From home to work: online leisure and work engagement

Purpose This study aims to examine how home demands and resources shape work engagement and job performance, and investigate the moderating role of online leisure engagement. Grounded in the work–home resources (WH-R) model, this study incorporates nontraditional home dynamics and digital leisure to advance a cross-domain perspective on employee resource processes. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a diary study with 45 hospitality employees, who provided data twice weekly over four consecutive weeks (360 observations). We measured home demands, home resources, work engagement and job performance daily and assessed online leisure engagement as a general factor. Findings Work engagement fully mediates the relationships between home demands/resources and job performance. Online leisure engagement buffers the negative effect of home demands on work engagement and strengthens the positive relationship between work engagement and job performance. Practical implications Hospitality organizations can sustain employees’ engagement and performance by adopting flexible, family-supportive practices and recognizing online leisure as a legitimate recovery behavior that helps buffer home-related strain. Originality/value This study extends understanding of how home demands and home resources shape daily work engagement and, in turn, job performance. It also extends the WH-R model by illustrating how online leisure engagement can function as a cross-domain, behavioral moderator that operates beyond traditional resource classifications. By integrating off-job digital leisure into daily work–home processes, this study offers a contemporary and inclusive framework for understanding how home experiences are translated into work engagement and job performance by showing the underappreciated role of nonwork digital leisure in sustaining performance in hospitality work.