Dealing with daily boredom at work: does self-control explain who engages in distractive behaviour or job crafting as a coping mechanism?

ABSTRACT This study aimed to advance insight into how employees cope with work-related boredom by developing and testing a control-process model of coping with boredom. We examined (1) the role of trait self-control in explaining whether employees cope with daily work-related boredom by engaging in distractive behaviour or job crafting, and (2) how these two coping behaviours link to changes in work-related boredom and subsequent depressed mood and job satisfaction. Data were collected among 94 participants with a general questionnaire and a 5-day diary study (with measures during the lunchbreak, n = 341, and at the end of the workday, n = 314). Multilevel path-analysis showed that trait self-control moderated the relationships of daily work-related boredom with coping, such that employees high on self-control engaged less in distractive behaviour and more in job crafting than those low on self-control. Distractive behaviour related to increased levels of subsequent work-related boredom, and – through these elevated levels – to higher depressed mood and lower job satisfaction. Job crafting was not significantly related to subsequent work-related boredom and its outcomes. Our study illustrates the importance of self-control in the boredom coping process, and underscores the ineffectiveness of distractive behaviour as a coping strategy.