Investigating How Side Hustles Buffer the Negative Impact of Full-Time Job Insecurity on Rumination

Employees engaging in side hustles have become increasingly prevalent, yet our understanding of how side hustles impact full-time jobs remains limited. Such limited understanding hinders managers from developing effective organizational measures to manage employees’ side hustles. Based on the goal perspective and the cognitive theory of rumination, we propose that side hustle can manifest its advantages when people encounter insecurity in their full-time jobs. While insecure full-time employees may ruminate about unattained security goal and thus encounter depression, those with satisfying side hustle may experience reduced negative effects. Data from 261 full-time employees with side hustles support our theorization, showing that satisfying side hustle weakened the association between job insecurity and negative rumination through stop ruminations mechanisms, which finally leads to employees’ less depression in full-time jobs. We elaborate on how these findings contribute to both theoretical understanding and practical applications.