Overview
For better or worse, the working world is a fundamental part of most of our lives. Some take it more seriously than others. In our capitalist system, where hard works is rewarded with better pay and promotions (so the theory goes) it’s become common to see coworkers burning the candle from both ends, staying late to get more work done.
To some this might seem like a noble sacrifice, contributing to society at the cost of the hard-worker’s time. But to the coworkers also seeking those limited promotions and raises, it may be viewed as overly competitive, or setting a standard that they fear their bosses will want others to follow. It could also be viewed as an inability to get the work done on time, an opposite but equally negative view.
So, do coworkers hold hard workers in esteem or disdain?
Experiment
We conducted an experiment with 400 people on Amazon Mechanical Turk in which participants were instructed to “Imagine you work in an office where almost everyone leaves around 5:00 PM. A co-worker who you just met usually chooses to [leave around that time, at 5:00 PM / work extra hours, leaving around 8:00 PM.”
Participants were then asked “How much do you like this co-worker? (1 = Not at all, 7 = Extremely)” using a 1-7 scale.
Results
If you’re a late worker, you may want to be a bit more discreet around your colleagues. In our experiment, workers who stayed late working until 8:00 PM were less liked (avg. = 4.72) than workers who left on time at 5:00 PM (avg. = 5.03). The difference amounted to about 6.2% (p = 0.013).
The results did not differ by age, gender, or political beliefs. Even those holding more conservative political views (i.e., Republicans) viewed our late worker with a twinge of contempt.
But it’s not all bad news. The effect seems to be small. In total, it was only about a quarter of a standard deviation (Cohen’s d = 0.25), which by statistical standards is a fairly small effect size. It’d be interesting to see if those who work late feel the same way toward others who work late.
In another experiment, we explored whether a similar effects exists for coworkers who talk about sacrificing sleep for work. The results were eye-opening.
Methods Note
To test for significant differences in likability between our experimental conditions, we used an independent samples t-test. For statistically significant results, the difference between the averages of the two groups would be large, and the corresponding “p-value” would be small (p < 0.05). This indicates that if we were to replicate the study with the same population, we would likely obtain a similar effect. Additionally, we utilized OLS regression analyses with interaction terms to explore potential significant interactions between the main results and participant demographics, such as political beliefs.
Data and survey materials used for this experiment are available upon request.