Purpose: – Different studies underline that perceived job insecurity (PJI) has negative consequences at both individual and organisational level. Some authors investigated PJI in temporary agency workers (TAWs) but these studies did not focus on specific countries and did not discuss the relationship with job exhaustion. Other researchers explored gender differences in PJI and found different results; some investigated differences in PJI perception and others its relationship with the outcome of stress or well-being. The purpose of this paper is to inquire about the effects of PJI (as a demanding condition) on job exhaustion, considering the mediation role of workload and exploring differences between male and female TAWs. Design/methodology/approach: – This research involved 474 Portuguese TAWs (209 men, 265 women). Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire; data analyses were performed using IBM Spss Statistics 22 for descriptive statistics, correlations and t-test; Mplus7 was used to estimate a multi-group structural equation model and to test the mediation. Findings: – The results confirmed that workload is a mediator and indicated gender differences in how PJI relates to workload and job exhaustion in TAWs. In fact, the mediation of workload in the relationship between PJI and job exhaustion was partial in men and total in women: in the women group the direct effect of PJI on job exhaustion is not significant, and the indirect effect mediated by workload is significant; in the men group both direct and indirect effects are significant. Originality/value: – This paper contributes to extend the research on job insecurity of TAWs in a specific national context and highlights gender differences in the relationship between PJI and job exhaustion.

For workers, perceived job insecurity represents a threat and an obstacle towards achieving a decent and sustainable dimension of wellbeing at work and in life. Using the theoretical background of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, the aim of this study is to deepen the relation between subjective job insecurity, self-related health and life satisfaction considering the effect of personal resources, such as specific coping strategies that people may undertake facing job insecurity perceptions. The hypotheses were tested in a convenience sample of 769 employees in France. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Science (IBM SPSS). Results showed that job insecurity was negatively related to self-reported health and life satisfaction; furthermore, problem-focused coping of the type of job, social support and training searching behaviors resulted in worsening this negative relationship. This study expanded the understanding of coping in the context of job insecurity and showed the limitations that proactive coping strategies have against job insecurity. These results encourage the debate on how far is it possible to attain sustainable wellbeing by relying on personal resources when job insecurity is experienced.

Purpose: – Temporary agency workers (TAWs) have a double employment relationship: one with the agency that hires them with a formal contract, either temporary or permanent; and another with the client organization where they actually perform their work. As the social-exchange theory assumes that TAWs respond to the support they receive from both organizations with affective commitment toward the respective organization. The purpose of this paper is to propose that the type of contract with the agency moderates these relationships, specifically that permanent TAWs present a stronger relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) toward the agency and, to the contrary, that temporary TAWs show a greater relationship between POS and AOC toward the client.Design/methodology/approach: – The hypotheses were tested with a sample of 522 Portuguese TAWs, of which 265 were temporaries and 257 were permanents. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with multigroup analysis using the AMOS program.Findings: – The authors verified that POS from both the employment agency and the client organization were related to the TAWs’ affective commitment to each respective organization. Furthermore, the relationship between POS from the employment agency and the affective commitment to this organization was stronger in permanent than in temporary TAWs. However, contrary to the expectations, the contract with the agency did not moderate the relationship with client organizations: temporary and permanent TAWs showed a similar relationship between POS from this organization and their affective commitment toward it.Practical implications: – These findings show the important organizational role of both the employment agency and the client in supporting their TAWs and attending to the type of contract they have with the employment agency.Originality/value: – This paper contributes to the analysis of the TAWs’ double employment relationship and highlights the role of the agency contract in the explanation of these relationships.

In the context of the New Normal and the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) era, organisations face adjustments to the changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the shifting to new work modes and configurations with their consequences on employees’ wellbeing, in terms of exhaustion, resignation, and quitting tendencies. This study, rooted in the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, employs a primary prevention perspective to examine a relational factor, the leader–member exchange (LMX), which might shield employees from exhaustion and turnover intention. Specifically, we propose a double-chained mediation model to investigate how high-quality LMX fosters a positive adjustment to employees’ specific work modes, in-person or hybrid work, subsequently reducing employees’ feelings of exhaustion and their intentions to leave the organisation. A convenience sample of 257 Italian employees participated in this study by completing an online self-report survey. Hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro in SPSS 25.0 (Model 6). The results indicate that positive LMX and adjustment to the work mode reduce exhaustion and turnover intention; furthermore, they highlight the existence of a more complex dynamic linking LMX to turnover intention through a double-chained mediation of adjustment to the work mode and exhaustion. Indeed, higher LMX quality favours adjustment to the work mode, decreasing employees’ feelings of exhaustion and, in turn, their turnover intention. Specifically, the findings of this study add a novel contribution to the literature on the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development by emphasising the significance of positive LMX in becoming a factor of wellbeing and sustainability in the workplace through the promotion of the adjustment to both in-person and hybrid work modes. Organisations may benefit of this approach to LMX that, through the consideration of employees’ needs, may favour their adjustment to different work modes, thus becoming a sustainable LMX, and a promoter of employees’ wellbeing and retention.

Background: Since previous studies have shown that the request of off-work technology-assisted supplemental work (off-TASW) can contribute to blurring the boundaries between the work and family domain by increasing work- family conflict (WFC), the purpose of this study is to go further, investigating how this relationship impacts stress perceptions. Method: A cross-sectional study that involved a sample of 221 French workers was carried out using a self-reported questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed by IBM SPSS 25.0 software, and a mediation model was tested. Results: The results showed that off-TASW was associated with higher levels of WFC (b=.32; p=.000), which was in turn associated with stress perceptions (b=.42; p=.000). Conclusions: This study contributes to un- derstanding how the intrusion of technologies during off-work times impacts workers’ perceptions of psychological wellbeing through work-family conflict. These findings should encourage the debate on the risks of staying connected to work through technologies during off-work and leisure time and stimulate the promotion of campaigns to make workers aware of their right to disconnection, to the benefits of detachment from work and recovery experiences.

Purpose: The negative consequences of job insecurity on the well-being of individuals are well known. However, the perceptions of job insecurity over time and how some factors such as social support may affect them have received limited attention. This study follows precarious schoolteachers for three weeks before the end of their contract to explore how their perceptions of job insecurity evolve over time.Design/methodology/approach: The participants were 47 precarious schoolteachers who first completed a general questionnaire, then a diary survey on nine occasions over the course of the three weeks. Data was analysed with MPLUS 7.3.Findings: The results suggest intra-individual differences regarding the way job insecurity was perceived over time. An additional discovery was that support provided by the school principal was negatively related to changes in job insecurity over time.Research limitations/implications: The relatively small sample size, which includes only precarious schoolteachers, and the methodology complexity of the diary are limitations of this study.Practical implications: This study highlights the subjective nature of the perceptions of job insecurity. It also shows the importance of the school principal's social support towards precarious schoolteachers; therefore, practitioners should propose interventions to enhance the quality of principal–teachers relationships.Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by investigating how perceptions of job insecurity evolve over time and the role of social support.