Welcome to Read Before Burning, a monthly newsletter by psychologist Dr Ben J. Searle. Come here for simple but informative coverage of burnout-related concepts, research findings, and actionable advice – all firmly grounded in science.
Who am I? After earning a PhD in psychology, I spent 20 years in academia studying stress, burnout, and related issues – until I burned out.
I now write, consult, and talk about burnout (and sometimes other things).
Recommendations for Recovery
In a previous issue I covered organisational risk factors for burnout, many of which can be characterised as “demands”. Conventional psychosocial hazard management involves reducing these demands or using resources to mitigate their impacts – valuable work that can make a huge difference to risk of employee burnout!
And yet, no matter how well we control the risk factors, all work will involve some level of demands.
To illustrate: I’m writing this at the Work Health and Safety Show (Sydney), where I’m having a great time. But I’ve been on my feet a lot more than usual (physical demand), I’m interacting with new people (social/emotional demand), there’s constant noise (environmental/attentional demand), and I’m trying to learn new things (cognitive demand).
Coping with demands takes a psychological toll: stress, fatigue, and even physical strain. These effects should, in ideal circumstances, only be temporary. Our bodies and minds should be able to repair and recover during our off-job hours as we rest, sleep, and pursue our non-work lives. Effective day-to-day recovery is important for preventing burnout.
But not all circumstances are ideal! When those circumstances interfere with day-to-day recovery, stress, fatigue, and physical strain start to accumulate, increasing the risk of burnout and other work-related injuries.
This feature is about circumstances influencing day-to-day recovery and what can be done about them.
Recovery and Psychological Detachment from Work
One of the best predictors of day-to-day recovery is the extent to which we can detach (psychologically) from work at the end of a shift or workday. Put simply, this means being able to stop thinking about work once we’re no longer working. Psychological detachment is associated with lower post-work stress and other burnout indicators, as well as better sleep and a better start to the next workday. We’re all much better off experiencing healthy detachment at the end of a workday than experiencing involuntary detachment (in the form of disengagement, disconnection, and cynicism) while we’re at work.
It may seem like thinking about work when you’re at home is an individual problem, but there are many situational factors that interfere with psychological detachment from work. Here are just a few of them:
- Emotional work demands: After particularly emotional work interactions or workdays requiring a lot of emotional labour, we’re likely to have more difficulty achieving psychological detachment from work.
- Workload and time pressure: The harder we work, the more difficult it is to let go at the end of the workday. Several studies have shown psychological detachment from work is sensitive even to day-to-day variations in workload or time pressure.
- After-hours work: Sometimes work doesn’t end at the end of the workday. Some feel pressure to complete work tasks after hours. Some are on-call. Some just feel the need to keep checking for important emails, or to keep boosting their professional profiles on social media.
- Incomplete work: Didn’t quite finish that report? Aren’t fully prepared for that presentation? Even if you don’t actually do the work after-hours, thoughts about work are more likely to resurface if we left tasks or goals incomplete.
- Can’t escape the office? Some of us work from home some or all of the time, which has a lot of advantages and conveniences. A downside is that work is Just Over There. Every time we see our work desk, we can be reminded of Things That Need Doing.
Fortunately, there are many ways to facilitate better detachment.
Boosting Psychological Detachment from Work
TIPS FOR LEADERS
Here are a few things leaders can do:
- Manage Psychosocial Hazards: My first recommendation is usually to evaluate ongoing psychosocial hazards. Why are staff experiencing persistent time pressure? Can priorities be adjusted or clarified to reduce workloads? Are there better ways of handling aspects of work that involve emotional labour? These questions, and the opportunities they present for hazard reduction, have potential for much greater impact than improved psychological detachment from work.
