Research on the effects of specific off-job activities, such as social and physical activities, on employees’ work life seems to be inconclusive. Therefore, we investigated how energy gained from off-job activities the previous day after work hours, rather than the involvement in or the time spent on specific activities, helps employees to be engaged in their work during demanding workdays (i.e., high workload). We hypothesized that workload becomes a challenge demand and, consequently, increases employees’ engagement in their work on the days employees had high (vs. low) energetic resources from their previous day’s off-job activities. Our participants were 37 employees working at an elementary school, who completed an online daily diary at the end of the workday for a period of two weeks (N = 37 employees × 7.16 days on average = 265 measurement points). The results of the moderation analysis supported our hypothesis, showing that employees were more engaged in their work on the days they experienced a high workload and when they gained high levels of energy from the activities they undertook the previous day during nonwork-hours. Our findings contribute to our knowledge on how off-job activities influence employees’ work life, showing that it is not just the activity but the energy gained from these activities that is important to deal with daily workload.

中文翻译：

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在高要求的工作日参与：关于从非工作活动中获得的能量的日记研究。

对特定非工作活动（例如社交和体育活动）对员工工作生活的影响的研究似乎尚无定论。因此，我们调查了前一天下班后的非工作活动如何获得能量，而不是参与或花费在特定活动上的时间，如何帮助员工在要求苛刻的工作日（即高工作量）中投入工作。我们假设工作量成为一种挑战需求，因此，在员工从前一天的非工作活动中获得高（与低）能量资源的日子里，会增加员工对工作的参与度。我们的参与者是在一所小学工作的 37 名员工，他们在工作日结束时完成了为期两周的在线每日日记（N = 37 名员工 × 7. 平均 16 天 = 265 个测量点）。适度分析的结果支持了我们的假设，表明员工在他们经历高工作量的日子里，以及当他们从前一天非工作时间进行的活动中获得高水平的能量时，会更加投入工作。我们的发现有助于我们了解非工作活动如何影响员工的工作生活，表明不仅仅是活动，而且从这些活动中获得的能量对于处理日常工作量很重要。