Summary: Mike interviews Sabine Sonnentag from Universität Konstanz in Germany about a study she recently conducted on how people recover from work Sabine Sonnentag discusses how disengaging from work in the evening affects people's moods.in the evening. Using Palm Pilots, participants reported their activities in the evening and their moods the following morning. Results indicated that detaching from work, relaxing, and engaging in challenging off-job activities greatly improved people's moods the following day. Sabine Sonnentag is a full professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Konstanz, Germany and a visiting professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She studied psychology at the Free University Berlin and received her Ph.D. from the Technical University Braunschweig. In her research, Dr. Sonnentag is mainly interested in how individuals can achieve sustained high performance at work and remain healthy at the same time. She studies recovery from job stress, proactive work behavior, learning, and self-regulation in the job context. You can download the podcast by clicking here. Date of the interview: July 29, 2008 Recommended further readings: Binnewies, C., Sonnentag, S., & Mojza, E. J. (in press). Daily performance at work: Feeling recovered in the morning as a predictor of day-level job performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior. Sonnentag, S., Binnewies, C., & Mojza, E. J. (2008). "Did you have a nice evening?" A day-level study on recovery experiences, sleep, and affect. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 674-684. Schwartz, T. (2007). Manage your energy, not your time. Harvard Business Review, 85(10), 63-73. Trougakos, J. P., Beal, D. J., Green, S. G., & Weiss, H. M. (2008). Making the break count: An episodic examination of recovery activities, emotional experiences, and positive affective displays. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 131-146. Michael Johnson is an Assistant Professor in Department of Management and Organization at the University of Washington. He can be reached via mdj3@u.washington.edu
