The empirical study is targeted to estimate the subjective value of rest and to analyze rest as an activity for efficient recovery. The study was conducted in employees of different industrial and service organizations. The results showed that mostly by all respondents rest is accepted as an important instrumental value for workability maintenance. At the same time, high rating positions of rest in the life values list does not always transform rest value into the intention to arrange recreation purposively. The type of attitudes to rest determines different approaches to rest arrangement: proactive (based on anticipative rest planning) or reactive (which manifest itself in acceptance of rest as necessary recreation combined with no special rest arrangements). The extraction of indirect rest attributes seems to be possible on the base of psychosemantic analysis of the notions form work and rest domains. The semantic distance evaluation of the work and rest notions allows revealing different meanings of recreation: as a forced necessity because of work and for work, or as a possibility for recovery.