Work-Family Balance
Survey Findings
Introduction
Balancing work responsibilities with life outside of work is a struggle that people of all socio-economic levels experience. Parenting responsibilities add another layer of stress to the situation. This research will examine the subject of work-family balance in an organizational context.
Background of Problem
According to the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics (2017), there are 34.2 million families in the U.S. with children under 18, and in 61 percent of those families both parents are employed. In addition, the average combined weekly work hours have increased by almost 20 percent over the past 3 decades for married couples with children (Bureau of Labor & Statistics, n.d.). According to Gornick and Meyers (2003), a recent statistic showed that, “95 percent of fathers and 90 percent of mothers in the United States reported that they wished they had more time with their families” (p.81). The increasing demands on working parents undoubtedly impacts both their work and home life. Among my organization’s members I have seen an ongoing struggle to balance the demands of work, family, and social obligations. This survey will attempt to measure how family and work obligations affect stress levels in different aspects of an individual’s life.
Problem Statement
Excessive family and work obligations can be stressors that affect an individual’s work performance and productivity as well as the quality and quantity of time spent outside of work with family members.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this research is to examine how family and work obligations affect stress levels in many aspects of an individual’s life. It will also explore ways individuals cope with this stress. Work-family conflict should concern senior leaders because it can cause burnout which impacts productivity, in addition to high turnover which can have a significant financial impact. When organizations commit to the well-being of their employees it has a reciprocal effect of increased organizational commitment from employees, which improves overall organizational performance (Nelson & Quick, 2013).
Presentation of Findings
The majority of respondents work over 40 hours a week and a large percentage are also required to be available to answer emails or calls after hours at least sometimes. While their family leave benefits include mostly sick leave and maternity/paternity leave. Flexible scheduling options were available to a large percentage of respondents, however they did not seem to be used very often (this was a common response in the write-in comments). The majority of respondents took vacation time at least twice a year, with the next largest group taking vacation once a year or rarely/never. Two questions that received the most negative responses were about having free time to spend with their children and about dealing with work-family demands on their own.
Statistical Analysis
In general, most respondents have the bare minimum of family leave policies — sick leave (68.7%) and family leave (56.2%) — while also working 40 or more hours a week. Overall the responses show that the respondents feel at least some conflict between their work and family life. Sixty-two percent of the respondents report that their employer expects them to answer phone calls or emails ‘sometimes’ or ‘very often’ in their off-hours (question 4, see Appendix A).
Seventy-five percent of respondents worry or think about work ‘sometimes’ or ‘very often’ during their off-hours (question 5, see Appendix A). All respondents report that tasks at home are not completed due to their work demands at least some of the time, with 50 percent answering, ‘very often’ or ‘always’ (question 6, see Appendix A).
How respondents spend their free time is an important part of attaining work-life balance. Sixty-two percent of respondents report that they seek activities or hobbies to relieve stress at least once a week or several times a week at most. The majority of respondents (37.5%) take vacation time twice a year, with many specifying that they take about a week off at a time. Respondents taking more than one vacation a year make up a quarter of the total group, with the remaining 37.5 percent taking either no vacation or just one per year. The majority of respondents (68.7%) do not feel that they have enough free time to spend with their children.
Question 10 serves as a measure for the respondents’ perception of work-family conflict, whether it was just a personal problem or if there are other factors involved. The majority of respondents disagreed with this statement: “Working parents just need to figure out how to balance the demands of their family and their job on their own.” (See Table 1.1 for survey items response frequencies.) The write-in comments for this question provided rich data in the form of opinions, suggestions, and personal experiences which will be discussed in the major themes section.
The highest mean score (3.81) was for question 7, relating to how frequently the respondents took part in hobbies and activities to relieve stress. Respondents engaged in stress-relieving activities an average of roughly once a week, with physical activities like exercise listed in 5 out of 8 responses. The lowest mean score (2.19) was for question 10, relating to the respondents feeling of personal control over work life balance. The majority of respondents disagreed that it was up to parents to figure out how to balance the demands of their family and their job on their own (See Table 1.2, for survey items sorted by mean score).
Major Themes
While respondents engaged in stress-relieving activities, that did not prevent respondents from worrying about work during off-hours. In many instances the resource of time was a factor in the responses, which aligns with the JD-R theory that Ghislieri et al (2017) used in their study. Five out of seven respondents’ who worked over 40 hours a week also felt that they did not have enough free time to spend with their children. Five out of seven respondents who worked over 40 hours a week also felt that the demands of work interfered with their home life at least sometimes. Despite having benefits like flexible schedules or part-time hours, most respondents still felt work-family conflict in their lack of free time with their children. The respondents who felt that they did have enough free time to spend with their children all took time off for vacation, but taking vacation time did not necessarily have a positive correlation with having free time.
