Shop Back Our Control: How Emotional Labor Affects Employee Impulsive Buying

The consequences of emotional labor in the workplace have been extensively explored; however, limited research has addressed its spillover effects into non-work domains. Drawing on ego depletion theory, this study posits that emotional labor exhausts an individual’s self-control resources, thereby leading to impulsive buying behavior during non-work hours. Additionally, we examine whether this negative spillover effect is more pronounced for those employees experiencing high levels of workplace loneliness compared to those with low levels. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a three-wave, time-lagged survey involving 275 full-time employees in the UK and analyzed a moderated mediation model. The findings reveal that ego depletion mediates the relationship between emotional labor and impulsive buying behavior outside of work. Notably, this mediation effect is stronger for employees who report higher levels of workplace loneliness. These results highlight how emotional labor, as a self-control demanding task, combined with a lonely work environment, can deplete personal self-control resources and adversely affect functioning in non-work domains. This study contributes to ego depletion theory by demonstrating that emotional labor and relational disconnection may deplete self-control resources. Furthermore, it enriches the literature on emotional labor and consumer behavior by uncovering the spillover effects of emotional labor and identifying an antecedent of impulsive buying within the work domain.