recent research on work life balance

2023 Work in America Survey

The changing landscape of workplaces has drawn heightened attention to the needs and expectations of workers across the nation when it comes to mental health support.

In October 2022, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, released the office’s first-ever Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being .

The results of APA’s 2023 Work in America Survey confirmed that psychological well-being is a very high priority for workers themselves. Specifically:

• 92% of workers said it is very (57%) or somewhat (35%) important to them to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.
• 92% said it is very (52%) or somewhat (40%) important to them to work for an organization that provides support for employee mental health.
• 95% said it is very (66%) or somewhat (29%) important to them to feel respected at work.
• 95% said it is very (61%) or somewhat (34%) important to them to work for an organization that respects the boundaries between work and nonwork time.

Fortunately, the majority (77%) of workers reported being very (36%) or somewhat (41%) satisfied with the support for mental health and well-being they receive from their employers, and more than half (59%) strongly (22%) or somewhat (37%) agreed that their employer regularly provides information about available mental health resources. Further, 72% of workers strongly (30%) or somewhat (42%) agreed that their employer helps employees develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

One female, full-time employee from the West summed up her positive workplace experience as follows:

My direct supervisor is amazing at respecting time boundaries and being mindful of my workload. He encourages me to manage my schedule in a way that is best for my wellness.

A male, full-time employee from the South summed up his positive workplace experience this way:

My job is a great atmosphere for work—good with your mental health—and I am happy when I work—love my job.

Improvements are still needed

Although some survey results show positive developments, the data also reveal the need for improvements. In fact, 55% of workers strongly (21%) or somewhat (34%) agreed that their employer thinks their workplace environment is a lot mentally healthier than it actually is, and 43% reported worrying that if they told their employer about a mental health condition, it would have a negative impact on them in the workplace.

Workplace stress also remains at a concerning level, with 77% of workers having reported experiencing work-related stress in the last month. Further, 57% indicated experiencing negative impacts because of work-related stress that are sometimes associated with workplace burnout , such as:

• emotional exhaustion (31%)
• didn’t feel motivated to do their very best (26%)
• a desire to keep to themselves (25%)
• a desire to quit (23%)
• lower productivity (20%)
• irritability or anger with coworkers and customers (19%)
• feelings of being ineffective (18%)

Survey data show that many workers are not getting the breaks from this stress that they both need and want. Only about one-third (35%) reported that their employer offers a culture where breaks are encouraged. Only two-fifths (40%) reported that their employer offers a culture where time off is respected, and only 29% reported that their employer offers a culture where managers encourage employees to take care of their mental health.

One male, full-time employee from the South described the problem with his workplace as follows:

Workload, not having enough employees, and working long hours have negative impact on my overall mental health, happiness, and well-being.

The reality of workplace mental health supports

• Only 43% reported that their employer offers health insurance with coverage for mental health and substance use disorders.
• Only about one-third (35%) reported that their employer offers a culture where breaks are encouraged.
• Only 29% reported that their employer offers an employee assistance program.
• Only 21% reported that their employer offers meeting-free days.
• Only 17% reported that their employer offers 4-day work weeks.
• Only 15% reported that their employer offers company-wide mental health days.
• Only 12% reported that their employer has people on-site who have received mental health training.

For employers, a failure to provide the mental health and well-being support that workers are seeking could harm talent recruitment and retention. Among workers overall, 33% said they intend to look for a new job at a different company or organization in the next year. Among those workers who said they are unsatisfied with the mental health and well-being support offered by their employer, that number rose to 57%.

More Work in America

• AI, monitoring technology, and psychological well-being

Press release

• APA poll reveals toxic workplaces, other significant workplace mental health challenges

The Surgeon General’s Five Workplace Essentials

Psychological science informed the development of the conceptual framework for the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being. The framework emphasizes the foundational role that workplaces should play in promoting the psychological health and well-being of workers and our communities as a whole, and lays out five essentials for pursuing workplace mental health and well-being:

• Protection from harm (including security and safety)
• Connection and community (including social support and belonging)
• Work-life harmony (including autonomy and flexibility)
• Mattering at work (including dignity and meaning)
• Opportunity for growth (including learning and accomplishment)

APA’s 2023 Work in America Survey tracks the surgeon general’s five essentials, as well as the central core principles of worker voice and equity, all with an eye toward promoting an equitable, productive, and psychologically healthy future of work.