The most commonly used word in the write-in comments for question 10 was flexibility. Sixty-eight percent of respondents left comments about what could be done to manage work and family demands, with schedule and job flexibility, including the option to work from home, mentioned in 63% of the comments. However, many respondents’ employers already offered flexible schedule options, so the issue may not be the availability of these benefits but acceptability of taking advantage of them. Williams and Boushey (2010) discuss “flexibility stigma” (p. 62) which is especially prevalent among high-powered professionals like lawyers, where a schedule of 40 hours a week is considered ‘part-time.’ This stigma affects both men and women who wish to cut back their hours or take family leave. Both men and women who take family leave are often seen as less committed to their jobs, and as Williams and Boushey (2010) found, often receive lower performance ratings and are passed over for promotions.
The survey respondents happened to be all women, but due to limitations of the survey length questions about gender roles could not be included. It cannot be overlooked that work-family balance does affect women in different ways due to gender norms in our society. Many have written about working mothers dealing with ‘the second shift’ which has consequences beyond just adding to stress and lack of work-family balance (Adamczyk, 2016). It is possible that the average response for question 6, which addressed fulfilling obligations at home, was so high because the demands at home are also significant. The respondents might be facing demands at work and at home that are difficult to fulfill. Williams and Boushey (2010) state that, “[e]mployed mothers now spend as much time interacting with their children as stay-at-home mothers did in 1975” (p. 55). Williams and Boushey (2010) call this “the speed-up at work, the speed-up in family life” (ibid.) in professional families. In a “winner-take-all society” where high-achieving parents are expected to work over 40 hours a week, their children also expected to be high-achievers, taking part in many activities outside of school to ensure their future economic success (Williams & Boushey, 2010, p. 56).
Childcare was only mentioned in three out of 16 comments, but represents a common problem among working families, whether it is an issue of access or affordability (Williams & Boushey, 2010). Many families use “patchworks of care,” often informal childcare arrangements between family and friends, rather than childcare centers or in-home childcare providers because of the high cost or inconvenience (Williams & Boushey, 2010, p. 13). Though these arrangements might be more financially affordable, they can also represent a source of external stress due to unpredictable circumstances — if the friend or relative caretaker gets sick, who can provide back-up care on short-notice? In many situations parents, especially single mothers, are forced to choose between being an ‘irresponsible parent’ or being an ‘irresponsible worker’ (Williams & Boushey, 2010).
Conceptual-Level Analysis
This survey relates to organizational interdependencies in that work-life and work-family balance affects many aspects of the Burke-Litwin (1992) organizational model. An employee’s family represents an aspect of the external environment that has a large influence on an employee’s motivation, as well as his or her needs and values, which influence performance, motivation, and job match. In addition, work-family/life balance and an individual’s needs and values are also related to the organizational culture, which in turn influences systems and work climate. Church and Waclawski (1998) state that “to effect change in one area, other areas must be considered … as well” (p. 29).
One of the themes mentioned earlier was flexibility, in terms of scheduling and the job itself. In many organizations, the culture has a strong influence over whether working parents feel stigmatized for prioritizing the needs of their families over their job. This culture is often created by leadership that does not share similar values with its employees, causing conflicts with employees’ needs and values. This conflict can cause negative perceptions of employees’ performance as a result. Working parents trying to manage family crises by taking time off work may be viewed as irresponsible by their managers. A working parent’s family could provide motivation to work harder to some extent, but also cause complacency if the organizational culture stigmatizes employees with families. Working mothers are often assumed to be on the “mommy track”, meaning they are less ambitious and less able to handle a demanding job because of their family obligations, which can negatively impact motivation (Williams & Boushey, 2010, p. 51).
One of the main findings of my survey was that the respondents seemed to be overworked and under-compensated. The organizational implications of this could be that respondents may decide to leave their employers if they are able to find another job with better benefits or is generally more family-friendly. In fact, one respondent was in the process of finding another job when I told her about this survey. Part of the reason she was leaving her previous job was the negative organizational culture that was unfavorable towards those with children, especially women.
An organization that does not provide competitive benefits may not attract the best or most talented employees, nor would it foster loyalty or good organizational citizenship behavior among its employees. Organizations may find that employees use their position as simply as stepping stone to a better job, leaving after acquiring the skills necessary to move on to a job with better compensation/benefits. This must cost employers a great deal of money to have to hire new employees every few years, in addition, they are losing employees they have invested in once they become proficient in their job, so they are losing skilled workers as well. This must also have an impact on productivity and perhaps make them less competitive with other organizations in the industry that offer better benefits.
