Put your feet up: The impact of personality traits, job pressure, and social support on the need for recovery after work

Knut Inge Fostervold,Reidulf G Watten

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02950-1

Abstract

The need for recovery after work (NFR) is an important warning of work-related fatigue. NFR is linked to prolonged work-related efforts and depletion of resources, creating a need for temporary respite from work demands. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationships between NFR and the five-factor model (FFM), comprising the personality traits of emotional stability (ES), extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O). Perceived job pressure and perceived social support were included as mediators. The study was conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM) on cross-sectional data from a sample of 681 participants from several work sectors (N females = 376, N males = 305; M age = 46.9 years; SD = 11.1). The results showed that NFR was affected both directly and indirectly by FFM traits. High ES and high O contributed directly to reduced and increased NFR, respectively. High perceived social support contributed to reduced NFR, while high perceived job pressure contributed to increased NFR. High ES contributed indirectly to reduced NFR through perceived job pressure and social support, high O contributed indirectly to increased NFR through perceived social support, and high E contributed indirectly to increased NFR through perceived job pressure. A and C were not related to NFR. The findings demonstrate that personality traits, especially ES, are firmly related to NFR and highlight the importance of incorporating personality factors into studies of work environmental factors on NFR.

Highlights

Work inevitably entails demands that require personal effort, which can induce adaptive psychological and bodily reactions
Prolonged effort leads to the depletion of psychological resources associated with the short-term and long-term costs of coping with work demands, creating a desire for a temporary respite from work, denoted as the ‘need for recovery after work’ (NFR) (Meijman & Mulder, 1998; van Veldhoven, 2008)
Univariate regression effects were present, the results showed that none of the five-factor model (FFM) traits were retained in the final prediction model

Summary

Introduction

Work inevitably entails demands that require personal effort, which can induce adaptive psychological and bodily reactions (e.g., changes in motivation and attention, as well as elevated adrenaline, corticosteroids, and blood pressure). Prolonged effort leads to the depletion of psychological resources associated with the short-term and long-term costs of coping with work demands, creating a desire for a temporary respite from work, denoted as the ‘need for recovery after work’ (NFR) (Meijman & Mulder, 1998; van Veldhoven, 2008). Work-related fatigue seems to be quite widespread in the general population. Studies on professional sectors, such as medicine and health care, show elevated levels of work-related fatigue (Brzozowski et al, 2021; Ho et al, 2013; SmithMiller et al, 2014).

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