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The aim of this paper is to draw on gender role theory and the stressor‐strain literature to examine sex differences in emotional exhaustion. The paper also investigates a mediating mechanism (i.e. work‐family conflict) and a boundary condition (i.e. ratio between actual and desired work hours, termed overemployment/underemployment) of the sex – emotional exhaustion relationship.

Using a sample of 3,114 respondents, the paper analyzes the hypothesized moderated mediation model using Edwards and Lambert's framework.

The paper found support for the authors' model, suggesting that overemployed women are more likely to experience work‐family conflict and emotional exhaustion than men. However, when individuals work fewer hours than desired, men are more susceptible to emotional exhaustion than women by first experiencing work‐family conflict.

Although support exists for the relationship between work‐family conflict and burnout, stressor/strain models also should include sex and overemployment/underemployment as predictors of emotional exhaustion.

These results suggest organizations can reduce employee work‐family conflict and subsequent emotional exhaustion by adjusting the ratio of currently worked to desired work hours. Additionally, organizations can minimize emotional exhaustion by implementing work‐family balance workplace policies.

To address inconsistencies in studies exploring the sex‐emotional exhaustion relationship, the paper explores a mediating mechanism and boundary condition underlying the relationship between sex and emotional exhaustion. Exploring this relationship is important for organizations and employees, as both benefit by minimizing emotional exhaustion to avoid the physical and psychological consequences with which it is associated.

Though a number of demographics (e.g. sex, age) have been associated with work overload, scholars have yet to consider the potential impact of immigrant status. This is important because immigrants constitute a significant proportion of the workforce, and evidence suggests many employers believe they are easier to exploit. This paper aims to examine work hours, interpersonal justice, and immigrant status as predictors of work overload.

The hypotheses were tested using a large, national random telephone survey of employees in the United States (n=2,757).

As expected, employees who worked more hours tended to perceive more work overload. Importantly, however, this effect interacted with interpersonal justice differently for immigrant and native‐born employees. Justice attenuated the effect of work hours for the former but seemed to exacerbate it somewhat for the latter. Of note, the interactive effect was more than five times larger for immigrants than for natives.

The study shows that supervisors might require their employees to work longer hours without necessarily being perceived as abusive (i.e. overloading them). Doing so, however, requires treating employees justly in the form of respect, courtesy, and dignity. Though this form of just treatment is important for all employees, its effects are especially pronounced for immigrants.

The relationship between the number of hours worked and perceptions of work overload is examined for immigrant and non‐immigrant workers in the USA.