Managers’ displays of busyness predict employees’ job engagement, burnout and turnover intentions (Las muestras de laboriosidad de los superiores predicen el compromiso laboral, el agotamiento y las intenciones de rotación del personal)

Although past research has examined the personal impact of experiencing time scarcity, little is known about how signalling a lack of time affects other people’s experiences. In the present research, we examine how managers’ displays of busyness — behaviours that convey time scarcity to others — affect employees’ job-related outcomes. Managers who frequently displayed busyness in the workplace had employees who perceived lower organizational support, which predicted lower job engagement, greater job burnout and intentions to leave the organization (Study 1). Even managers’ occasional displays of busyness negatively affected employees’ job-related experiences (Study 2). Furthermore, employees with managers who frequently displayed busyness reported worse job-related outcomes when the workplace was described as functional (vs. dysfunctional) (Study 3). Together, these findings suggest that frequent and even occasional displays of managers’ busyness predict lower employee engagement, greater job burnout and desire to leave the organization, especially in highly functional work environments.