ABSTRACT Many employees experience a career plateau (CP) with potentially negative consequences. Previous research has established the effects of CPs on well‐being, whereas the potential boundary conditions of these effects and the resulting crossover effects for life partners have been largely neglected. Based on the conservation of resources and social exchange theories, this study examined the negative effects of hierarchical and content CPs on well‐being and whether these effects are moderated by the importance attributed to success at work. Based on the spillover–crossover model, we also tested whether CPs are indirectly linked to a lower well‐being of the partner sequentially through the reduced well‐being of the focal employee and reduced social support provided to the partner by the focal employee. We tested our hypotheses based on data spanning 7 years, with a large representative sample of 2489 employees in Switzerland and their partners (480 dyads). Controlling for baseline levels of the outcome variables, the results indicated that a content, though not a hierarchical, CP was associated with lower employee well‐being, irrespective of work success importance. Furthermore, a content CP was indirectly associated with lower well‐being of the partner 1 year later, also accounting for the effects of the partner's baseline level of well‐being. Our results underline the importance of considering the broader effects of CPs on the well‐being of employees and their partners.
Steiner et al. (Mon,) studied this question.