<p>The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether, how and when direct manager phubbing, defined as the snubbing of someone in a social or work setting by paying attention to one’s mobile phone rather than engaging in communication with the individual directly, influences two deviant employee outcomes - task withdrawal and procrastination. We specifically investigate the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of employee age and level within the organization. We utilized affective events theory (AET) and moral disengagement theory (MDT) to underpin our hypotheses. We gathered data from 251 service employees in organizations using a three-stage time-lagged research design. We found a direct positive relationship between direct manager phubbing and both task withdrawal and employee procrastination and that moral disengagement acts as a mediator of these relationships. We additionally found that age moderates both the direct relationship between direct manager phubbing and moral disengagement and the indirect relationship between direct manager phubbing and both negative employee outcomes via moral disengagement. These relationships were stronger in the case of younger employees. The findings for the moderating role of employee level indicates that the higher the level of the employee the weaker the direct and indirect relationships are. The study findings highlight important practical implications for organizations and the detrimental impact of direct manager phubbing for two negative employee outcomes. It also highlights that younger and lower-level employees are more susceptible to the negative impacts of direct manager phubbing.</p>