facilitation before bedtime in a diary study [10]. Furthermore, Trougakos et al. [8] found that
the type of activities service employees engaged in during their daily work breaks influenced
their emotions and their affective displays in customer interactions. Restful and enjoyable
activities (called respites) provided greater recovery than more effortful and not preferred
activities (called chores). Respites may stop the depletion of regulatory resources and add
affective resources. This conceptualization also matches another distinction made on the basis
of the duty profile of activities: activities can be either resource consuming or resource
providing [11].
In fact, it seems that rather than the specific nature of activities, it may be more important that
the activities match individual preferences and needs (e.g., [12-14]). The mechanisms
assumed to underlie the recovery phenomenon have recently been under study. Sonnentag
and Fritz [15] have labelled these recovery experiences psychological detachment from work
(disengaging oneself not only physically but also mentally from work; opposite to
rumination), relaxation (a state of increased positive affect and low activation), mastery
(challenging experiences and learning opportunities during off-job time), and control (ability
to choose which activity, when and how to pursue during off-job time).