Related psychology topics

• Healthy workplaces
• Striving for mental health excellence in the workplace

Protection from harm

Nearly one in five say they experience toxic workplaces

Fundamental to the surgeon general’s framework is the principle that employers should protect workers from toxic workplaces. Unfortunately, almost one out of five (19%) respondents in this survey stated that their workplace is very or somewhat toxic.

Prevalence of toxic workplaces varies by industry

People in client/customer/patient service were more likely than office workers to characterize their workplace as “toxic” (26% vs. 14%, respectively). Further, people who work in person were more likely to report a toxic workplace than those who work fully remote (22% vs. 13%, respectively).

The majority (59%) of those who were not at all or not very satisfied with their job described their workplace as toxic. Further, 58% of those who reported a toxic workplace also reported that they intend to look for a new job at a different company or organization in the next year, compared with only 27% of those who did not report a toxic workplace.

One respondent, a full-time, female employee from the South, said:

In general, providing more assistance and resources for the betterment of my mental well-being is something that my employer should be doing. In addition, they should be fostering better working relations and working to diminish the toxicity and animosity that exists between several coworkers.

Another respondent, a full-time, female employee from the Northeast, stated that her employer should:

Make the work environment better by limiting toxic people and everyone being treated with kindness and respect.

Toxic workplaces are associated with diminished psychological well-being

Those who reported a toxic workplace were more than twice as likely to report that their overall mental health was fair or poor (58%) than those who did not report a toxic workplace (21%). Likewise, more than three-quarters (76%) of those who reported a toxic workplace also reported that their work environment has a negative impact on their mental health, compared with fewer than one-third (28%) of those who did not report a toxic workplace.

Those who reported a toxic workplace were more than three times as likely to report having experienced harm to their mental health at work, compared with those who did not report a toxic workplace (52% vs. 15%, respectively). In addition, 77% of those who reported a toxic workplace also reported that their employer thinks their workplace environment is mentally healthier than it actually is, compared with 49% who did not report a toxic workplace.

Experiencing a toxic workplace is associated with certain demographic and workplace factors

• More females (23%) reported a toxic workplace than males (15%).
• More people living with a disability (26%) reported a toxic workplace than those without a disability (16%).
• Employees working for nonprofit and government organizations were more likely to report a toxic workplace than those in private industry (25% and 26% vs. 17%).
• Those in upper management were much less likely to report a toxic workplace (9%) than those in middle management (21%), front-line workers (26%), and individual contributors 1 (18%). (This finding raises the question of whether it may be difficult for upper management to relate to assertions of employees that a workplace is toxic when upper management may not, themselves, be exposed to that aspect of the workplace.)

1 Individual contributor is defined as someone with a middle level or senior position who does not have management responsibilities.

Too many customer/client/patient service providers are experiencing some form of verbal abuse at work

Almost one-quarter (24%) of respondents said someone within or outside their organization had yelled at or verbally abused them at work within the past 12 months. More than a quarter of those who work in person reported some form of verbal abuse (26%), which is significantly more than those who work remotely (18%). In addition, close to one-third (31%) of those who do customer/client/patient service reported some form of verbal abuse, compared with just under one-quarter of manual laborers (23%) and office workers (22%) who reported the same.

Likewise, close to one in five (19%) reported having experienced bullying at work. Unfortunately, the percentage was significantly higher among those living with a disability (27%) than among those without a disability (15%). And when it comes to physical violence, approximately one in 10 manual laborers (12%) reported that someone within their organization displayed physical violence toward them, whereas about one in 20 office workers (5%) reported the same.

Discrimination in the workplace is still common

Fundamental to the surgeon general’s framework is the principle that employees should be protected from discriminatory workplace practices. However, more than one in five (22%) indicated witnessing discrimination in their current workplace and 15% reported experiencing discrimination. In addition, nearly one-third (28%) reported having witnessed slights, insults, or jokes that devalued the identity or negated the thoughts and feelings of others based on their identity or background. Further, 19% said they were targets of such behaviors.

The discrimination being experienced was not limited to race, ethnicity, or gender. For example, one respondent, a full-time, female employee from the South, stated that the aspects of her job that have a negative impact on her overall happiness, mental health and well-being are:

Age discrimination, no room for growth, favoritism.

