The role of co-workers in recovery experiences

Abstract

Employees expend a substantial amount of effort in demanding settings such as the workplace. Recovery is crucial to help employees unwind to prepare them for the next working day. This present study aims to address a literature gap by examining the role of coworkers in recovery experiences. 125 full-time working adults completed an online questionnaire that measured their (a) general work stress, (b) segmentation preference, (c) quantitative job demands, (d) support from supervisor and co-workers, (e) recovery experiences involving and not involving co-workers, (f) frequency of involvement of coworkers in off-job activities and (g) nature and type of conversations that occurred in their interactions with co-workers during off-job activities. Results indicated lower recovery experiences when participants involved co-workers in their off-job activities. However, after controlling for segmentation preferences, significant differences in recovery experiences between involving and not involving co-workers in off-job activities were found for individuals with higher segmentation preferences but not for individuals with lower segmentation preferences. In addition, there were findings of interaction effects between segmentation preference and recovery experiences. Results from regression analysis also revealed that recovery experiences can be predicted by job demands, work conversations, non-work conversations and support from co-workers. Implications and recommendations derived from this study were discussed.