Purpose: Work-family conflict plays a vital role in employees' work-related satisfaction and emotional exhaustion measures. Yet, the theoretical interrelationship between work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction has not been fully explored in the construction literature. Hence, this study aims to assess emotional exhaustion's mediating role in the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction of the construction professionals. Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered from a cross-sectional survey of 308 project-level construction professionals in Sri Lanka. A confirmatory factor analysis followed by three structural equation models was used in analyzing the research hypotheses. Findings: The results support the mediation model of emotional exhaustion, in which the emotional exhaustion fully mediated the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction. Hence, the authors concluded that a higher level of work-family conflict would directly contribute to a greater degree of emotional exhaustion, which in turn lessens the job satisfaction of the project employees. Originality/value: In identifying how work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction are linked together, the present study added the mediating role of emotional exhaustion to the previous empirical research on the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction in the context of the construction industry.