To combat stress and burnout, employers are increasingly offering benefits like virtual mental health support, spontaneous days or even weeks off, meeting-free days, and flexible work scheduling. Despite these efforts and the increasing number of employees buying into the importance of wellness, the effort is lost if you don’t actually recover. So, if you feel like you’re burning out, what works when it comes to recovering from stress? The authors discuss the “recovery paradox” — that when our bodies and minds need to recover and reset the most, we’re the least likely and able to do something about it — and present five research-backed strategies for recovering from stress at work.
- PhD University of Toronto
- MA University of Toronto
- BSc University of Toronto
Dr. Cheng obtained her PhD degree in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Her research is dedicated to helping employees achieve and maintain well-being in the workplace. This includes understanding how and when workplace anxiety can enhance performance, recovering from daily job demands, and maintaining proactivity in the workplace. She has published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Her research has been featured in leading media sources such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, and Harvard Business Review.
- Leadership and People Management (Executive Education)
- Negotiation and Conflict Management (MGM)
- Workplace Wellness (MGM)
- Social Value and the Humanity of Leadership (MGM)
- Corporate Wellness
- Workplace anxiety
- Work recovery
- Proactivity
- Leadership
- Cheng, B. H. (2023). The return on kindness: How kind leadership wins talent, earns loyalty, and builds successful companies. Penguin Random House.
- Li, Y., Cheng, B. H., Yu, B., & Zhu, J. (2024). Let’s get physical! A time-lagged examination of the motivation for daily physical activity and implications for next-day performance and health. Personnel Psychology, 77(2), 917–955.
- Cheng, B. H., Zhou, Y., & Chen, F. (2023). You’ve got mail! How work e-mail activity helps anxious workers enhance performance outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 144, 103881.
- Cheng, B. H. & Li, Y. (2023). To improve your work performance, get some exercise. Harvard Business Review.
- Wong, M. H.*, Cheng, B. H.*, Lam, L., & Bamberger, P. A. (2023). Pay transparency as a moving target: A multi-step model of pay compression, i-deals, and collectivist shared values. Academy of Management Journal, 66(2), 489–520. doi: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2020.1831
*Equal contribution
- Lam, L., Cheng, B. H., Bamberger, P., & Wong, M.- N. (2022). Research: The unintended consequences of pay transparency. Harvard Business Review.
- Meister, A., Cheng, B. H., Dael, N., & Krings, F. (2022). How to recover from work stress, according to science. Harvard Business Review.
- Sonnentag, S., Cheng, B. H., & Parker, S. L. (2022). Recovery from work: Advancing the field toward the future. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-091355
- Ouyang, K., Cheng, B. H., Lam, W., & Parker, S. K. (2019). Enjoy your evening, be proactive tomorrow: How off-job experiences shape daily proactivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(8), 1003-1019. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000391
- Cheng, B. H. & McCarthy, J. (2018). A theory of workplace anxiety. Harvard Business Review.
- Cheng, B. H., & McCarthy, J. M. (2018). Understanding the dark and bright sides of anxiety: A theory of workplace anxiety. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(5), 537-560. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000266
- McCarthy, J. M., Trougakos, J. P., & Cheng, B. H. (2016). Are anxious workers less productive workers? It depends on the quality of social exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(2), 279-291. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000044
- Trougakos, J. P., Beal, D. J., Cheng, B. H., Hideg, I., & Zweig, D. (2015). Too drained to help: A resource depletion perspective on daily interpersonal citizenship behaviours. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(1), 227-236. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038082
- Trougakos, J. P., Hideg, I., Cheng, B. H., & Beal, D. J. (2014). Lunch breaks unpacked: The role of autonomy as a moderator of recovery during lunch. Academy of Management Journal, 57, 405-421. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.1072
- Cheng, B. H., & McCarthy, J. M. (2013). Managing work, family, and school roles: Disengagement strategies can help and hinder. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(3), 241-251. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032507
- Côté, S., Kraus, M. W., Cheng, B. H., Oveis, C., van der Löwe, I., Lian, H., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social power facilitates the effect of prosocial orientation on empathic accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 217-232. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0023171
- Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., Cheng, B. H., & Keltner, D. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 771-784. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020092
Book Chapters
- McCarthy, J. M., & Cheng, B. H. (2018). Through the looking glass: Employment interviews from the lens of job candidates. In U. Klehe & E. van Hooft (Eds.), Handbook of job loss and job search. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Latham, G. P., Cheng, B. H., & Macpherson, K. (2012). Theoretical frameworks for and empirical evidence on providing feedback to employees. In R. M. Sutton, M. J. Hornsey, & K. M. Douglas (Eds.), Feedback: The communication of praise, criticism, and advice. 187-201.
- Outstanding Practical Implications for Management Paper Award, OB Division, Academy of Management (2022)
- AMJ Best Reviewer Award (2021)
- Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award (2021)
- Faculty of Business Teaching Award (2019)
- Center for Leadership & Innovation (CLI) Research Fellow Award (2017)
- Best Paper Award in OB Division, Australia/New Zealand Academy of Management (2016)
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, OB Division, Academy of Management (2015)
- Best Competitive Conference Paper in OB Division, Academy of Management (2011)
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, OB Division, Academy of Management (2011)
- Editorial Board Member: Academy of Management Journal; Personnel Psychology; Journal of Organizational Behavior
- Section Editor: Stress & Health
研究人员发现焦虑与工作表现之间存在不一致的关系。尽管职场焦虑与工作表现呈负相关,而大多数人亦视职场焦虑为“黑暗面”,然而研究发现职场焦虑也有其“光明面”。本文通过一个名为职场焦虑理论 (TWA) 的综合多层次、多路径的职场模型,理顺以往有关职场焦虑的研究。此模型强调职场焦虑可能削弱或促进工作表现的过程和条件,当中亦包括十九个理论性假设。借鉴以往有关焦虑、资源枯竭、认知动机处理和表现的理论,我们把情绪耗竭、自我调节处理和认知干扰视为处理职场焦虑和工作表现关系的截然不同的方式,并发现削弱或促进职场中性格焦虑和情境焦虑的特性。透过延伸理论模型,我们确定动机、能力和情商是导致职场焦虑的关键因素,有可能削弱或促进工作表现。同时,我们也发现引致性格焦虑和情境焦虑的员工、工作和情境的特征。职场焦虑理论为研究职场焦虑提供新视野及奠定未来的职场研究基础。