Purpose Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has grown into a significant problem in the tourism industry, for both individual employees and organizations. Employees who feel ostracized in their workplace often engage in negative and disruptive behaviors. The purpose of this study is to explore the psychological mechanism between workplace ostracism and CWB among tourism employees. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on psychological contract theory and social cognitive theory, the study proposed a research framework to explain tourism employees’ counterproductive behavior. Data were collected from 228 hotel employees at two time points in Huangshan, China. Hierarchical regression and SPSS-PROCESS Macro were used to test all the hypotheses. Findings Findings show that workplace ostracism significantly increases employee CWB, mediated by psychological contract violation. Workplace ostracism increases perceptions of psychological contract violation when employee self-esteem is higher. The mediating effect of psychological contract violation is also moderated by self-esteem. Originality/value Using the framework of psychological contract theory and social cognitive theory, the authors advance the organizational behavior literature in the tourism field. The authors contextualize the uniqueness of Chinese workplace behavior and highlight the need to understand “losing face (mianzi) view” in workplace relationships. This research contributes to better understanding the dark side of tourism workplace behavior by examining the effects of psychological contract violation and employee’s self-esteem on workplace ostracism and CWB.