21965: The Hidden Pitfalls of Flexibility: How Work Flexibility Can Promote Strain Through Telepressure (session 25499)

This study examines the potential drawbacks of work flexibility ability, defined as the ability of individuals to move between work and home domains. Drawing from job demands resources theory and utilizing a three-wave panel of 266 employees from diverse occupations, we test a model that demonstrates how flexibility can increase strain, rather than mitigate it. We find that work flexibility ability can increase telepressure – defined as a sense of preoccupation with work-related messages – but only among individuals with a high future focus. Furthermore, a greater sense of telepressure was linked to both exhaustion and work interference with family (WIF). Indirect effects revealed that for individuals with a high future focus, flexibility increased exhaustion and WIF via greater telepressure. This study highlights the paradoxical role of resources, such as flexibility in work arrangements, in facilitating both motivation and strain outcomes. It reveals that resources such as flexibility, when combined with a future temporal focus, can lead to exhaustion and WIF. Employees utilizing flexible work policies can mitigate stress by setting clear boundaries with communication technology to avoid experiencing a chronic preoccupation with work.

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