Too anxious to help? Off-job affective rumination as a linking mechanism between work anxiety and helping

This study explores the inter-relationships of work anxiety, affective rumination, and helping behaviours. Drawing on the effort–recovery model and resource depletion perspectives to extra-role behaviours, we hypothesized that employees with higher work anxiety would affectively ruminate about work during off-job time, which in turn would diminish their helping behaviours at work. Results of a multisource, time-lagged study with 167 full-time employee-co-worker dyads supported this indirect effect model. The results of this study extend research on work anxiety to encompass extra-role behaviours and indicate the value of exploring leisure time experiences as linking mechanisms in the work anxiety–job performance relationship. Practitioner points: We identify affective rumination during off-job time as a mechanism linking work anxiety to employee helping behaviours. Our findings suggest that efforts to reduce work anxiety and encourage effective employee recovery may yield more helping behaviours at work.