Exhausted by Social Distancing at Work: Understanding the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic in Workgroups

Abstract

In the new post COVID-19 work order, we propose a multi-level model of how individual level social distancing interacts with workgroup level socio-structural support to influence employee exhaustion and performance. Drawing upon job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, we assert that workplace social distancing presents new job demands that emotionally exhaust employees and hinder their task and change-oriented performance. We further assert that job resources in the form of workgroup task interdependence and support for innovation mitigate these negative effects of social distancing. Per our expectations, multi-level modeling using time-lagged multi-source data from 231 employees and 34 managers revealed a significant relationship between social distancing and employee performance via emotional exhaustion. Further, the positive relationship between social distancing and emotional exhaustion was attenuated by workgroup task interdependence and support for innovation. Finally, moderated mediation path analyses showed that the indirect negative effect of social distancing on employee performance was weaker in workgroups with high task interdependence and high support for innovation.