I'd rather know what to expect … Work unpredictability as contemporary work stressor with detrimental implications for employees’ daily wellbeing

Particularly in knowledge-intensive jobs, employees are increasingly challenged by complex and dynamically changing work tasks. These developments make it difficult for to anticipate a day's upcoming tasks associated activities including methods, time requirements, potential problems arising the process. We present three arguments why this unpredictability represents contemporary occupational stressor causing that affects until beyond working hours is thus with lower daily wellbeing evening: Work can be perceived as lack of control at work, mastery expectancies, might add high-effort planning self-regulation demands employees’ psychological workload. In diary study 105 employees, we collected 666 observations measurement occasions over two weeks. The results supported our hypotheses demonstrated relates negatively evening serenity via elevated strain levels after work. relationships were also found when controlling pressure representative an established stressor. conclude so far neglected should receive more research attention future.