Here Today but Not Gone Tomorrow: Incivility Affects After-Work and Next-Day Recovery

Nicholson, Tahnee
Griffin, Barbara

¹Department of Psychology, Macquarie University

This article was published Online First November 17, 2014.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tahnee Nicholson, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia, 2109. [email protected]

Received January 30, 2014

Revision received October 3, 2014

Accepted October 14, 2014

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 20(2):p 218-225, April 2015. | DOI: 10.1037/a0038376

This study examined the relation between daily incivility and afterwork recovery, hypothesizing that workplace incivility would have a negative effect on situational wellbeing, afterwork recovery experiences (psychological detachment and relaxation) and next-morning recovery level. Daily surveys were completed on 5 consecutive workdays by 175 employees in the legal industry. Multilevel analyses controlling for the daily number of hours worked showed that day-level incivility was negatively related to afterwork situational wellbeing and psychological detachment, but not to relaxation. Incivility experienced on 1 day also predicted recovery level the following morning. Results emphasize the ongoing impact of rudeness and disrespect in the workplace on employee wellbeing and offer an explanation for the long-term negative outcomes of what is typically thought of as a less severe workplace stressor.