J Occup Health Psychol

Surface acting (i.e., faking and suppressing emotions at work) is repeatedly linked to employee negative moods and emotional exhaustion, but the consequences may also go beyond work boundaries. We provide a unique theoretical integration of these 2 emotional labor consequences with 2 work-to-family conflict mechanisms, mood spillover and resource drain, to explain why surface acting is likely to create marital partner discontent (i.e., partner's perceived work-to-family conflict and desire for the employee to quit). A survey of 197 hotel managers and their marital partners supported that managers' surface acting was directly related to their partner wanting them to quit, and indirectly to partner's perception of work-to-family conflict via exhaustion consistent with the resource drain mechanism. Anxiety from surface acting had an indirect mediating effect on marital partner discontent through exhaustion. Importantly, controlling for dispositional negativity and job demands did not weaken these effects. Implications for theory and future research integrating work-family and emotional labor are discussed.R01HL107240/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United StatesU01 HD051217/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01AG027669/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United StatesU01HD051217/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01HD051218/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01HD051256/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01HD051276/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01HD059773/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU01OH008788/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States2016-07-01T00:00:00Z25705910PMC447821