Strategies for energy-management at work: the effect of brakes during work time on vitality and exhaustion.

The interest of organizations in the vitality of employees has increased the past years. According to the conservation of resources theory (CORT) human energy can be seen as a battery that depletes during the day. An individual must take time off away from work to replenish their resources. For a break to result in recovery employees have to direct their time to activities that reduce the claim on the personal resources and that allows the resources to be replenished. Research in the past 20 years has been focused on the effects of breaks from work on the energy of the employee. The different breaks from work that have been researched are: vacations, weekends, the end of the workday and breaks during the workday. Research about work breaks during the workday is limited compared to other forms of work breaks. The researches on breaks during work time have different conclusions about the effects of breaks during the workday on the vitality of the employee. This results in the aim of this research: “Gain insight in the effects of work related breaks and micro breaks on the vitality en fatigue of the employee” . A quantitative research has been executed at the Personeelslogistiek Commando van de Koninklijke Landmacht (Personnel branch of the Royal Dutch Army). The method that has been used is a diary study (n = 40). The results of this research show that not all of the measures energy management strategies, of the work-related breaks and the micro breaks, have a significant influence on fatigue and vitality. The conclusion based on the results of this research is that there are limited amount of work related breaks and micro breaks that have a significant influence on the vitality and fatigue of the employee. Future research on breaks during work time should include work related breaks as well as micro breaks. Practical implication of this research is providing managers with an awareness of the effects of micro breaks and work-related breaks on the vitality and fatigue of their employees