Recovery and detachment
Recovery from work depends on specific experiences (psychological detachment from work during non-work time, relaxation, mastery, control over one's time), and detachment in particular is the one most strongly related to well-being in the study that defined them (a cross-sectional study, so it shows association, not cause). A boundary is defined by the presence of detachment, which is a different thing from the absence of work.
Evidence grade: research Peer-reviewed or large-sample empirical work supports it.
Use it when
The manager's own boundaries; the team's; the evening message that is read as an expectation.
Where it stops working
It measures experiences by self-report. The mechanism is well supported, and designing the prescriptions is left to the manager.
Where the standard uses it
- CC-6Self-managementThe manager's own time, energy, boundaries, and resilience.
Sources
- Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz. The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: Development and Validation of a Measure for Assessing Recuperation and Unwinding from Work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 204–221, 2007. In the bibliography
Used alongside it
- Burnout as a job condition research
- Ego depletion and decision fatigue contested
- Managerial leverage practice
- Managing your own time practice
- The manager's own resilience practice
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Recovery and detachment. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.recovery-and-detachment). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/recovery-and-detachment