Another full-time, female employee from the South said that aspects of her job that have a negative impact on her overall happiness, mental health and well-being are:

The recent decision to suspend all remote work and return to the office 5 days a week, disability discrimination, supervisors scheduling meetings during lunch hours and not allowing breaks.

Protection from harm: Key facts and figures

• Most workers (87%) reported being very (45%) or somewhat (42%) satisfied with the physical health and safety practices at their place of work.
• Nearly one-quarter (22%) reported having experienced or been afraid of experiencing harm to their mental health at work.
• In 2023, 22% of workers experienced harassment at work in the past 12 months.

Illness, idleness, and turnover: The costs of a toxic workplace

For a sizeable portion of Americans, work is demoralizing, frightening, and even traumatic. “Toxic workplace” is an abstract term to describe infighting, intimidation, and other affronts that harm productivity. The result—in any context—is high absenteeism, low productivity, and soaring turnover. The surgeon general’s framework provides a solid guide for employers who want to foster a healthy work environment:

• minimize physical hazards, discrimination, bullying, and harassment
• reduce long working hours, excessive workloads, and resource deficiencies that hamper employees’ ability to meet job demands
• normalize mental health care as a resource for employees
• operationalize equity, diversity, and inclusion policies to address structural racism, ableism, and implicit bias
• engage employees in organizational goals and mission statements to foster enthusiasm and commitment

Read more: Toxic workplaces leave employees sick, scared, and looking for an exit

Connection and community

Most workers have it, but too many still experience loneliness, lack of belonging and a sense of rejection

The surgeon general’s framework emphasizes that organizations that create opportunities for social connection and community can help improve mental health and well-being. This workplace essential rests on two human needs: social support and belonging.

Most workers are generally satisfied with their workplace relationships

Encouragingly, 89% of respondents said they are very or somewhat satisfied with their relationships with their coworkers, and 86% indicated they are very or somewhat satisfied with their relationships with their managers or supervisors.

Similarly, 82% said their workplace fosters positive relationships among coworkers, and 79% indicated that their workplace fosters positive relationships between managers and the people they manage. Moreover, most workers (81%) indicated that their workplace provides opportunities for collaboration and teamwork.

One respondent put it this way:

My company is like family. We do care for one another and do believe that we are stronger when we work together.

Yet workplace loneliness is experienced by a meaningful percentage of workers

Although most workers report being generally satisfied with their workplace relationships, more than a quarter (26%) said they have experienced feelings of loneliness or isolation at work. Despite the fact that those workers interact with others frequently, the prevalence of feelings of loneliness was higher for those in the customer/client/patient service industry (35%) compared with those doing office work (23%) or manual labor (22%).

Moreover, these feelings were more prevalent among workers with household incomes of less than $50,000 (31%) compared with those with household incomes of $50K–$124.9K (24%).

Feelings of loneliness and isolation were not confined to remote workers. Indeed, 25% of fully in-person workers reported feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Certain groups feel they do not belong at work

An overwhelming majority of workers (94%) said it is very or somewhat important to them that their workplace be a place where they feel they belong.

A male, part-time employee from the South, for example, stated that the aspect of his job that has the most positive impact on his overall mental health, happiness and well-being is:

They give me a sense of peace and that I belong here.

Unfortunately, one in five (20%) strongly or somewhat disagreed with the statement, “when I’m at work, I feel like I belong.” Black (23%) and Hispanic (22%) workers were more likely to feel a lack of belonging than their Asian (14%) colleagues.

Interestingly, only 10% of upper management employees did not feel a sense of belonging, compared with 19% of individual contributors, 22% of middle management, and 25% of front-line workers. This finding raises the question of whether it may be difficult for those in upper management to understand and relate to the lack of belonging felt by a quarter of front-line workers.

Certain groups feel unsupported because of their identities

Close to one-third (30%) of workers said they feel their workplace does not support them because of an aspect of their identity, such as race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, age, etc.

This perceived lack of support was more common among workers ages 18–25 (45%) and 26–43 (34%), compared with workers who were 44 and older (11%–25%). Black and Hispanic workers were more likely to report feeling a lack of support from their employers (39% and 34%, respectively) than their White (27%) counterparts. In addition, the perceived lack of support due to identity was higher in LGBTQ+ workers (38%) compared with non-LGBTQ+ workers (29%).

