The Role of Off-Job Crafting in Burnout Prevention during COVID-19 Crisis: A Longitudinal Study

Roald Pijpker, Philipp Kerksieck, Martin Tušl, Jessica de Bloom, Rebecca Brauchli and Georg F. Bauer
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Roald Pijpker: Health and Society/Rural Sociology, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Philipp Kerksieck: Public and Organizational Health, Center of Salutogenesis, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Martin Tušl: Public and Organizational Health, Center of Salutogenesis, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Jessica de Bloom: Faculty of Social Sciences, Psychology, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Rebecca Brauchli: Public and Organizational Health, Center of Salutogenesis, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Georg F. Bauer: Public and Organizational Health, Center of Salutogenesis, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and remote working challenge employees’ possibilities to recover from work during their off-job time. We examined the relationship between off-job crafting and burnout across the COVID-19 crisis. We used a longitudinal research design, comprising one wave collected before the onset of the pandemic, in March 2019 (T1), and one wave collected during the first lockdown of the crisis in April 2020 (T2). We measured the six off-job crafting dimensions (Crafting for Detachment, Relaxation, Autonomy, Mastery, Meaning, and Affiliation) and burnout (fatigue/exhaustion) via a questionnaire among German and Swiss employees ( N = 658; Age M = 47; 55% male). We found that both burnout levels and crafting for affiliation significantly decreased at T2 compared to T1. All off-job crafting dimensions and burnout correlated negatively cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Regression analyses showed that employees who crafted in their off-job time before and during the crisis experienced fewer burnout complaints during the crisis. Looking more closely at the subdimensions of off-job crafting, employees who crafted for detachment before and during, and for affiliation before the crisis, reported less burnout during the crisis. We conclude that off-job crafting may act as a buffer mechanism against burnout during the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: burnout; off-job crafting; COVID-19; longitudinal; employees; DRAMMA; prevention; Germany; Switzerland; pre-post COVID-19 study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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