Work Breaks: Associations With Efficiency and Performance Among Professional Workers

Author(s): Kaiwei Bai

DOI: https://doi.org/10.65030/jis.011003

Abstract: Work breaks are a central but understudied component of recovery at work, particularly in cognitively demanding professional roles. This exploratory study examined how professional workers perceive work breaks and how these perceptions relate to work time efficiency, task time estimation, work performance, and work-related worry. Seventy-five professional workers completed self-report measures assessing break duration and frequency, beliefs about the performance benefits of work breaks, perceived accuracy of task time estimation, work efficiency, self-rated work performance, and work-related worry. Spearman correlations showed that stronger belief that work breaks improve performance was associated with greater perceived time estimation accuracy, higher work time efficiency, and better work performance. In contrast, work-related worry showed little association with break perceptions. Findings highlight the importance of subjective beliefs about work breaks in everyday professional work and recovery processes.

Keywords: Work breaks; Recovery at work; Work performance; Work time efficiency; Professional workers; Work-related worry

Article: e011003

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