Connection and community: Key facts and figures

• Fortunately, most workers (89%) reported being very (47%) or somewhat (42%) satisfied with their relationships with their coworkers.
• Most (82%) strongly (38%) or somewhat (44%) agreed that their workplace fosters positive relationships among coworkers.
• However, nearly one in five strongly (6%) or somewhat (13%) disagreed with the statement, “when I’m at work, I feel like I belong.”

How to foster connection at work

Psychologists describe two types of connections. “Strong ties” are close relationships, such as family members and good friends. “Weak ties” are acquaintances, like the people you chat with at the office water cooler. Research shows that weak ties are just as important as strong ones to a person’s life satisfaction. Psychologists suggest the following five tips to create a culture of community within the workplace:

• Make it a priority—create time and space for people to connect
• Use structured activities
• Establish norms
• But be flexible
• Get creative

Read more: A sense of belonging is crucial for employees

Work-life harmony

Many workers are achieving satisfactory work-life harmony, but there is too little respect for time off

The surgeon general defines work-life harmony as the integration of work and nonwork demands through the human needs of autonomy and flexibility. Work-life harmony involves, among other things, the amount of control one has over the “how, when, and where” one does their work.

Work-life harmony is associated with psychological well-being

Approximately eight out of 10 respondents (81%) reported being either very (42%) or somewhat (40%) satisfied with the amount of control they have over how, when, and where they do their work. Importantly, those who reported satisfaction with their level of control were much more likely to report that their overall mental health level is good or excellent (79%) compared with those who reported being unsatisfied with their level of control (44%).

Similarly, those who reported satisfaction with their level of control were much less likely to report that their work environment has a negative impact on their mental health (32%) compared with those who reported being unsatisfied with their level of control (62%).

Work-life harmony also involves having enough flexibility to mitigate conflicts between work and home life. Workers who said they did not have the flexibility to keep their work and personal life in balance were more likely to report that their work environment had a negative impact on their mental health (67%) compared with those who did have that flexibility (23%).

When asked to list two or three things about her current job that have a positive impact on her mental health, happiness, and well-being, one female, full-time worker from the South stated:

I have control over my day-to-day activities and can set my own agenda for each day. There is paid sick leave if I need it. There is time off for holidays where I can rest and rejuvenate myself.

In contrast, when asked to list two or three things that have a negative impact on her mental health, happiness, and well-being, one female, full-time worker from the Northeast stated:

No control over schedule. Little to no work-life balance. Poor management.

Certain job characteristics and demographics are associated with work-life harmony

Those who work in hybrid or remote arrangements were more likely to be satisfied with the how, when, and where they do their work (85% and 89%, respectively) than those who work in person (77%). Remote workers reported being slightly more likely to have enough flexibility at work to be able to keep their work life and personal life balance (75%) than hybrid (67%) or in-person workers (66%). Further, those ages 18–25 are more likely to agree that they do not have enough flexibility at work to be able to keep their work life and personal life in balance compared with those in older generations (41% vs. 26% of workers 44–57, 28% of workers 58–64, and 24% of workers 65+).

Other workplace and personal characteristics were also associated with satisfaction with the how, when, and where work is done. For example, office workers were more likely to be satisfied (86%) than those in manual labor (77%) or customer/client/patient service (76%). Those at for-profit organizations were more likely to be satisfied (83%) than those at nonprofit organizations (73%). Those in upper management were more likely to be satisfied (93%) than those in middle management (81%), front-line workers (76%), or individual contributors (78%). Finally, those living with a disability were less likely (77%) than those without a disability (84%) to be satisfied with this aspect of work.

Too many workers experience a lack of respect for their time off

Unfortunately, more than one-quarter (26%) of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “my employer does not respect my personal boundaries.” Further, fewer than half of respondents (40%) reported that their employer offers a culture where time off is respected. Those who do office work were almost twice as likely (48%) than those who do manual labor (25%) to report respect for time off.

Those who work in an organization with racial or ethnic diversity in senior leadership were more likely than those who do not to report respect for time off (42% vs. 34%).

When asked to list the most important things your employer either is doing or should be doing to help protect and foster your emotional and psychological well-being, a male, full-time worker from the South stated:

Respecting boundaries and personal days.

