Living with a green-eyed monster: understanding why and when employees’ experience of workplace envy impacts spouses’ marital satisfaction

Envy, as an unpleasant emotion, can result from upward social comparisons in the work environment. Understanding how employees cope with envy and its consequences is practically vital. In my dissertation, I explore various types of employee coping behaviors outside of work hours in response to workplace envy and such behaviors’ downstream impacts on spouses’ marital satisfaction. I found that employees’ engagement in socialization with work members (e.g., coworkers, supervisors) outside of traditional work hours adversely impacted spouses’ marital satisfaction. Results also showed that when envious employees were high in work role identification (i.e., psychological salience of one’s work role), such employees were more likely to engage in socialization with coworkers and/or supervisors outside of work. Employees’ experience of workplace envy also undermined spouses’ marital satisfaction. When publicizing results in front of employees (e.g., announcing an employee’s promotion), managers should be mindful as this message may impact employees’ spouses who are not affiliated with the same company. Managers may also create a culture preventing social events from occurring outside of work. Organizations can also select employees who view their work role as psychologically important and can provide training to enhance employees’ work role identity.