Not offering family-friendly policies also causes organizations to lose out on their talented women employees. For many women, they attain their peak skill level professionally at around the same time they decide to have children, so they often must drop out of the work force when many men (or women without children) of the same age and skill level are able to further their careers. More flexible work policies could alleviate this.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Large-scale changes in organizational culture and public policy require a paradigm-shift where family is prioritized over work.
People struggling with work-family conflict often know the solutions to their problems but lack the power or authority to enact changes. Despite knowing what will ease work-family conflict, it is difficult to know how to implement these changes. Large-scale changes in organizational culture and public policy require a paradigm-shift where family is prioritized over work. This is slowly starting to change in competitive industries, like tech, where the culture is transforming from the top down. Businesses can make radical changes in their employee benefits overnight if they wanted to, whereas in government it takes decades to enact policy changes. Businesses can also reap the rewards of having happy employees, serving as a model for future public policy implementation, as well as providing a push to their competitors to provide similar policies.
The reluctance of leaders to enact changes comes from a misunderstanding that people who take time off work, whether it’s a lunch break or vacation are not as productive as those who work long hours and never take a vacation.
Similarly, people who have non-conventional work hours whether it is a flex schedule, compressed work week, may also be viewed as less productive. In many professions, it makes more sense to move towards a results-based schedule, rather than an hourly-based one. Organization leaders may not realize the financial implications of providing poor benefits. Stroman, Woods, Fitzgerald, Unnikrishnan, and Bird (2017) state that replacing an employee can have high costs, and providing family leave can offset those costs. Stroman et al. (2017) found that business who provided paid family leave had better employee retention and attracted better talent. Family-friendly benefits also reinforced company values, improved engagement, morale, and productivity, and enhanced brand equity.
Recommendations for individuals to alleviate work-family conflict at home include a coping strategy called Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) (Baltes & Heydens-Gahir, 2003). Selection involved identifying and selecting goals. For working parents short on time, this could mean that the goal of completing housework is secondary to the goal of helping their children with schoolwork. Optimization of this goal would be when the parent temporarily puts aside housework in order to help his or her child. Compensation of this goal could be that the parent asks another family member to help with housework. This process would override the tendency of many parents who feel that it is easier for them to complete tasks around the house, rather than ask their spouse or another family member to do them. SOC involves lowering standards or compromising in some way to manage a decrease in resources, in this case the resource is time.
References
Adamczyk, A. (2016, September 27). The second shift is killing the aspirations of female workers. Retrieved from Money: http://time.com/money/4509368/lean-in-mckinsey-women-corporate-america/
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Appendix A
Survey Instrument
1. Do you have any children?
(Yes, all 18 or over) (Yes, one or more under 18) (No)
2. How many hours a week do you work?
(Over 40 hours) (Full-time: 38–40 hours) (Part-time: 15–37 hours) (Less than 15 hours)
3. My employer provides the following benefits (check all that apply):
o Family leave, includes maternity, paternity, and elder care
o Flexible scheduling options, including flex-time, compressed work weeks, or the ability to work-from-home
o Child care subsidies
o Flexible spending accounts
o Back up child care assistance
o Onsite child care center
o Sick leave (that can be used to care for sick children or other family members)
o None of these
(Comment box: Have you used any of these benefits?)
4. How often does your employer require you to answer phone calls or emails during off-hours?
(never) (almost never) (sometimes) (very often) (always)
5. How often do you think or worry about work during off-hours?
(never) (almost never) (sometimes) (very often) (always)
6. How often do things you want to do at home not get done because of the demands your job puts on you?
(never) (almost never) (sometimes) (very often) (always)
7. On average, how often do you take part in activities or hobbies specifically to relieve stress?
(rarely or never) (once every few months) (once a month) (once a week) (several days a week)
(Comment box: List activities here [optional])
8. How often do you take time off work for vacation?
(rarely or never) (once a year) (twice a year) (more than twice a year) (frequently)
9. “I feel that I have enough free time to spend doing activities with my child/children.”
(strongly disagree) (disagree) (neutral) (agree) (strongly agree)
10.“Working parents just need to figure out how to balance the demands of their family and their job on their own.”
(strongly disagree) (disagree) (neutral) (agree) (strongly agree)
(Comment box [optional]: What do you think would help working parents manage work and family demands?)
