Too depleted to control yourself? Effect of customer mistreatment on after-work maladaptive behaviours through self-control capacity impairment

Drawing on self-regulation theories, the current study examined the effect of the daily experience of customer mistreatment at work on three types of maladaptive behaviours after work (impulsive buying, overeating behaviours, and mobile phone overuse) through self-control capacity impairment. Further, we investigated the moderating roles of two recovery activities at work (taking some time for relaxation and learning something new at work) on the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee self-control capacity impairment. With daily diary data collected from 57 fulltime service employees across 5 working days, our results revealed that daily experience of customer mistreatment at work was positively related to employees' impulsive buying and mobile phone overuse after work (but not overeating behaviours) via self-control capacity impairment after controlling for the mediating effect of negative affect. Besides, relaxation, but not learning, buffered the positive relationship between customer mistreatment and self-control capacity impairment. These findings shed light on further understanding the underlying mechanisms between customer mistreatment and employee maladaptive behaviours after work and strategies at work that might mitigate the negative effects of customer mistreatment.