Is time the great equalizer? How interpersonal time request processes are shaped by and reproduce disparities

The pace of work and implications of the global pandemic have heightened many employees’ awareness of the demands on their time, especially demands through interpersonal requests from coworkers. However, little research has examined how interactions involving requests for time—a scarce and valuable resource that influences the generation and consumption of economic and psychological resources—unfold and their implications for individuals and collective climates at work. We work toward a theory that expands and sharpens knowledge of interpersonal time requests—processes of generating, making, interpreting, and responding to requests for time. Integrating perspectives on status, interpersonal interaction, and diversity, we develop a multilevel theory for how status disparity shapes intrapersonal cognition and interpersonal interactions during time requests, and tax employees’ time and other resources regressively. Our theorizing advances understanding of how the joint form of achieved status (i.e., status derived from task-based expertise) and ascribed status (i.e., status derived from demographics) shapes interpersonal interactions between time request initiators and responders, thereby illuminating how and why episodic, dyadic, and collective disparities can emerge in ways that can be costly and dysfunctional to organizations. We conclude by outlining how our theorizing can enable future research and inform practice.