Give me a Better Break: Choosing Workday Break Activities to Maximize Resource Recovery

Surprisingly little research investigates employee breaks at work, and even less research provides prescriptive suggestions for better workday breaks in terms of when and how break activities are most beneficial. Based on the effort-recovery model and conservation of resources theory and using experience-sampling methodology, we examined the characteristics of employee workday break activities with ninety-five employees across five work days. In addition, we tested the recovery process by which workday break activities influence employee performance and wellbeing. Supervisor-rated employee performance evaluations were also obtained to match with the employee self-report data. Multilevel analysis results suggest that activities that were preferred, social (i.e., face-to-face interaction), work-related, and outside the office related to resource recovery following the break. When we tested all break activity characteristics combined, preferred activities were the most helpful for resource replenishment. We also found that resource recovery mediated the effects of preferred break activities on fatigue, and fatigue mediated the effects of resource recovery on somatic symptoms and insomnia. We discuss our research findings and implications.