Don’t interrupt me! An examination of the relationship between intrusions at work and employee strain.

Abstract

Interruptions by others, or intrusions, are a common phenomenon in today’s workplaces. Intrusions can be disruptive for employees because they displace time required to complete job tasks (thereby increasing perceptions of workload). However, from a resources perspective, intru-sions are associated with strain incrementally beyond that of displaced time through the depletion of self-regulatory and cognitive resources. That is, intrusions explain incremental variability in strain (i.e., emo-tional exhaustion, physical complaints, and anxiety). In a sample of 252 U.S. employees recruited through StudyResponse, we found that workload explained 12 % of variability in exhaustion, 11 % of variability in physical complaints, and 7 % of variability in anxiety. However, intrusions ac-counted for significant incremental validity beyond that of workload in exhaustion (9%), physical complaints (4%), and anxiety (3%). These results suggest intrusions are associated with strain, uniquely, beyond that of workload.