Similarly, a female, part-time employee from the West said:

Respecting my boundaries and not calling me on my two days off to come in to work just because they need a body. I need those two days for personal reasons and will not budge. Also they are flexible if I need time off for doctor appointments and things like that.

Work-life harmony: Key facts and figures

• Eighty-four percent of workers are satisfied with their work schedules (e.g., number of hours worked, flexible scheduling options offered, etc.) and 81% are satisfied with the amount of control they have over how, when, and where they do their work.
• However, about one-third (32%) said they do not have enough flexibility at work to be able to keep their work life and personal life in balance
• Just over one-quarter (26%) said their employer does not respect their personal boundaries.

Finding equilibrium: Tips to achieve work-life harmony

Tammy Allen, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, offers advice regarding how employees should respond if their employer wants them to check email on their personal time or vacation.

“Expectations should be aligned with the nature of the job and based on a mutual understanding between the employee and the boss. If the understanding is violated (e.g., you’ve agreed upon no emails on Sundays and the boss consistently expects emails to be answered on Sundays), then a discussion about realignment may be needed. You can discuss the importance of establishing boundaries and the importance of detachment from work to enable recovery from work for your health and well-being, which allows you to be at your best for the organization.”

Read more: Workers crave autonomy and flexibility in their jobs

Workers want to matter at work and want their work to have meaning

The surgeon general points out that people want to know they matter to those around them, which includes a sense of dignity and meaning. Indeed, 95% of respondents said that it is somewhat or very important to them to feel respected at work.

Mattering at work and meaningful work are associated with psychological well-being

Fortunately, 78% strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “I feel valued at work” and 87% strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “the work I do is meaningful.”

Those who reported not having meaningful work were much more likely to report that they were typically tense or stressed out during their workday (71%) than those who reported having meaningful work (45%).

Being micromanaged is associated with tension and stress

Four out of 10 workers (42%) reported feeling micromanaged at work. Those who feel micromanaged are much more likely than those who do not feel micromanaged to also report feeling tense/stressed during their workday (64% vs. 36%, respectively).

When asked what the most important thing is that his employer could do to protect and foster his emotional and psychological well-being, one full-time, male employee from the West stated:

Just not micromanage my time. Give me a job, give me a timeline, and leave me alone unless I ask for assistance.

Similarly, a female, full-time employee from the South said:

Stop micromanagement. It is so stressful to me. Let me do my job as hired to do.

Mattering at work: Key facts and figures

• The overwhelming majority of workers (93%) reported believing it is very (60%) or somewhat (33%) important to have a job where they feel that the work they do has meaning.
• Fortunately, the majority of workers (87%) strongly (48%) or somewhat (40%) agreed that the work they do is meaningful.
• However, more than one-quarter (29%) of workers strongly (10%) or somewhat (19%) agreed that they do not matter to their employer.

Mattering at work: Seven tips to help employees feel they’re making a difference

In the postpandemic era of “quiet quitting,” workers are rethinking their work-life integration and seeking jobs where they feel they can make a positive impact. But it’s hard to feel you’re making a difference if the organization doesn’t have a culture of respect. Fortunately, experts say, there are concrete things organizations and leaders can do to create a culture where every worker matters. Here are seven tips:

• Establish company norms
• Provide objective and subjective resources—e.g., tangible benefits and cultural support
• Make it safe
• Embrace diversity of thought
• Help employees understand how their contribution aids the organization’s mission
• Provide public recognition, being specific in praising achievements
• Say it again—praise employees

Read more: Employees really value making a difference at work

Opportunity for growth

Workers want and need opportunities for growth

This essential from the surgeon general’s framework is based on the human needs for learning and accomplishment. These needs are consistent with the survey results. The overwhelming majority of workers (91%) said it was very or somewhat important to them to have a job where they consistently have opportunities to learn, and 94% said it was very or somewhat important to them to have a job where they get a sense of accomplishment.

Although most workers are satisfied with their opportunities for growth, there is room for improvement

Almost three-quarters of respondents (74%) indicated they are very or somewhat satisfied with the opportunities for growth and development at their place of work. Over three-quarters of respondents (79%) said that they are very or somewhat satisfied with the opportunities they have to be innovative or creative in their work. More than two-thirds (70%) strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “I feel I can reach my highest potential at my current place of work.”

