Please wait until I am done! Longitudinal effects of work interruptions on employee well-being

Keller, Anita; Meier, Laurenz L.; Elfering, Achim; Semmer, Norbert (2019). Please wait until I am done! Longitudinal effects of work interruptions on employee well-being. Work & Stress, 34(2), pp. 148-167. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/02678373.2019.1579266

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Work interruptions are contemporary job stressors that occur frequently in the workplace. Theories on work interruptions and the stressor–strain relationship over time suggest that work interruptions should have a lagged negative effect on well-being. However, we argue that continued changes in work interruptions may also be important for employees’ well-being. We investigated the mid- and long-term effects of work interruptions on employee job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints across two studies (Study 1: N = 415, four waves over five years; Study 2: N = 663, five waves over eight months). Using latent growth modelling, we predicted job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints with
respect to the level of, and changes in, interruptions. Controlling for initial well-being, we found that the mean levels (intercepts) of work interruptions had negative effects on later well-being in Study 1, but not in Study 2. However, increases in interruptions over time (slopes) predicted later well-being consistently. An analysis on reversed effects revealed that only the initial level of psychosomatic complaints positively predicted work interruptions. The studies underscore not only the importance of interruptions for well-being over time in general, but also the particular importance of exposure to increases in interruptions.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Sociology

ISSN:

0267-8373

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Projects:

[1036] Transitions from Education to Employment (TREE) Official URL

Language:

English

Submitter:

Sandra Hupka-Brunner

Date Deposited:

03 Sep 2019 14:08

Last Modified:

27 Jun 2024 09:41

Publisher DOI:

10.1080/02678373.2019.1579266

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.130955

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/130955

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