Workers behaving badly: Associations between adolescent reports of the Big Five and counterproductive work behaviors in adulthood

•Personality traits are associated with Counterproductive Workplace Behaviors (CWBs).•Agreeableness and Conscientiousness most strongly relate to CWBs.•Associations between Personality and CWBs persist controlling for job satisfaction.•Personality and CWB associations are independent of academic achievement.•Few gender differences in Personality and CWB associations.

There is increasing interest in identifying the personality traits correlated with the propensity to engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). The current study contributes to this literature by conceptually replicating and extending previous research documenting associations between personality traits and CWBs. Adolescent reports of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were correlated with self-reports of CWBs 18 years later. The effects held even after controlling for indicators of adolescent academic performance and for current reports of job satisfaction. These results suggest that personality traits assessed in adolescence are prospectively associated with the propensity to engage in CWBs in adulthood.