Video conference meetings, which became frequent during the COVID‐19 pandemic, might result in exhaustion (so‐called “Zoom fatigue”). However, only little is known about “Zoom fatigue,” the objective characteristics shaping it, and the subjective experiences eliciting this phenomenon. Gaining this knowledge is critical for understanding work life during the pandemic. Study 1, a within‐person quantitative investigation, tested whether video conferences are exhausting and if objective characteristics (i.e. meeting size, meeting duration, and the presence of the supervisor) moderate “Zoom fatigue”. Employees from Germany and Israel (N = 81) participated in a 2‐week study, with meetings nested within persons (n = 988). Results showed that video conferences are exhausting—more than meetings held through other media. However, objective characteristics did not moderate this relationship. In Study 2, qualitative data from Germany and Israel (N = 53) revealed employees' subjective experiences in video conferences that may lead to “Zoom fatigue”. These include, for example, experiences of loss and comparison with the “good old times” before the pandemic. Employees suggested ways to mitigate “Zoom fatigue,” particularly, better management of meetings by leaders. Our results provide empirical support for “Zoom fatigue” and suggest which subjective experiences elicit this phenomenon, opening directions for research and practice.

Summary The organizational self‐control literature usually applies resource perspectives that explain self‐control failure at work by depletion of self‐control resources. However, these perspectives neglect the role of self‐control motivation. On a daily level, we examine several self‐control aspects (resources, motivation, demands, and effort) as predictors of a manifestation of self‐control failure at work, namely, daily counterproductive work behavior toward the organization (CWB‐O). Additionally, we investigate self‐control effort as a mechanism predicting the depletion of self‐control resources throughout the day. We analyzed data from 155 employees in a 2‐week diary study with 2 daily measurement points. Multilevel path modeling showed that self‐control motivation and self‐control demands, but not self‐control resource depletion, predicted self‐control effort. There was an indirect effect from self‐control motivation on CWB‐O via self‐control effort but no indirect effect from self‐control demands on self‐control resource depletion throughout the day via self‐control effort. Findings suggest that self‐control motivation is a crucial factor explaining self‐control failure at work and cast further doubt on the idea that exerted self‐control effort is the only mechanism leading to self‐control resource depletion.

Although habits are a well-researched topic within psychology, habits enacted at the workplace received limited attention in the organizational literature. In this article we examine habits that employees show at the workplace. Because workplace habits are not always functional for performance or affective outcomes, and because employees themselves may regard specific habits as undesirable, it is important to identify ways of how employees can abandon such unwanted habits. We report findings from a dailysurvey study (N = 145 persons) in which we examined if self-regulatory processes predict disengagement from undesirable habits and engagement in more desirable alternative behaviors. Multilevel path analysis showed that day-specific implementation intentions and day-specific vigilant monitoring were negatively related to day-specific habitual behavior and positively related to day-specific alternative behaviors, both in the morning and in the afternoon. Analysis of follow-up data (N = 126 persons) showed that change in habit strength was stable over a 2-month period, suggesting that implementation intentions, vigilant monitoring, and the associated enactment of alternative behavior indeed may help to disengage from unwanted habits, particularly with respect to task-related habits and when consistency in vigilant monitoring is high.

We examined the role of daily recovery for morning cognitive appraisal of work demands in a daily diary study. We predicted that psychological detachment from work during the evening would be associated with changes in cognitive appraisal from afternoon to the next morning. Additionally, we predicted that these associations are mediated by state of being recovered in the morning. We collected data from 183 employees with 3 daily measurement occasions over 2 consecutive workweeks. We analyzed the data using multilevel path modeling with latent variance decomposition into within-and between-person variance parts. Results showed that psychological detachment predicted a decrease in hindrance and threat appraisal but no change in challenge appraisal from afternoon to morning. State of being recovered mediated the relationship between psychological detachment and threat appraisal but not hindrance appraisal. Psychological detachment was indirectly related to an increase in challenge appraisal via state of being recovered in the morning. Our results provide insights on predictors of cognitive appraisal and the role of recovery for cognitive processes in the stress process.

When conceptualizing work performance as requiring self-control, scholars often employ a resource-depletion perspective. However, this perspective neglects the role of self-control motivation and self-regulation strategies. In this diary study, we exam-

Cognitive failures are errors in routine action regulation that increase with higher mental demands. In particular, in occupations where guidance such as teaching or supervision is essential, cognitive failures harm one’s performance and also negatively impact knowledge transfer. The aim of this study is to investigate yesterday’s work–home conflict (WHC) and objectively assessed sleep-onset latency as antecedents of a next-day increase in cognitive failures. Fifty-three teachers were assessed during a working week, in the morning, after work, and in the evening on each working day, as well as on Saturday morning. Sleep-onset latency was assessed with ambulatory actimetry. The multi-level analyses showed both WHC and sleep-onset latency predict cognitive failures the next working day (controlling for cognitive failures from the previous day, sleep quantity, and leisure time rumination until falling asleep). However, there was no association between yesterday’s WHCs and the nightly sleep-onset latency. Thus, nightly sleep-onset latency did not mediate the effects of yesterday’s WHCs on today’s cognitive failures. Our results highlight the importance of sleep and a good work–life balance for daily cognitive functioning. In order to promote the cognitive functioning of employees as well as occupational safety, good working conditions and recovery should both be considered.

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Future work environments offer numerous technical applications to manage increasing amounts of information for organizations, teams, and individuals. Psychological concepts of intentional forgetting (IF) can be applied to improve the performance of work systems or to extend cognitive capacities of humans in technical systems. Different IF mechanisms have been suggested for assisting technology-aided IF, such as: (1) filtering of irrelevant or distressful information (e.g., by suppressing, deleting, or selecting), (2) delegating tasks from human to digital agents, changing roles, and reorganizing socio-digital work systems, or (3) systematic (re-)placement of retrieval cues or triggers to generate or suppress behavior. Due to these different underlying IF mechanisms, the implementation of IF at individual, team, and organizational level will differ substantially between work areas or systems. In order to gain a better understanding of how socio-digital applications of IF impact human behavior and reactions, it is necessary to (a) differentiate between relevant characteristics of socio-digital IF systems and (b) gain an understanding of how these characteristics impact users’ attitudes and performance. Thus, the present paper aims to classify and compare these characteristics of different applications of IF and introduces variables and methods to study psychological effects on users’ behavior, experience, and affective reactions.