Abstract
Research suggests that employees frequently attend workplace meetings and engage in
emotional labour while in meetings. Previous research suggests that emotional labour
influences employees’ need for recovery and burnout levels. However, there are limited
studies that advance the understanding about the relationship between emotional labour and
burnout within the context of workplace meetings in South Africa. Additionally, the
mediating effect of the need for recovery on the relationship between emotional labour and
burnout, specifically in the meeting context is underexplored. As such, the study set out to
determine the mediating role of the need for recovery on this relationship. For this study, a
quantitative cross-sectional research design was adopted. The following scales were
administered to a convenience sample of 291 participants: a biographical questionnaire, the
emotional labour scale, need for recovery scale; and burnout scales. The results revealed that
the need for recovery partially mediates the indirect effect of emotional labour on burnout.
The study illuminates the role of the need for recovery in the emotional labour and burnout
relationship, as well as the importance of recuperation to restore the psychological resources.
Limitations such as sampling diversity are acknowledged, with suggestions for future
research to expand on sample representativeness and explore longitudinal impacts of
emotional labour on employee well-being.
Keywords: emotional labour, burnout, need for recovery, meetings