Detach to Thrive: Psychological Detachment from Work and Employee Well-Being

Mehrzad B. Baktash () and Lisa Pütz ()
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Mehrzad B. Baktash: University of Trier
Lisa Pütz: RWTH Aachen University

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2025, vol. 26, issue 4, No 7, 31 pages

Abstract: Abstract Psychological detachment from work implies mentally disconnecting from work during off-job time. Using representative longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we identify psychological detachment from work as a key driver of employee well-being. This finding holds for a broad set of well-being indicators, including emotional responses, job satisfaction, life domain satisfactions, and global life satisfaction. Importantly, heterogeneity analyses reveal that detachment affects different subgroups of employees to a similar extent, indicating that the impact of detachment on employee well-being is universal. We further find that detachment mattered for employee well-being before as well as during the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, organizations and policy makers could foster psychological detachment to increase employee well-being. Given that employees nowadays search for happiness at work, ensuring psychological detachment becomes also relevant in the war for talent.

Keywords: Psychological detachment from work; Well-being; Job satisfaction; Life satisfaction; GSOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00883-7

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