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Two Tales of Rumination and Burnout: Examining the Effects of Boredom and Overload
Author(s) -
Sousa Teresa,
Neves Pedro
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/apps.12257
Subject(s) - boredom , rumination , disengagement theory , burnout , psychology , emotional exhaustion , technostress , social psychology , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , cognition , medicine , gerontology , neuroscience , psychiatry
Although boredom poses serious consequences for employees and organizations, research has paid little attention to this phenomenon, especially when compared to other job experiences such as overload. Building upon the Effort‐Recovery Model, our study examines the impact of these two sub‐optimal experiences, characterized by under‐ and over‐stimulation, on burnout via three facets of rumination. Using a time lagged design with three measurement moments and a sample of 152 participants, we found partial support for our hypotheses. Boredom and overload led to emotional exhaustion and disengagement 2 weeks later, via an increase in affective rumination. Overload also increased emotional exhaustion via reduced detachment, yet boredom reduced emotional exhaustion by facilitating detachment. These findings stress the importance of addressing boredom as a pervasive, although often silent, workplace phenomenon.