Daily Workload and Evening Detachment: Impact of Supervisor Support for Recovery

Our study examines the role of leaders in employee recovery. We hypothesize that supervisor support for recovery (between-person) will buffer the impact of daily workload (within-person) on evening psychological detachment (within-person). We tested this hypothesis with a 7-day experience sampling methodology study using data from 545 employees, 1970 valid end-of-work observations (51% response rate), and 2040 valid end-of-day observations (53% response rate), with 1321 days containing both an end-of-work and end-of-day observation (34% completion rate) during the study period. Using multilevel regression analysis, we found that higher supervisor support for recovery did buffer the negative effect of workload, such that even on days with high workload, employees with high supervisor support for recovery were better able to psychologically detach from work in the evenings than their counterparts. Our results indicate that positive leadership behavior supporting employee recovery can be beneficial for helping employees manage the variations in workload demands through more effective recovery. This study is one of the first to incorporate leader behavior on the effect of the daily relationship between workload and evening psychological detachment. Finally, supervisor support for recovery can be a key target for organizational intervention to support employee recovery and well-being.