Why Do Some Employees Fall into and Fail to Exit a Job-Lock Situation?

Previous studies have paid little attention to the employees’ ability to exit a job-lock situation and factors that determine this ability. It remains unclear why some employees who experience job lock are able to exit this state while others remain in job lock. We use longitudinal data to identify employees who have fallen in the state of job lock and their subsequent behavior—exiting or remaining in job lock. By use of a first-order Markov transition models, we analyze the relevance of sociodemographic features, employment, occupational, sectoral, and contextual factors, as well as personality characteristics in explaining the transition or its absence. Overall the results show that both demographic factors and work-related aspects increase the likelihood that an employee enters the long-term job lock state (especially for older, married, full-time employed, those in a craft occupation and governmental sector, and in a region with high unemployment). Mental health problems and personality characteristics (low peak-end self-esteem and decisional procrastination) have a significant effect on the probability to stay in long-term job lock. On the contrary, having a managerial, service, or associate occupation, working in the private sector, and having promotion opportunities increase the chance of an exit from the state of job lock. 1. Introduction The desire to adapt to feelings of dissatisfaction is natural. Dissatisfied employees are likely to try to reduce their job dissatisfaction and work-related stress by adjusting to their current job or by changing jobs [1–3]. However, some employees fail to adapt to job dissatisfaction. These employees stay dissatisfied even though some of them may exhibit adaptive behavior. When employees are unable to adapt and remain in their unsatisfactory work situation in the long run, they can fall into job lock (become stuck in their job). The work performance of these employees may be reduced, if prolonged dissatisfaction leads to a negative attitude towards their work and withdrawal behavior [4], which can bring extra costs to the employing organization. Various studies in the fields of economics and psychology have investigated the phenomenon of job lock and its determinants following the perspective of their own field (some examples include [5–8]). The combination of determinants proposed in the economics and psychology literature is found to have an important role in better understanding why some employees are in a job-lock situation [9]. Nevertheless, both economics and psychology studies have paid little attention