Taking a break is not a guilty pleasure: improving employees’ (Gen Y) well-being through work breaks using virtual reality

Abstract

Hospitality employees today are experiencing stressful work environments such as long working hours and irregular work schedules. The exposure to inhospitable experiences results in escalation of job stress, leading to impaired psychological well-being. Work breaks, time off when work-related tasks are not required, has been considered a feasible way to enhance employees’ well-being. Previous studies have shown that work breaks are related to positive outcomes including alleviated work stress, fatigue, and increased well-being, yet there are still many unanswered questions. Thus, the current research provides empirical evidence to better understand the role of employee break room where employees spend during within-day breaks in increasing positive work-related outcome using Generation Y, born from 1982 to 2000. This study comprises two studies. Drawing from effort-recovery model (E-R Model) and the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), Study 1 examined employees’ perceptions of physical environment of employee break room (i.e., thermal comfort, air quality, lighting, acoustic quality, office layout, office furnishings, cleanliness, maintenance). In addition to that, how their perception towards the physical environment of the employee break room affects employees’ psychological well-being through a mediator of work engagement is investigated. Going further, Study 2 focused on layout of the employee break room. Specifically, I attempted to examine whether a proper layout creating private spaces with individual pods in employee break room makes an impact on perceived workplace friendship opportunities and their positive affect. For Study 1, an online survey using 311 Millennials employees who are currently working or have worked for any types of hospitality operations in the United States was conducted. For Study 2, the experiment in a pretest–posttest experimental design using Virtual Reality (VR) technique and was conducted using 90 hospitality employees. The participants wore a virtual reality headset, which allowed the participants to experience a realistic three-dimensional image of the staff break room that the participants could perceive as real. Participants were randomly presented with virtual reality models of the manipulated and existing physical environment of a staff break room. As a result, in Study 1, physical environment of employee break room was positively related to work engagement. Work engagement was also positively associated to employees’ psychological well-being. In addition, the partial mediating role of work engagement between physical environment of employee break room and employees’ psychological well-being was supported. The results of Study 2 showed that employees in employee break room with individual pods would report higher workplace friendship opportunities and positive affect. This study contributes to the literature in at least three ways. First, this study provided empirical evidence regarding the importance of within-day breaks and employee break room in a hospitality setting. Also, the current study contributed to previous hospitality literature by adopting a methodological innovation. Participants are able to be fully immersed with a virtual environment and interact with it. Thus, adopting virtual reality technique allowed this study to overcome limits of experimental method. Thirdly, this research examined work engagement as an underlying link between physical environment of employee break room and employees’ psychological well-being. Identifying this process is essential to better understand and to effectively manage their employees. My thesis provides helpful guidance to practitioners to enhance employees’ psychological well-being. Managers should maintain a favorable physical condition of the employee break room. Also, managers should configure employee break rooms in a way which employees can have opportunities both to mingle with coworkers and to secure their privacy concurrently by utilizing a movable wall or a partition.