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Uncertainty is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, because uncertainty is an aversive state, uncertainty reduction theory (URT) holds that employees try to manage it by obtaining information. To date, most evidence for the effectiveness of obtaining information to reduce uncertainty stems from research conducted in relatively stable contexts wherein employees can acquire consistent information. Yet, research on crises and news consumption provides reasons to believe that the potential for information to mitigate uncertainty as specified by URT may break down during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating URT with research on crises and news consumption, we predict that consuming news information during crises—which tends to be distressing, constantly evolving, and inconsistent—will be positively related to uncertainty. This in turn may have negative implications for employee goal progress and creativity; two work outcomes that take on substantial significance in times of uncertainty and the pandemic. We further predict that death anxiety will moderate this relationship, such that the link between employees’ news consumption and uncertainty is stronger for those with lower levels of death anxiety, compared to those with higher levels. We test our theorizing via an experience-sampling study with 180 full-time employees, with results providing support for our conceptual model. Our study reveals important theoretical and practical implications regarding information consumption during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Despite academic and practical advice regarding the virtues of daily routines for effective work performance, such routines are vulnerable to disruption from any number of sources. To understand whether and how routine disruptions affect employees at work, we draw on cognitive energetics theory (CET) and explore the potential negative consequences of morning routine disruptions on employees’ energy allocations at work. Moreover, given that CET is fundamentally a theory of goal attainment, we examine the downstream impact of routine disruptions on employees’ work goal progress. Results from two daily experience‐sampling studies show that when employees’ morning routines were disrupted, employees experienced higher levels of depletion and reduced calmness. In turn, depletion was associated negatively, and calmness was associated positively, with daily work engagement. Finally, daily work engagement was positively related to subsequent daily goal progress. These findings have important implications for our understanding of employees’ morning routines and the ways that disruptions to those routines ripple through employees’ workdays.

Although extant research has shown that abusive supervision is a destructive and immoral form of leader behavior, theory provides conflicting perspectives on how supervisors respond to their own abusive behavior. We therefore draw upon and integrate moral cleansing theory and impression management and construction theory to explore whether and when supervisors engage in genuine reparations or impression management following episodes of abusive behavior. Results taken from a 3-week, experience sampling study of supervisors suggest support for the impression management path; following episodes of abusive behavior, supervisors higher on symbolized moral identity become more concerned with their image, and thus engage in increased ingratiation, self-promotion, and exemplification toward their subordinates. In contrast, we found no support for the genuine, moral cleansing path. This study thus extends knowledge regarding supervisors' responses to their own abusive behavior, challenging the existing notion that such responses are genuine and focused on addressing the moral implications of the behavior.