Opportunities for growth are associated with psychological well-being

Workers who were somewhat or very satisfied with their opportunities for growth and development more often reported good or excellent mental health (79%) than those who were unsatisfied (52%). Further, workers who lacked opportunities for growth and advancement were also more likely to typically feel tense and stressed out during their workday (66% vs. 42%).

Certain demographic and organizational characteristics associated with satisfaction regarding opportunities for growth and development

Men were more likely to report being satisfied with growth and development opportunities (77%) than women (71%). Higher-income workers ($125,000+) also were more likely to report satisfaction with growth and development opportunities (79%) than workers making less than $50,000 (68%).

Workers in for-profit settings were more likely to report satisfaction with growth and development opportunities (76%) than those in nonprofit organizations (65%). Those who reported working for an organization with equity, diversity, and inclusion policies were more likely to report being satisfied with opportunities for growth and development (78%) than those in organizations without such policies (64%). Those who reported working for an organization with racial or ethnic diversity in senior leadership were more likely to report being satisfied with opportunities for growth and development than those in organizations without such diversity (77% vs. 68%, respectively).

Overall, those who were satisfied with their opportunities for growth and development were far more likely to report being very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs (96%) than those who were not (64%).

Opportunity for growth: Key facts and figures

• About three-quarters (74%) of workers reported being very (34%) or somewhat (40%) satisfied with the opportunities for growth and development at their place of work.
• Most workers (79%) reported being very (36%) or somewhat (43%) satisfied with the opportunities they have to be innovative or creative in their work.
• However, fewer than half (47%) reported that their employer offers educational opportunities.

These growth opportunities help employees advance at work

A 2018 study by Gartner, a research and advisory firm that helps companies develop and implement HR strategies, found that a lack of career opportunities is the main reason employees leave an organization. By investing in employee growth, companies can reduce costly turnover and increase job satisfaction among employees of all ranks. Some key strategies to foster growth include:

• Providing quality training and mentoring
• Establishing pathways for career advancement
• Delivering relevant, reciprocal feedback
• Emphasizing a culture of learning

Read more: Lack of growth opportunities is a big reason why employees leave jobs

Methodology

The research was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of APA among 2,515 employed adults. The survey was conducted April 17–27, 2023.

Data are weighted where necessary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, full-time/part-time employment, employment sector, industry, household income, and propensity to be online to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ±3.1 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to other multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including, but not limited to coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and postsurvey weighting and adjustments.

Survey questions

• 2023 APA Work in America survey questions (PDF, 351KB)
• 2023 APA Work in America survey topline data (PDF, 827KB)

Work-life balance -a systematic review

Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management

ISSN : 0973-1954

Article publication date: 15 December 2021

Issue publication date: 31 July 2023

This study aims to systematically review the existing literature and develop an understanding of work-life balance (WLB) and its relationship with other forms of work-related behavior and unearth research gaps to recommend future research possibilities and priorities.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study attempts to make a detailed survey of the research work done by the pioneers in the domain WLB and its related aspects. A total of 99 research work has been included in this systematic review. The research works have been classified based on the year of publication, geographical distribution, the methodology used and the sector. The various concepts and components that have made significant contributions, factors that influence WLB, importance and implications are discussed.

The paper points to the research gaps and scope for future research in the area of WLB.

Originality/value

The current study uncovered the research gaps regarding the systematic review and classifications based on demography, year of publication, the research method used and sector being studied.

• Work-life balance
• Flexibility
• Individual’s ability to balance work-life
• Support system
• WLB policy utilization
• Societal culture

S., T. and S.N., G. (2023), "Work-life balance -a systematic review", Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management , Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 258-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/XJM-10-2020-0186

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Thilagavathy S. and Geetha S.N.

Published in Vilakshan – XIMB Journal of Management . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

In this technological era, work is becoming demanding with changing nature of work and working patterns (Thilagavathy and Geetha, 2020 ). The proactive, aggressive and demanding nature of business with the intention of reaching the top requires active involvement and comprehensive devotion from the employees, thereby compromising their work-life balance (WLB) (Turanlıgil and Farooq, 2019 ). Research concerning the work-life interface has exploded over the past five decades because of the changing trends in the nature of gender roles, families, work and careers (Powell et al. , 2019 ). Researchers in this domain has published many literature reviews with regard to WLB. It is argued that the study of WLB remains snowed under by a lack of conceptual clarity (Perrigino et al. , 2018 ). Thus, research and theory only partially view the employees’ work-life needs and experiences.

