Assessing the impact of negative workplace gossip on family satisfaction: Evidence from employees in China

Despite a growing body of research regarding the detrimental effect of negative workplace gossip on employee outcomes, few studies have linked gossip to employee experiences outside work. Drawing on spillover theory and job demands and resources theory, we hypothesized that employee experiences of negative workplace gossip could undermine family satisfaction via a work-family conflict. This relationship depends on ability-based emotional intelligence. We tested this moderated mediation model using three-wave randomized data collected over 6 weeks from 286 hotel employees in China. The results indicate that negative workplace gossip diminishes family satisfaction, and this process is mediated by work-family conflicts. Ability emotional intelligence moderates the negative effect of gossip on employees’ family satisfaction such that the higher the ability emotional intelligence is, the weaker the undermining effect is. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of our research.