How to minimize job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of proactive and reactive coping over time

Can workers minimize their experience of job insecurity through proactive coping? Contrary to our expectations, this 5-wave weekly survey study indicates that the answer to that question is no: multi-level path modelling results showed that, in the short term, proactive coping related to increased job insecurity at the within-person level. At the between-person level, results indicated that for workers with relatively few resources, proactive coping was even more strongly related to job insecurity. Combining our results with previous findings on proactive coping, we argue that positive outcomes of proactive coping may need more time to establish. This implies that prolonged proactive coping efforts are needed, despite the short-term discomfort.