Transforming Workplace Irritation into Well-Being Through Positive Solitude and Social Interactions—An Attention Recovery Perspective

Workplace irritation is a prevalent phenomenon in the hospitality industry and has detrimental effects on both individual and organisational outcomes. Whereas prior research has examined this toxic phenomenon, how irritated employees recover from such status has received limited attention. Based on the principles of attention restoration theory, the current study conceptualises the recovery process from workplace irritation as the restoration of attention and develops a dual-path, moderated-mediation model. Irritated employees may engage in dual parallel recovery paths: positive solitude and social interactions, which thereby enhance their subjective well-being. Furthermore, we employ extraversion as a moderator to regulate engagement across the dual paths. Using a multi-wave survey data collected from 356 hotel employees in China, our findings reveal that both positive solitude and social interactions mediate the relationship between workplace irritation and subjective well-being. Furthermore, our findings also support the moderating role of extraversion within the social interactions path. However, this study does not support a moderating role for this variable within the positive solitude path.