The Unwelcoming Home: Telecommuting and its Influence on Workplace Incivility

Abstract

With the occurrence of recent events, the workplaces of many corporations have experienced a major shift into the virtual realm. The formation of online meetings and increased email communication has created an exemplary environment for incivility to run rampant (Liu, 2020; Park, Fritz, & Jex, 2018; Liu, 2020). From, ranging from the lack of context given by emails to the ease of ignoring co-workers in virtual meetings with a multitude of members (Liu, 2020; Park et al., 2018; Pearson, Andersson, & Porath, 2000; Park, Fritz, & Jex, 2018; Liu, 2020). Subsequently, this paper study sought to draw attention to the importance of considering incivility experienced by telecommuting employees. Specifically, data were collected from 341 N participants who were fully employed full-time. Overall, incivility was found to be positively related to burnout, withholding of effort, and work-family conflict [main effect results]. Perceived supervisor support was also shown to be negatively related to burnout, withholding of effort, and work-family conflict. Additionally, perceived supervisor support was found to significantly moderated these relationships whereby perceived supervisor support strengthened the relationships between incivility and its' outcomes [moderator results]. Telecommuting was only shown to significantly moderate the relationship between incivility and work-family conflict for those who were telecommuting, whereby the relationship between incivility and work-family conflict was strengthened for those telecommuting.