Too Depressed and Anxious to Speak Up: The Relationships Between Weekly Fluctuations in Mental Health and Silence at Work

While it is widely acknowledged that some employees are more prone to silence than others, emerging research suggests that silence is much more dynamic than previously indicated, as even the most vocal employee will withhold input in some situations. However, given scant empirical attention to intraindividual fluctuations in silence, several important questions remain regarding its etiological antecedents, the mechanisms underlying such effects, and potential factors mitigating them. We respond by integrating the silence and mental health literature to consider how fluctuations in employees' experiences of depression and anxiety relate to fluctuations in silence via distinct silence motives. Specifically, we propose that employees are likely to engage in silence while experiencing episodes of depression because depressive symptomology shifts perceptions toward voice being pointless (i.e., ineffectual silence motive). Likewise, we propose that employees are likely to engage in silence while experiencing flare-ups of anxiety because anxious symptomology shifts perceptions toward voice being dangerous (i.e., defensive silence motive). Finally, we argue that voice endorsement attenuates these relationships by interrupting the link between silence motives and behaviors, such that employees experiencing heightened ineffectual and defensive silence motives are less likely to remain silent during weeks in which they experience high voice endorsement. We find support for these predictions via an experience sampling methodology study conducted with 136 employees across 4 weeks. We discuss how these results enhance theoretical clarity on the dynamic links between mental health and silence and offer insights into how organizations can counteract intrapersonal variations in silence.