Need for recovery among male technical distal on-call workers

The objectives of this study were to (1) examine whether need for recovery differs between workers (i) not on-call, (ii) on-call but not called and (iii) on-call and called, and (2) investigate the associations between age, health, work and social characteristics with need for recovery for the three scenarios (i–iii). Cross-sectional data of N = 169 Dutch distal on-call workers were analysed with multivariate logistic regression. Need for recovery differed significantly between the three scenarios (i–iii), with lowest need for recovery for scenario (i) ‘not on-call’ and highest need for recovery for scenario (iii) ‘on-call and called’. Poor mental health and high work–family interference were associated with higher need for recovery in all three scenarios (i–iii), whereas high work demands was only associated with being on-call (ii and iii). The results suggest that the mere possibility of being called affects the need for recovery, especially in workers reporting poor mental health, high-work demands and work–family interference.
Practitioner summary:
On-call work is a scarcely studied but demanding working time arrangement. We examined need for recovery and its associations with age, health, work and social characteristics among distal on-call workers. The results suggest that the mere possibility of being called can affect worker well-being and need for recovery.
Keywords: work schedule tolerance, health, work–family interference, age