The Work-From-Home Dilemma

Would you choose work-from-home over going to a physical office for your profession? The COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to assign their employees work-from-home. This choice pleased many organizations as they saved on risks and maintenance costs. Big organizations like Google and Twitter plan to continue this trend, even into and beyond 2022.

However, the employees were not happy. Work-from-home caused an incredible amount of stress on both male and female employees, especially those who were married. New complications had arisen that had never been dealt with before, for instance, a fear of COVID-19, pandemic-related job insecurity, and so on.

The boundary between work and home was blurred, and work affected family life negatively and vice versa, which is known as “work-family conflict.” Employees find the situation “unbearable.” They also feel like “a failing parent and a failing professional.” The persistent traditional gender ideology in a country like India increased the stress during the peak pandemic, especially for women since they were expected to take care of the household, their children, and their profession all at once and in one place.

As the COVID-19 virus and work-from-home are expected to stay, the authors of this paper, which include Dr. S.M. Ramya, Ms. Jasmine Banu, and Dr. Rupashree Baral from the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India, and Dr. Aswathy Asokan Ajitha from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Amritsar, India, have done an in-depth study into this situation in order to find a solution(s) to this problem.

The authors have tried to find solutions to questions such as:

1. To what extent does work-home boundary violations affect subjective well-being of employees?

2. What roles do gender, gender role ideology, and fear of COVID-19 play in explaining this relationship?

To answer such questions, the authors built on the model of work-home boundary work, boundary theory, social role theory, and social support resource theory (SSRT).

Survey links were posted on networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and cross-sectional survey data were collected from mid-April to mid-May 2020 during the complete lockdown in India.

The survey was shared with 1,000 married and full-time working professionals, of which 354 complete responses were received. All the items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”  Respondents were asked to provide their opinion on Spouse Support, Coping Strategy, Boundary Control, Work-Family Conflict, Subjective Well-being, Fear of COVID-19, Job Security, and Gender Ideology, apart from pertinent demographic details.

The results of the study showed that a problem-focused coping strategy was essential in solving problems and showed promise as a valid coping mechanism during the pandemic. The problem-focused coping strategy was found to help resolve boundary control. Individuals can practice this strategy by focusing on information-seeking, planning, and problem-solving activities to face the issue at hand. Actively reaching out to one’s support system (spouse, family, and friends) was found to be necessary. Organizations should recommend these strategies and ensure that their employees practice them.

Gender role ideology was another factor that determined the relationship between boundary control and work-family conflict. The impact of poor boundary control on work-family conflict was found to be more damaging to women. It was more harmful to those with traditional gender role ideology (e.g., traditional notions about the division of labor) than the progressive ones. Authors suggest that women should fight against and stop accepting the traditional gender ideology and embrace, practice, and demand a progressive one, as it is found to be beneficial to both spouses. During the additional and pressing challenges created by situations such as COVID-19, mere spouse support is insufficient. Reaching out to family and friends for support is also necessary. Men were found to experience more work-family conflict and poor subjective well-being than women due to job insecurity. The current traditional thought of associating the breadwinning role with men could be the reason. Organizations and policymakers can intervene and regulate the level of job cuts during a natural crisis such as the pandemic to help their working professionals and their families.

Fear of COVID-19 was also found to be a major factor that disrupted relationships. This led to the increased work-family conflict, ultimately affecting subjective well-being. While the problem-focused coping strategy was found to be helpful in managing work-home boundary violations, the presence of a high fear of COVID-19 rendered this strategy ineffective. Some of this fear was mitigated when vaccinations and booster doses were launched. Organizations can conduct meditation or mindfulness workshops to help employees reduce their fear and anxiety during crises and stressful situations.     

In summary, this study investigated the causes and consequences of boundary violations of employees working from home during the complete lockdown. The problem-focused coping strategy was found to be an excellent coping mechanism to ensure boundary control, reduce work-family conflict, and improve subjective well-being. The findings of this study can be helpful for individuals, organizations, and practitioners.

Dr. Lalatendu Kesari Jena, Associate Professor from XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India, lauded the efforts of the authors to tackle the work-from-home problem in a creative way and gave the following observations: “Walking on the thin line of balancing work and family has been a struggle for ages. The current literary piece of evidence brings out interesting findings in the prestigious Employee Relations platform in the form of workable org-friendly implementable recommendations. The boundary incongruence due to the pandemic-related forced work-from-home (WFH) working conditions was critically depicted in the paper as an instigator of work-family conflict (WFC). Additionally, the authors have thoughtfully incorporated a creative way of looking at life. In the Post-COVID era, a consolidated early-exit package is not only offered by employers but also is accepted by employees, which may be seen as an indication of the positives of WFH. While many are still at the psychological clutch of lockdown and social distancing, the paper has highlighted the importance of problem-focused coping strategies (PCS) paving the path towards establishing work-life integration (WLI). In an era of material empowerment, restoring subjective well-being is taking higher priority and is the unique contribution of scholarly work. The authors’ blend of disposition of concepts is expected to sensitize the changing viewpoint of work-life and are a must-read to industrial experts, academic scholars, and the people who are to be benefited from the materialization of the suggestions.”

Article by Akshay Anantharaman
Here is the original link to the paper:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ER-11-2021-0515/full/html