Longing for the Recent Past: The Dual Effects of Daily Nostalgia on Employee Performance

Abstract

Employees’ daily work routines, including commutes, lunch breaks, workplace artifacts, and conversations with coworkers, are vital rituals that create order and meaning, generate a sense of connection, and restore energy. However, the abrupt transition to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the norms and routines that defined the workplace environment, and employees are grieving this loss. In this study, we draw from the emotion-centered model of work behavior and the dual nature of ambivalence to explore countervailing effects of daily nostalgia—a sentimental longing for the past—on employee performance. In a sample of employed adults recruited from a Northeast US University’s alumni database and LinkedIn (n = 109), we used an experience sampling method (ESM) to capture within-individual variation in nostalgia over a three-week period. Results of multilevel path analysis showed, on one hand, nostalgia increased employees’ enactment of approach strategies (e.g., reappraising one’s situation), which translated into heightened organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB); on the other hand, nostalgia increased employees’ enactment of avoidance strategies (e.g., procrastination), which reduced daily task performance and increased daily counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). Unexpectedly, results showed higher trait-level future temporal focus exacerbated the positive effect of nostalgia on avoidance strategies. Taken together, results suggest nostalgia embodies a complex mix of ambivalent emotions that impact individuals’ response strategies and, ultimately, performance.