The present study focuses on the fluctuation in work engagement by examining the relationship between daily time pressure and daily work engagement. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study also tests whether psychological capital and sleep moderate the influence of time pressure on work engagement. We conducted a diary study to gather 67 participants' data over 10 consecutive work days (502 daily measurement points), including their daily time pressure, work engagement, and sleep quality. Our results indicate that there is a curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement in the form of an inverted U-shape. If it was lower than the optimal level, daily time pressure as a challenging stressor positively predicted daily work engagement. Substantial time pressure impaired daily work engagement. In addition, the curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement was attenuated as a function of increasing psychological capital or chronic sleep quality. Specifically, compared with low psychological capital or chronic sleep quality, excessive time pressure could also positively predict daily work engagement if psychological capital or chronic sleep quality was high. In addition, this study provided preliminary evidence that daily sleep quality may not be enough to buffer the curvilinear relation. Implications for research on daily work engagement and intervention programs are discussed.

Research on recovery from work stress has emphasized the importance of within‐day work breaks. However, prior research has not been designed and analysed in a way that fully aligns with the processes described by the underlying theoretical framework (i.e., the effort‐recovery model). The current paper examines the effects of within‐day work breaks on recovery using an event‐based pre‐/post (EBPP)‐design, in a way that more fully captures the recovery process as described by the effort‐recovery model. We also included designs used in previous studies (i.e., an interval‐based design and an event‐based design without pre‐break strain measures) to demonstrate the differences between the EBPP design and previous designs. The results of the EBPP model using a sample of Chinese white‐collar employees showed that within‐day work breaks are significantly associated with reduced fatigue and negative affect and increased positive affect, supporting the predicted recovery effects of within‐day work breaks. However, mixed results were found in the interval‐based design, and non‐significant results were found in the event‐based design without pre‐break measurements. We discuss methodological implications and explain how the EBPP design could be applied to study other episodic phenomena. Practitioner points An event‐based pre‐/post‐design (EBPP) can be used to study recovery and other momentary, episodic events at work. Within‐day work breaks can help employees reduce fatigue and negative affect and increase positive affect. Relaxation break activities, nutrition‐intake activities, social activities, and cognitive activities help recovery.

BackgroundWorking adults spend most of their leisure time watching TV. In this paper, we seek to clarify how experiences of psychological need fulfillment and well‐being differ when watching TV and engaging in other leisure activities. We suggest that, compared to other leisure activities, watching TV is equally conducive to fulfilling needs for: (a) relaxation and detachment from stress and (b) autonomy, but is less conducive to fulfilling needs for (c) meaning, (d) mastery, and (e) affiliation and thus also less conducive to promoting subjective wellbeing.MethodsWe tested our predictions in two day reconstruction studies and a daily diary study.ResultsPeople experienced similar levels of detachment and relaxation when watching TV and engaging in other types of leisure. However, they experienced less fulfillment of other needs, and lower levels of satisfaction and some aspects of affective well‐being, when watching TV compared to other activities. Further, unlike time spent watching TV, daily time spent in physical activities was positively associated with positive activated affect.ConclusionsGiven that watching TV tends to be associated with lower levels of need fulfillment and well‐being than other leisure activities, leisure choices may be an important target for improving employee well‐being.

In this study, 2 experiments were conducted to investigate whether motivation and positive affect can alleviate ego depletion and to elucidate their possible mechanisms. In Experiment 1, a crossing-out-letter task was adapted to reach an ego depletion state for Chinese participants. Participants were then randomly assigned to the extrinsic motivation group, the positive affect group or the depletion control group. After the experimental treatment, a dumbbell task was used to measure participants' remaining self-regulatory resources. The results showed that participants in the motivation and positive affect groups performed better on the dumbbell task than participants in the depletion control group. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that participants were asked to perform an additional unexpected dumbbell task after a neutral video following the above procedure. The results of Experiment 1 were replicated; however, participants' performance on the additional dumbbell task differed. The positive affect group performed better than the depletion control group, indicating an increase in self-regulatory resources and thus supporting the replenishment effect of positive affect. No significant difference was found between the motivation group and the depletion control group.