Boredom is a common emotional experience at work and may therefore fluctuate over time. An important question is how employees respond to changes in work-related boredom. The present study therefore examined (1) if changes in work-related boredom relate to changes in depressed mood and frustration and if job control moderates these associations, and (2) if changes in those affective outcomes mediate the relationships between changes in work-related boredom and changes in procrastination and counterproductive work behaviour. We also explored whether these associations occur concurrently or lagged. Survey data were collected in a three-wave design with six weeks between waves (n t1 = 1018; n t2 = 750; n t3 = 547). Latent change scores analyses showed that changes in work-related boredom were positively associated with concurrent (but not lagged) changes in depressed mood and frustration, and that these relationships were weaker for higher levels of job control. Changes in depressed mood and frustration mediated the positive relationships between changes in work-related boredom and concurrent (but not lagged) changes in procrastination and counterproductive work behaviour. These findings show how changes in work-related boredom co-occur with changes in negative affect and work behaviour, and suggest that increases in boredom are accompanied by concurrent changes in these outcomes.
We argue that better sleep quality might not always predict better work performance, especially when considering both activated affective pathways (positive and negative) and the level of analysis (daily within-person changes versus between-person differences). We examined the link between sleep quality and task proactivity via activated positive and negative affect for five consecutive working days (N = 149). On days with better sleep quality, participants reported higher task proactivity via higher activated positive affect; however, they also reported lower task proactivity via lower activated negative affect. Thus, at the within-person level, daily sleep quality had a null relationship with daily task proactivity when considering both activated affective pathways. However, at the between-person level, general sleep quality had a positive overall relationship with general task proactivity through both higher activated positive affect and lower activated negative affect. In summary, we find that an especially good or bad night's sleep does not predict task proactivity the following day; however, general levels of sleep quality are positively related to general task proactivity. Theoretically, we suggest that the activated negative affect resulting from poor sleep can be conceptualised as a motivational resource at the daily within-person level, but a resource drain at the between-person level.
