Does work-related ICT use after hours (WICT) exhaust both you and your spouse? The spillover-crossover mechanism from WICT to emotional exhaustion

Employees’ work-related use of information and communication technologies after hours (WICT) is associated with lower well-being. Based on the spillover-crossover model, we predicted that WICT would be associated with work-related emotional exhaustion of both employees and their spouses; based on the effort-recovery model, we predicted that recovery, and spouses’ support for recovery, would mediate these associations. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaire data were collected from both spouses in a sample of 267 dual-earner couples. The conceptual model and gender differences were tested using the actor-partner interdependence model for distinguishable dyads with structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, there was evidence of a spillover process in which employees’ WICT was associated with their work-related emotional exhaustion, and this association was mediated by their recovery experience. The evidence of crossover was different for husbands and wives. As expected, husbands’ WICT was associated with wives’ work-related emotional exhaustion; this association was mediated by wives’ perception of lower recovery support and in turn a poorer recovery experience. However, contrary to expectations, this two-step mediation process was not significant when it was the wife who engaged in WICT. The results have theoretical relevance as well as practical implications for organizations and dual-earner couples who want to mitigate work-related emotional exhaustion.