The Furr-Recovery Method: Interacting with Furry Co-Workers during Work Time Is a Micro-Break That Recovers Workers’ Regulatory Resources and Contributes to Their Performance
Ana Junça Silva
Abstract
Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and the recovery step model our research expands on a cognitive (regulatory resources) mechanism that links human–animal interactions and employee performance. This study aimed to explore whether daily human–animal interactions during worktime would be conceived as a daily-recovery process that restores the individual’s daily regulatory resources and, as a result, improves daily adaptive and task performance. To test this, a daily diary study during 10 working days, with 105 teleworkers was performed (N = 105 × 10 = 1050). Multilevel results demonstrated that daily interactions between human and their pets served to recover their daily regulatory resources that, in turn, improved daily task-and-adaptive performance. This research not only expands our theoretical understanding of regulatory resources as a cognitive mechanism that links human-animal interactions to employee effectiveness but also offers practical implications by highlighting the recovery role of interacting with pets during the working day, as a way to restore resources needed to be more effective at work.