Recovery from Technology-Driven Stress: A Daily Diary Study

Abstract Although previous research on technology-driven stress has identified inhibitors and immediate coping mechanisms, the longer-term recovery from such stress remains underexplored. However, understanding recovery is essential for adapting to modern work demands, ensuring performance and productivity, and securing employee well-being. Based on the effort-recovery model, this paper explores the complex recovery processes from technology-driven stress, focusing on how recovery experiences and activities interact with technology-driven challenge and hindrance stressors to influence individual affect. Adopting a longitudinal daily diary approach, this paper investigates how recovery mechanisms impact affective outcomes on both the day level and the subsequent day, offering a nuanced understanding of the temporal spillover effects of technology-driven stress. The results reveal distinct spillovers and recovery pathways for challenge and hindrance stressors and an adverse effect of hindrance stressors on affect. The findings contribute to the literature on technology-driven stress by highlighting the importance of considering recovery and intermediate processes between immediate coping and longer-term outcomes.