishing and using gender as the moderating variable. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 921 teleworking university professors (mean age 44 years) in Brazil in June 2020. Multigroup analysis and moderate mediation were performed using Mplus 7.2. Results Psychological detachment mediates the effects of boundary violations (in both direction) in flourishing and that work-to-family violations are more harmful to women’s recovery instead as family-to-work violations are more harmful to men’s recovery. Conclusion The main contributions of this study are the importance of recovery in the subjective well-being of teleworkers and the relationship between boundary violations and gender.
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