Switching Off In Veterinary Medicine: Recovering from the Stressors of Work

You're home. Physically, you left the building hours ago. And yet somehow, your brain didn't get the memo.

You're lying on the sofa, shoes off, tea in hand - and you're still mentally triaging that consult, replaying that difficult client conversation, or quietly dreading tomorrow's list. Your body has clocked out. Your nervous system very much has not.

Sound familiar? Yeah. We see you.

This is something we talk about a lot at Vet Empowered - the gap between leaving work and actually recovering from work. They are not the same thing. And understanding why that distinction matters is one of the most useful things you can do for your long-term wellbeing.

Years ago, we came across a session on this exact topic from WellVet, delivered by Professor Elinor O'Connor, an occupational psychologist at the University of Manchester who has spent years researching stress and wellbeing specifically in the veterinary profession.

Her explanation of after-work recovery is one of those things that just makes everything click. So we wanted to bring those ideas into our world and add a few thoughts of our own.

Now that the WellVet content lives at Vet Empowered, we also get to share the exact resource with you at the end of this blog.

What is after-work recovery and switching off in veterinary, actually?

At its most basic, after-work recovery is the process of restoring your physical energy and psychological resources after the working day. Simple enough in theory. The research behind it, though, is pretty compelling - effective recovery doesn't just feel nice, it actively protects your wellbeing. If you're being exposed to stress at work, good after-work recovery helps you withstand those stressors better the next day. It's not just rest. It's a buffer.

Research in occupational psychology has identified four elements that underpin effective recovery:

• Psychological detachment - mentally disengaging from work. Not just being physically away from the practice, but genuinely not thinking about it. This one consistently shows the strongest link to wellbeing in the research.

• Relaxation - activities that lower physiological activation. Blood pressure, adrenaline, the works. This can be anything from a gentle walk to a yoga class to, yes, sitting on the sofa doing nothing. Sofa time has its place. (More on that in a moment.)

• Mastery - doing things that challenge you in a way you actually enjoy. Something that stretches you without threatening you. Hobbies that make you focus, that pull your attention somewhere entirely different from work.

• Control - having genuine autonomy over your non-work time. Deciding what you do and when you do it. This one is particularly interesting for vets, because so much of your working day involves anything-could-walk-through-that-door unpredictability. Exercising control in your own time is, in itself, restorative.

The bit that's frustrating (but important to know about)

Here's where it gets a bit circular, and we want to be honest with you about it: the more stressed you are at work, the more you need recovery - but stress actively makes recovery harder to access.

This is called the recovery paradox, and it's a real thing in occupational psychology. When you're exhausted, you don't have the energy to pursue active recovery. When you're wound up, you physically can't relax easily. And if you're someone who tends to ruminate (lying awake at 2am replaying that complaint), detaching psychologically becomes even harder.

We're not telling you this to make you feel worse. We're telling you because understanding it is genuinely helpful. When you're most depleted is precisely when you need to be most intentional about recovery - even in small ways. That's not a character flaw. That's just how the nervous system works.

Some things that can actually help

And here's where we want to add our own coaching lens, because the research is only useful if it translates into something that works for your actual life.

Create a transition ritual. 

One of the most evidence-supported tips is to mark the end of the working day with something deliberate - something that signals to your brain that work is done now. This doesn't need to be a 15-step routine. If a 15-step routine adds pressure rather than relief, it's not doing its job. It could be as simple as writing down three things to pick up tomorrow (parking them, rather than carrying them home), changing your clothes, or putting your work bag somewhere out of sight.

The commute home can do this naturally for a lot of people — and interestingly, many people who moved to working from home during COVID found they actually missed the journey back, not because they loved traffic, but because they didn't realise it was doing psychological work for them. If you work from home, it's worth consciously creating that buffer rather than just closing the laptop and walking into the kitchen.

Take the judgment off the sofa. 

If you get home and you're completely floored and all you can manage is horizontal with something gentle on in the background — that is fine. That has its place. The research doesn't say sofa time is bad. It says that only sofa time, every single evening, without any other form of engagement, is less protective than mixing in other kinds of recovery. So please, enjoy your sofa time without guilt. Just notice if it's the only thing in your toolkit.

Pursue activities that pull your attention. 

If you're someone who ruminates, activities that actively demand your focus can be particularly useful - not because you're pushing thoughts away, but because your brain has somewhere else to be. It forces psychological detachment naturally. This is one reason hobbies that involve some skill or challenge can feel so restorative, even when you're tired.

Protect your non-work time like it matters. 

Because it does. One of the principles of effective recovery is having genuine control over your time - and one simple way to exercise that is to actually schedule things you want to do. Put them in your diary. This isn't a productivity hack; it's an act of care toward yourself. If you don't protect the time, something else will fill it.

Think about your boundaries with technology. 

If you're getting work WhatsApps, emails, or messages outside of hours, your brain cannot fully detach. This is partly an individual boundary question, and partly a practice culture question. The research is clear that organisations have a role here — employers who set explicit expectations (we don't expect you to respond to out-of-hours messages) give people permission to actually switch off. If you're in a position to influence that culture, it's worth advocating for.

A note if you're reading this thinking "I can't do any of this"

Professor O'Connor made a point that we really want to echo here: if you read through all of this and feel like every single one of these things is completely beyond you right now — that's worth paying attention to. Not as a judgment, but as information. That level of depletion can be a sign that you need more support than a recovery routine can give you.

Sometimes the conversation isn't "here's how to structure your evenings" - it's "you're running on empty and you need to talk to someone."

There is no threshold you have to reach before you're allowed to ask for help.

In the UK, Vetlife offers free, confidential support specifically for the veterinary community - call 0303 040 2551 or visit vetlife.org.uk.

You can also contact NHS 111 at 111.nhs.uk or by calling 111, the Samaritans on 116 123 (free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), or text Shout on 85258.

We loved this session from WellVet

You can watch Eleanor's full presentation here:

Watch Professor O'Connor's session from the WellVet Winter Wellbeing Series