The Effect of Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hours on Emotional Exhaustion: The Role of Psychological Detachment and Work-Family Segmentation Preference

The increasing advancement of communication technology has led to a rise in the prevalence of work connectivity behavior after-hours, which offers employees greater flexibility in their work schedules but also has certain drawbacks. In this paper, 308 retail employees in Shanghai were selected as the research participants. The effort-recovery model and work-family boundary theory were applied to investigate the effect of work connectivity behavior after-hours on emotional exhaustion. The results show that work connectivity behavior after-hours positively affects emotional exhaustion. Psychological detachment mediates work connectivity behavior after-hours and emotional exhaustion. Work-family segmentation preference moderates work connectivity behavior after-hours and psychological detachment, and when work-family segmentation preference is higher, the negative effect of work connectivity behavior after-hours on psychological detachment is stronger. Given that work connectivity behavior after-hours is a relatively new work phenomenon, this study explores the mechanism of its impact on the emotional exhaustion of employees in the retail industry and provides some practical implications for human resource management in the retail industry.