When burnout tips the scales against you: An experimental investigation of employees’ burnout history in layoff decisions

Philippe Sterkens ()
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Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: Studies have shown that workers with a history of burnout are penalised in the labour market through lower hiring and promotion probabilities. The current study contributes to this body of literature by analysing how the formerly burned-out fare in the setting of a layoff. To do so, a vignette experiment is conducted among 197 managers who rated employees varying, amongst others characteristics, in their employment history at the organisation. Hence, I find that employees who have experienced burnout are more likely to be selected for a layoff than workers without an interruption in their working record, regardless of their current performance level and current health. In addition, the effect of burnout on the likeliness to be selected for layoff is more pronounced among older managers and varies by the respondents’ socially desirable response tendencies.

Keywords: Burnout; Layoff; Vignette experiment; Social desirability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2022-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:22/1047

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