- Improve Psychosocial Supports: What positive features exist in your workplace to mitigate the effects of hazards? Do your team members feel supported? If people notice a problem or make a mistake, do they feel comfortable coming to you or their peers for help? If there are professional conflicts, do your team members have the skills and processes for resolving these amicably? Availability of support can make a difference between an issue being shelved until tomorrow and the issue hanging over someone’s head all night.
- Tackle “Always On” Culture: Why are people regularly working late into the evening? Often, the answer is explicit or implicit expectations. Even if you aren’t telling your staff to work late, you may be supporting an expectation. Do your staff see you working late? Do you send them emails at midnight – or reply immediately if they email you at night? Try to model the healthy behaviours you want to see from your team.
In short, take steps to encourage people to work when they’re at work, and to stop working when they aren’t.
TIPS FOR INDIVIDUALS
If you suspect you may also be struggling with detaching from work psychologically in your downtime, there are also things that can be done at the individual level.
- CoB Meta-work: Some forms of meta-work (work you do to make your work easier) can be useful to facilitate psychological detachment for work. It can be tempting to keep doing your work tasks until the last minute you can leave with a chance of catching your train. But there are many benefits to be gained by finishing your workday by recording where you got up to with your tasks and what you were planning to do next. This may help you to clear from your working memory the list of “I mustn’t forget to also do X, Y, and Z” because your unfinished business has been documented.
- Healthy Online Practices: Most people grumble about the amount of email and other messages they receive. But many of us would also admit to using our smartphones to check messages a little more often than is necessary. Partly this can be due to the utility of notifications about such messages during the workday. If you can, I encourage you to set times during which your phone can’t notify you about anything work-related. Go even further – put your work-related apps in a space you won’t see after work unless you go looking for them. Exercise your Right to Disconnect!
- Master Your Recovery Time: It seems like the best way to recover is to rest. And yes, rest and sleep are essential! But for many of us, “resting” involves a lot of time on a couch staring at a screen. Better recovery can be achieved by ensuring that rest is combined with other recovery activities. Physical exercise is often valuable, provided we don’t overdo it. Mastery activities, where we develop areas of personal interest, are another good alternative: find some time to practice an instrument, bake a cake, learn a language, assemble a Halloween costume, or engage in a hobby. Spending time on mastery activities of our choosing helps to satisfy basic psychological needs, create a sense of accomplishment, and remind us that we have worth and meaning outside of work.
To give yourself the best chance at avoiding burnout, you want to recover in your recovery time, so don’t waste it worrying about work.
References
Agolli, A., & Holtz, B. C. (2023). Facilitating detachment from work: A systematic review, evidence-based recommendations, and guide for future research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 28(3), 129-159.
Karabinski, T., Haun, V. C., Nübold, A., Wendsche, J., & Wegge, J. (2021). Interventions for improving psychological detachment from work: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(3), 224-242.
Sonnentag, S., Arbeus, H., Mahn, C., & Fritz, C. (2014). Exhaustion and lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time: Moderator effects of time pressure and leisure experiences. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 19(2), 206-216.
Sonnentag, S., Cheng, B. H., & Parker, S. L. (2022). Recovery from work: Advancing the field toward the future. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 9(1), 33-60.
News
Get ready for #RECOVEMBER!
To show how important these practices are for personal recovery, I’m planning to spend November spreading the word. Throughout the month I’ll be talking about practices for day-to-day recovery as well as long-term burnout recovery. I’m hoping others will join in too!
Here’s the schedule.
Most of the practices in my chart are at the level of the individual, but I’d love to see you using the tag #RECOVEMBER to post about team- and organisation-level practices that facilitate employee recovery.
Monthly Updates
Burnout symptom status: Low again after some effective recovery practice.
Secret burnout book query status: No full requests yet.
Podcast status: (Re-)Launched!
Former students seen at the Work Health Safety Show (Sydney): Three.
Spread the Word
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Questions? Suggestions? Reach out to me at mindonthejob@gmail.com
Till Next Time…
Stay well until my next newsletter drops!
(c) 2025 Ben J. Searle