Dark future at work : scale adaptation and validation

Abstract

Research on Time Perspectives dates back over 70 years, playing an integral role in clinical psychology, encapsulating how the individual views and evaluates their life. Future Time Perspectives are a critical part of clinical psychology as how the individual evaluates their future can substantially affect individual mental health. Despite this, application of this topic to the workplace has been extremely limited with Occupational Future Time Perspectives (OFTP’s) specifically being a sparsely studied topic. In an attempt to bridge this gap, I created an adapted version of The Dark Future scale (Zaleski et al., 2019), attempting to measure highly negative OFTP’s through the “Dark Future at Work”. Results show a 2-factor structure, comprising Future Job Anxiety, and Fear of Failure at work. Initial outcomes of the Dark Future at Work scale show positive relationships with measures of depression, State/Trait Hopelessness, Burnout, Turnover Intentions, and Work Neglect/Partial Absenteeism. Contrary to predictions, perceived organizational support did not moderate these associations. Finally, theoretical applications of the scale, as well as limitations and future research directions are discussed.