How employee pandemic fears may escalate into a lateness attitude, and how a safe organizational climate can mitigate this challenge

PurposeThis study aims to understand how and when employees' pandemic fears influence their lateness attitude, with a particular focus on how this influence is mediated by emotional exhaustion and moderated by a perceived safety climate.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected among employees in the retail sector.FindingsA core mechanism that explains the escalation of pandemic fears into beliefs that tardiness is acceptable is employees' sense that employees are emotionally overextended by work. The extent to which employees perceive that their organization prioritizes safety issues subdues this detrimental process though.Practical implicationsFor human resource management (HRM) practice, the findings point to the notable danger that employees who cannot stop ruminating about an external crisis, and feel emotionally overburdened as a result, might compromise their own organizational standing by devoting less effort to punctuality. To disrupt this dynamic, HR managers can create organizational climates that emphasize safety practices.Originality/valueThis study adds to HRM research by revealing a pertinent source of personal adversity, pandemic fears, and how the fears affects tendencies to embrace tardiness at work. The study explicates how emotional exhaustion functions as a core conduit that connects this resource-draining condition with propensities to show up late, as well as how safety climate perceptions can buffer this translation.