A longitudinal perspective on the nature, predictors, and outcomes of work recovery profiles

ABSTRACT

This person-centred investigation seeks to understand the main configurations taken by four critical dimensions of work recovery experiences (i.e., relaxation, control, mastery, and psychological detachment) among distinct profiles of workers. Capitalizing on a sample of 442 employees who completed the same set of measures two times across a time interval of three months, we further investigate the longitudinal stability of these profiles and of their relations with a series of work-related predictors and well-being indicators. Our results revealed four profiles identical at both time points: Plugged In, Moderately Unplugged, Moderately Plugged In, and Unplugged. These profiles displayed a moderate to high level of within-person stability over time. Workaholism, personal life orientation, and colleagues’ norms about the need to rapidly follow up on work-related messages were all found to be associated with profile membership. Levels of emotional exhaustion and somatization also differed across profiles.

KEYWORDS:

• Recovery experiences
• latent transition analyses
• workaholism
• health
• burnout

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2335593

Notes

1. Supplementary analyses (see Section 2 of the online supplements) demonstrated that the role of these predictors, as well as the implications of our work recovery profiles in terms of emotional exhaustion and somatization, entirely generalized to remote and onsite employees.

Additional information

Funding

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.