Job Satisfaction Across the Workweek

Abstract: The present study tested different perspectives on the time course of job satisfaction over the workweek: the “rested and recharged” perspective, the “Monday blues” perspective, and the “Thank God it’s Friday” perspective. A sample of 330 employees reported on an affect scale of job satisfaction during the workweek and on explicit and implicit affect at the start of the study. The results from discontinuous growth model analyses found evidence for a positive peak at the end of the week, from Thursday to Friday. Explicit negative affect at the beginning of the week was associated with lower affective job satisfaction at the beginning of the week, but with a higher rate of growth in affective job satisfaction over the course of the week. The results provide new insights into the time course of job satisfaction during the workweek and indicate a distinction between affective and cognitive components of job satisfaction.