How WLB is conceptualized in the past?

What are the factors that significantly influenced WLB?

In which geographical areas were the WLB studies undertaken?

Which sectors remain unstudied or understudied with regard to WLB?

Methodology

We systematically conducted the literature review with the following five steps, as shown in Figure 1 . The first step was to review the abstracts from the database like EBSCO, Science Direct, Proquest and JSTOR. The articles from publishers like ELSEVIER, Emerald insight, Springer, Taylor and Francis and Sage were considered. The literature survey was conducted using the search terms WLB, balancing work and family responsibility and domains of work and life between the period 1990 to 2019. This search process led to the identification of 1,230 relevant papers. Inclusion criteria: The scholarly articles concerning WLB published in the English language in journals listed in Scopus, web of science or Australian business deans council (ABDC) were included in this review. Exclusion criteria: The scholarly articles concerning WLB published in languages other than English were not taken into consideration. Similarly, unpublished papers and articles published in journals not listed in Scopus, web of science or ABDC were excluded.

In the second step, we identified the duplicates and removed them. Thus, the total number of papers got reduced to 960. Following this, many papers relating to work-life spillover and work-life conflict were removed, resulting in further reduction of the papers to 416. Subsequently, in the third step, the papers were further filtered based on the language. The paper in the English language from journals listed in Scopus, web of science or ABDC were only considered. This search process resulted in the reduction of related papers to 93. The fourth step in the search process was further supplemented with the organic search for the related articles, leading to 99 papers illustrated in Appendix Table 1 . In the fifth step, an Excel sheet was created to review the paper under different headings and the results are as follows.

Literature review

Evolution and conceptualization of work-life balance.

WLB concern was raised earlier by the working mothers of the 1960s and 1970s in the UK. Later the issue was given due consideration by the US Government during the mid of 1980. During the 1990s WLB gained adequate recognition as the issue of human resource management in other parts of the world (Bird, 2006 ). The scholarly works concerning WLB have increased, mainly because of the increasing strength of the women workforce, technological innovations, cultural shifts in attitudes toward the relationship between the work and the family and the diversity of family structures (Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014 ). The research works on WLB include several theoretical work-family models. Though the research on WLB has expanded to a greater extend, there are considerable gaps in our knowledge concerning work-family issues (Powell et al. , 2019 ).

Moreover, in studies where WLB and related aspects are explored, researchers have used different operational definitions and measurements for the construct. Kalliath and Brough (2008) have defined WLB as “The individual’s perception that work and non-work activities are compatible and promote growth in accordance with an individual’s current life priorities.” WLB is “a self-defined, self-determined state of well being that a person can reach, or can set as a goal, that allows them to manage effectively multiple responsibilities at work, at home and in their community; it supports physical, emotional, family, and community health, and does so without grief, stress or negative impact” (Canadian Department of Labor, as cited in Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ).

Figure 2 depicts the flowchart of the framework for the literature survey. It clearly shows the factors that have been surveyed in this research article.

Individual factors

The individual factors of WLB include demographic variables, personal demands, family demands, family support and individual ability.

Work-life balance and demography.

WLB has significant variations with demographic variables (Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ). A significant difference was found between age (Powell et al. , 2019 ), gender (Thilagavathy and Geetha, 2020 ) and marital status (Powell et al. , 2019 ) regarding WLB. There is a significant rise in women’s participation in the workforce (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). WLB issues are higher for dual-career couples (Crawford et al. , 2019 ).

Many studies were conducted on WLB with reference to sectors like information technology (IT), information technology enabled services, Banking, Teaching, Academics and Women Employment. A few WLB studies are conducted among services sector employees, hotel and catering services, nurses, doctors, middle-level managers and entrepreneurs. Only very scarce research has been found concerning police, defense, chief executive officers, researchers, lawyers, journalists and road transport.

Work-life balance and personal demands.

High work pressure and high family demand lead to poor physical, psychological and emotional well-being (Jensen and Knudsen, 2017 ), causing concern to employers as this leads to reduced productivity and increased absenteeism (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and family demands.

