EV-0032
The person doing the helping pays for it
Bolino, M. C., & Turnley, W. H. (2005). Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 740-748 · Source
What this entitles us to say
A study of 98 couples finding that higher individual initiative - coming in early, staying late, taking on extra projects - is associated with higher role overload, job stress and work-family conflict, with the work-family relationship stronger for women than men.
What it found
98 couples. Higher levels of individual initiative - arriving early, staying late, working at home, rearranging personal plans for work, taking on special projects - were associated with higher role overload, job stress, and work-family conflict. The relationship with work-family conflict was stronger among women than men.
Why it matters here
This is the counterweight for Selflessness, and it is the one most likely to be raised by a thoughtful participant rather than a sceptical buyer: you are asking me to give more, and I am already the person who gives more.
It changes what the module can honestly teach. Selflessness cannot be taught as unlimited availability. The useful version is closer to the book's own framing - selflessness as a disposition toward others rather than as a quantity of extra hours - and the module should be explicit that the person who never says no is not the model, because the research says that person is heading for overload.
There is also a leadership instruction hiding in it, and it belongs in the leader tier rather than the employee one: the willing are the ones who get asked, and a leader who distributes work by willingness rather than by fairness is quietly taxing their best people. That links this trait directly to Justice/Mercy.
The limits
A single study of 98 couples, cross-sectional, and about individual initiative specifically rather than all forms of helping. Direction is not established - stressed people may take on more, or people who take on more may become stressed. The gender moderation is a finding about how the burden currently falls, not guidance for anyone, and must never be used to advise a leader on who to ask. Verified to abstract level.
What we do not say
anything drawn from the gender finding as advice. It describes how the burden currently falls - it is not a basis for deciding who to ask. And this is one cross-sectional study of 98 couples, not a settled quantity.