The emotional tax of financial insecurity: a dual-study examination of anger’s role in work behaviour

Financial insecurity, defined as a subjective appraisal that one’s financial resources are inadequate or unstable relative to current and anticipated demands, is an increasingly salient stressor with implications for work behaviour. Drawing on the stressor-emotion model, we argue that financial insecurity is associated with anger, which in turn relates to poorer workplace functioning. We tested this proposition in two multi-wave time-lagged studies. Study 1, a three-wave multi-source design with working university students in the United States (N = 190), showed that financial insecurity was indirectly associated with counterproductive work behaviour via anger, with weaker evidence for task performance. Study 2, a four-wave self-report design with full-time employees in Belgium (N = 189), replicated the indirect association between financial insecurity and counterproductive work behaviour through anger. These findings identify anger as an affective pathway linking financial insecurity to detrimental work outcomes, extend the stressor–emotion model to financial stressors, and highlight practical avenues through which organizations may mitigate the behavioural consequences of employees’ financial insecurity.