All I want for Christmas is recovery – changes in employee affective well-being before and after vacation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe goal of this empirical study was to provide a detailed picture of the short- and long-term development of affective well-being before, during, and after vacation. Specifically, we investigated employees’ positive and negative affect and examined whether the Christmas holiday casted its shadow on employees’ affect during December. Further, we identified which factors (from both the work and private life domain) modulated the change in employees’ affect before the vacation and which factors during and after vacation influenced the speed of fade-out effects. We used longitudinal research data with two measurements per week over a 15-week period and collected data from 145 white-collar workers, resulting in a total of 2062 measurements. Multilevel modelling revealed that those who reported less work and personal tasks in December had a steeper increase in well-being before their vacation. Those who enjoyed more recovery experiences during their vacation and the following weekends and those who started work with lower levels of unfinished tasks enjoyed slower fade-out effects after vacation. Pleasant anticipation tended to change the development of affective well-being before Christmas. The study provides a fine-grained picture of the change in well-being over time and indicates how employees may particularly benefit from their vacation.