Work Recovery in Military Contexts: An Integrative Review of Dynamic Processes, Boundary Conditions, and Multilevel Applications

Work recovery is increasingly important in occupations where irregular schedules, sustained vigilance, and constrained boundaries limit opportunities to restore depleted resources. This critical integrative review examines recovery processes in military contexts while distinguishing currently serving personnel, deployed personnel, reserve-component members, veterans, and military families. Drawing on the Effort-Recovery Model, Conservation of Resources theory, the Stressor-Detachment Model, and the DRAMMA framework, the review identifies service status, mission phase, leadership, unit climate, and relational resources as key boundary conditions. It argues that military settings are heterogeneous and that recovery strategies must be matched to operational feasibility: micro-recovery and protected off-watch periods may be central during deployment, whereas mastery, meaning, and affiliation may become more salient during home station service and transition to civilian life. The review also clarifies the detachment paradox by distinguishing flexible, restorative disengagement from trauma-related emotional numbing. Practical applications are organized across service-member, leader, and organizational levels, including recovery-supportive scheduling, bounded autonomy, sleep protection, decompression, and family-centered support. Future research should validate DRAMMA across military populations, use intensive longitudinal designs, and compare individual interventions with leader- and organization-level changes.