Rest as Strategy: The Importance of Psychological Detachment From Work for Sustained Career Productivity

Faculty members often face implicit pressure to maintain work engagement during periods intended for rest. These pressures normalize visible busyness and subtly devalue physical and mental restoration as secondary to constant availability. Despite concerted calls to support faculty well-being, working during evenings, weekends, and holidays remains culturally acceptable and, at times, is applauded as a sign of professional commitment. We draw on organizational behavior literature to examine how these norms undermine rest, conceptualized here as psychological detachment, and reframe detachment as essential to sustained performance. Psychological detachment is a multidimensional process crucial for recovery that involves mentally disengaging from work during nonwork time, allowing depleted cognitive and emotional resources to be restored. Stress-recovery research demonstrates that persistent work engagement beyond reasonable work hours is detrimental to well-being, creativity, and long-term productivity, whereas regular psychological detachment improves performance, work engagement, growth, and career vitality. We specify what does and does not constitute psychological detachment and acknowledge the barriers to detachment, which include elevated workloads, administrative responsibilities, preferences for integrated work-life arrangements, and varying work schedules. We recommend that institutions and faculty adopt deliberate practices that protect and promote rest as a core component of academic work. The Academy should recognize rest as a strategic enabler of sustainable faculty careers and personal well-being as an alternative to productivity gained from self-sacrificial overwork.