Can venting hamper high emotionally intelligent recipient's reattachment to work?

PurposeThis study investigates how healthcare workers' venting - an emotion-focused form of coping during non-working hours - has unintended costs via its effect on spouses' reattachment to work if life partners are dual-earners. Research also examined anxiety as a causal mechanism that connects the receipt of venting with failure in reattachment to work. Lastly, our theory suggests that not everyone has the same experience with venting; the effect varies at different levels of emotional intelligence.Design/methodology/approachMultilevel path analysis using MPlus 8.3 was conducted to examine the daily survey data obtained from 101 spouses of healthcare workers over four consecutive workdays using the experience sampling technique.FindingsThe results suggested that receipt of venting increases anxiety and adversely influences reattachment to work through increased anxiety. The findings supported the suggested model's predictions, indicating that anxiety mediated the link between the receipt of venting and reattachment to work, and the mediation was partial. Further, emotional intelligence buffers the positive effect of receipt of venting on anxiety and the negative on reattachment to work. Lastly, the findings indicate that moderated mediation exists: the indirect effect of receipt of venting on reattachment to work is not as strong at higher levels of emotional intelligence.Originality/valueThis study is the first attempt that identified the receipt of venting as a predictor of reattachment to work. Moreover, up till now, no study has examined the mediating role of anxiety in the relationship between receipt of venting and reattachment to work. Finally, this is the preliminary effort that validated the moderating role of emotional intelligence on the above-mentioned links.