Disrespect at Work, Distress at Home: A Longitudinal Investigation of Incivility Spillover and Crossover Among Older Workers

Abstract

The prevalence of workplace mistreatment toward older adults is well-documented, yet its effects are understudied. We applied the strength and vulnerability integration model (SAVI) to hypothesize that, despite its low intensity, workplace incivility has numerous deleterious outcomes for older employees over time. Specifically, we investigated whether and how incivility relates to well-being outside of work, among both targeted employees and their partners. We drew on affective events theory to examine how incivility "spills over" to older targets' personal lives. We also tested whether incivility is potent enough to "crossover" to the well-being of older targets' partners at home. Based on longitudinal data from a national study of older workers (N = 598; 299 couples), results demonstrate that workplace incivility related to decrements in targets' affective well-being, which in turn, was associated with life dissatisfaction, interference with work, and lower overall health. Workplace incivility also predicted declines in partner well-being, although these crossover effects varied by gender: Men's postincivility affective well-being predicted their female partners' life satisfaction but not vice versa. However, women's uncivil experiences directly related to the affective well-being of their male partners. These results suggest that for both older workers and their partners, the harms of incivility eventually extend beyond the organizations where they originate.

Figure 1.

Proposed model of spillover effects (solid lines) and crossover effects (double lines) of workplace incivility. Workplace incivility was measured at T1. Affective well-being was measured at T2. Life satisfaction, overall health, and personal-life-to-work interference were measured at T3.

Figure 2.

Unstandardized / standardized path estimates (direct effects) for the empirical model. Dashed lines indicate nonsignificant paths. Not shown are the paths from neuroticism (T1 control variable) to the variables measured for each individual. PLWI = personal-life-to-work interference. *p < .05; **p < .01.