Massive disruptions to work and threats to employee well-being due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have highlighted the need to identify resources which enable employees to gain other valuable resources. Using a resource gain perspective, we examined the role of living a calling as a potentially robust resource, enabling employees to gain work readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and, in turn, resulting in a greater well-being in the form of lower job strain. Using a sample of clergy (N = 216) from various denominations, we provide initial evidence that living a calling may be associated with lower levels of job strain through increased COVID-19 work readiness. This study underscores the relevance of living a calling in a time of high potential or actual loss of resources.
Using self-determination theory among a sample of student employees, the present cross-sectional study (N = 358) examines how mentors' interpersonal behaviors relate to both motivation at work and motivation for a mentoring relationship and how these two contexts of motivation can differentially relate to mentees' work outcomes. Results revealed that mentors' need-supportive interpersonal behaviors were associated with greater autonomous motivation at work and in the mentoring relationship and, in turn, to greater well-being and work engagement, and to lower turnover intentions. In contrast, need-thwarting interpersonal behaviors were associated with greater controlled motivation at work and in the mentoring relationship and, in turn, to lower well-being and work engagement, and to greater turnover intentions. Overall, this study illustrates the impact of the mentor-mentee relationship on motivation for work and for the mentoring relationship and provided support for the contribution of both motivational contexts in the work-related outcomes of employees in the workplace.

