Workplace Telepressure and Worker Well-Being: The Intervening Role of Psychological Detachment

Workplace telepressure—an employee’s preoccupation and urge to respond quickly to work-related messages via information and communication technologies (ICTs)—may be associated with negative well-being outcomes for workers. The present study expands upon past work on ICT-related stressors and worker well-being with an examination of the presumed role of lower psychological detachment from work in the relationships between workplace telepressure and negative worker outcomes. A three-wave web-based survey with 234 employed adults confirmed between-person associations between workplace telepressure and lower psychological detachment from work, higher levels of exhaustion (physical and cognitive), and more sleep problems. Moreover, results supported the predicted indirect effect of workplace telepressure to physical exhaustion and sleep problems through psychological detachment at the between-person level. Results also showed a negative indirect effect of workplace telepressure through psychological detachment on within-person variation in work engagement, despite the positive bivariate association between workplace telepressure and engagement (absorption). Finally, exploratory analyses suggested that workplace telepressure might be a stronger predictor of exhaustion when ICT connection demands at work are low. We discuss implications for workplace telepressure in terms of both health impairment and motivational processes with respect to work recovery.