Nguyen, Tien Q; Sumamal, Piyachat

Despite a growing corpus of studies on the benefits of work recovery for employee well-being, little attention has been paid to the potential negative effects of micro-breaks on work engagement. The current study addresses this research gap by investigating the effects of several micro-break activities on work engagement and in-role job performance. Using conservation of resource theory, relaxation, and nutrition micro-breaks were hypothesised to serve as a coping strategy, resulting in increased work engagement and in-role job performance. In contrast, social and cognitive micro-breaks were hypothesised to disrupt the workflow, resulting in less desirable outcomes. A daily diary study of 625 observations from 125 Taiwanese full-time employees over five consecutive workdays provided empirical evidence that supported arguments. Specifically, relaxation micro-breaks were associated with increased employee engagement and in-role job performance during the day, but cognitive micro-breaks were associated with low favourable outcomes. Moreover, the employees’ guilt-proneness was proposed to moderate the positive relationship between relaxation activities and work engagement. The result revealed that the positive effect becomes weaker for employees who have high levels of guilt-proneness. These findings suggest that the employees’ efforts to recover can be beneficial or detrimental to their work outcomes, depending on the types of micro-break activities that employees take and their levels of guilt-proneness.

1. At the conclusion of this event, attendees will be able to identify four categories of micro-break activities: relaxation, nutrition intake, social, and cognitive.
2. At the conclusion of this event, attendees will be able to differentiate between the potential positive and negative consequences of each micro-break activity on daily work engagement.

The measurement will be achieved by allowing attendees to ask questions during the 5-minute Q&A period, and the presenter may also ask attendees about specific actions they have done or plan to take in response to this presentation topic by the end of the presentation. Furthermore, during the scheduled breaks, the presenter may interview attendees to get more comments and suggestions.

Attendees are expected to provide feedback and reflect on their experience, which reveals insights about their attitudes, beliefs, and perceived knowledge.