A Double-Edged Sword: The Impact of Relative Performance Information on Overwork Across Different Types of Tasks

Previous research shows that relative performance information (RPI) can boost worker effort and performance, but its effect on overwork, which involves working longer than is sustainable, remains unclear. We conducted two experiments to examine how the prospect of RPI influences workers’ tendency to overwork. A central feature of our experiments, and known to workers, is that overworking hurts overall performance and productivity, allowing us to study the phenomenon of overwork without it affecting workers’ health and well-being. We find that the impact of RPI on overwork depends on the type of task. For routine tasks, detailed RPI reduces overwork by helping workers monitor each other and recognize when overwork occurs. But for cognitively demanding tasks, detailed RPI increases overwork by facilitating social comparison and competitive pressure. This leads workers to overextend themselves, ultimately hurting subsequent performance. Together, these findings demonstrate that RPI is a double-edged sword, either curbing or amplifying overwork depending on the task.