Don’t Interrupt Me! An Examination of the Relationship Between Intrusions at Work and Employee Strain

Interruptions by others, or intrusions, are a common phenomenon in today’s workplaces. Intrusions can be disruptive for employees because they displace time required to complete job tasks (thereby increasing perceptions of workload). However, from a resources perspective, intrusions are associated with strain incrementally beyond that of displaced time through the depletion of self-regulatory and cognitive resources. That is, intrusions explain incremental variability in strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion, physical complaints, and anxiety). In a sample of 252 U.S. employees recruited through StudyResponse, we found that workload explained 12% of variability in exhaustion, 11% of variability in physical complaints, and 7% of variability in anxiety. However, intrusions accounted for significant incremental validity beyond that of workload in exhaustion (9%), physical complaints (4%), and anxiety (3%). These results suggest intrusions are associated with strain, uniquely, beyond that of workload.