Flight attendants' daily recovery from work: Is there no place like home?

By Sabine Sonnentag, Eva Natter. 2004

170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article builds on earlier work on recovery from work during off-job time and specifically addresses recovery in flight attendants, a group of employees whose work is characterized by a high degree of emotion work demands. Forty-seven flight attendants completed daily surveys on a tota lo f 4 evenings when they stayed at home or when they stayed in a hotel. Multilevel analysis showed staying in a hotel did not impair well-being at bedtime. Spending time on work-related activities during off-job time decreased wellbeing, whereas spending time on physical activities (i.e., sports) and experiencing off-job time activities as recovery improved well-being, also when initial well-being immediately after work was controlled. Time spent on social activities increased depression during the evening. As a whole, this study largely confirms findings from previous research with other professional groups.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/65ca9069f0fddfd8ee344c7eb3dd4c62628bf675

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In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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Citations in the corpus

Work-related flow and energy at work and at home: A study on the role of daily recovery (2012, methodology): “Recovery experience after breaks at work refers to the degree to which individuals perceive that the breaks they take help them to restore energy resources (cf. Sonnentag & Natter, 2004).”
The weekend matters: Relationships between stress recovery and affective experiences (2010, background): “…situations that generate feelings of selfconfidence and have been found to be associated with employee well-being, life satisfaction (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007), and improvements in affect as well as in energy levels (Sonnentag, 2001; Sonnentag & Natter, 2004; Thayer, Newman, & McClain, 1994).”
Job Demands–Resources theory and self-regulation: new explanations and remedies for job burnout (2020, background): “More specifically, we speak of recovery when employees unwind after effort expenditure, and when their cognitive and energetic resources return to baseline (Sonnentag & Natter, 2004).”
The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. (2007, background): “Similarly, the pursuit of sport—an activity that is often associated with mastery experiences—is related to an improvement in affect (Rook & Zijlstra, 2006; Sonnentag & Natter, 2004).”
Leaving Work at Work: A Meta-Analysis on Employee Recovery From Work (2019, background): “…as a process focused on individual engagement in specific nonwork activities, such as social activities, household and childcare activities, and physical activities, to determine whether these activities might replenish resources and curtail demands (Sonnentag, 2001; Sonnentag & Natter, 2004).”
Momentary work recovery: The role of within-day work breaks (2009, background): “For recovery to be successful, ‘‘an individual’s well-being improves, and resources drawn upon during the strain process are restored’’ (Sonnentag & Natter, 2004, p. 368).”
Staying vigorous until work is over: The role of trait vigour, day-specific work experiences and recovery (2008, background): “More specifically, we will address the question if day-specific workload (Butler, Grzywacz, Bass, & Linney, 2005; Zohar, Tzischinski, & Epstein, 2003) and the day-specific degree to which a person has recovered during off-job time ( Sonnentag & Natter, 2004 ) are related to a person’s level of vigou”
Burnout and Work Engagement Among Cabin Crew: Antecedents and Consequences (2012, unknown): “However, the use of person-centered variables (Sonnentag & Natter, 2004) and the observed phenomena adopted from the prior interview might allow the conclusion that the study’s findings cannot be completely ascribed to the use of self-report data.”
Daily recovery from work: The role of activities, effort and pleasure (2011, methodology): “Fatigue and (low) vigour will be used as indicators of (lack of) recovery (Sonnentag, Binnewies, & Mojza, 2008; Sonnentag & Natter, 2004 ).”
Need for recovery after emotional labor: Differential effects of daily deep and surface acting (2018, background): “Sonnentag and Natter (2004) showed that flight attendants, who managed to recover successfully after work, reported higher vigor at bedtime, and Sonnentag and Zijlstra (2006) found a negative association between need for recovery and well‐being at bedtime.”
Exercise after work, psychological mediators, and affect: A day-level study (2014, background): “Rather, exercise activities have been shown to contribute to recovery (Sonnentag, 2001 ; Sonnentag & Natter, 2004 ).”
How feeling happy during off-job activities helps successful recovery from work: A day reconstruction study (2014, background): “Empirical findings indicated that time spent on social activities may have positive (Sonnentag & Zijlstra, 2006), but also negative consequences for daily recovery (Sonnentag & Natter, 2004).”