An employee spends most of the time commuting (Denstadli et al. , 2017 ) or meeting their work and family responsibilities. Dual career couple in the nuclear family finds it difficult to balance work and life without domestic help (Dumas and Perry-Smith, 2018 ; Srinivasan and Sulur Nachimuthu, 2021 ). Difficulty in a joint family is elderly care (Powell et al. , 2019 ). Thus, family demands negatively predict WLB (Haar et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and family support.

Spouse support enables better WLB (Dumas and Perry-Smith, 2018 ). Family support positively impacted WLB, especially for dual-career couples, with dependent responsibilities (Groysberg and Abrahams, 2014 ).

Work-life balance and individual’s ability.

Though the organizations implement many WLB policies, employees still face the problems of WLB (Dave and Purohit, 2016 ). Employees achieve better well-being through individual coping strategies (Zheng et al. , 2016 ). Individual resources such as stress coping strategy, mindfulness emotional intelligence positively predicted WLB (Kiburz et al. , 2017 ). This indicates the imperative need to improve the individual’s ability to manage work and life.

Organizational factor

Organizational factors are those relating to organization design in terms of framing policies, rules and regulations for administering employees and dealing with their various activities regarding WLB ( Kar and Misra, 2013 ). In this review, organizational factors and their impact on the WLB of the employee have been dealt with in detail.

Work-life balance and organizational work-life policies.

The organization provides a variety of WLB policies (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). Employee-friendly policies positively influenced WLB ( Berg et al. , 2003 ). Further, only a few IT industries provided Flexi timing, work from home and crèches facilities (Downes and Koekemoer, 2012 ). According to Galea et al. (2014) , industry-specific nuance exists.

Work-life balance and organizational demands.

Organizations expect employees to multi-task, causing role overload (Bacharach et al. , 1991 ). The increasing intensity of work and tight deadlines negatively influenced WLB (Allan et al. , 1999 ). The shorter time boundaries make it challenging to balance professional and family life (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). Job demands negatively predicted WLB (Haar et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and working hours.

Work does vacuum up a greater portion of the personal hours (Haar et al. , 2019 ). This causes some important aspects of their lives to be depleted, undernourished or ignored (Hughes et al. , 2018 ). Thus, employees find less time for “quality” family life (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ).

Work-life balance and productivity.

Organizational productivity is enhanced by the synergies of work-family practices and work-team design (Johari et al. , 2018 ). Enhanced WLB leads to increased employee productivity (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and burnout.

WLB is significantly influenced by work exhaustion (burnout). Negative psychological experience arising from job stress is defined as burnout (Ratlif, 1988). Increased work and non-work demands contribute to occupational burnout and, in turn, negatively predict WLB and employee well-being (Jones et al. , 2019 ).

Work-life balance and support system.

Support from Colleagues, supervisors and the head of institutions positively predicted WLB (Ehrhardt and Ragins, 2019 ; Yadav and Sharma, 2021 ). Family-supportive organization policy positively influenced WLB (Haar and Roche, 2010 ).

Work-life balance and employee perception.

The employee’s perception regarding their job, work environment, supervision and organization positively influenced WLB (Fontinha et al. , 2019 ). Employees’ awareness concerning the existence of WLB policies is necessary to appreciate it (Matthews et al. , 2014). The employee’s perception of the need for WLB policies differs with respect to their background (Kiburz et al. , 2017 ).

Work-life balance and job autonomy.

Job autonomy is expressed as the extent of freedom the employee has in their work and working pattern ( Bailey, 1993 ). According to Ahuja and Thatcher (2005) , autonomy and flexibility enable employees to balance competing demands of work-life. Job autonomy will enhance WLB (Johari et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction is the driving force for task accomplishment and employees’ intention to stay (Brough et al. , 2014 ). Employees’ positive perception concerning their job enhances job satisfaction (Singh et al. , 2020 ; Yadav and Sharma, 2021 ). WLB and job satisfaction are positively correlated (Jackson and Fransman, 2018 ).

Work-life balance and organizational commitment.

Alvesson (2002) describes organizational commitment as a mutual and fair social exchange. WLB positively predicted organizational commitment (Emre and De Spiegeleare, 2019 ). Work-life policies offered by an organization lead to increased loyalty and commitment (Callan, 2008 ).

Work-life balance and work-life balance policy utilization.

The utilization of WLB policies (Adame-Sánchez et al. , 2018 ) helps meet job and family demands. Despite the availability of WLB policies, their actual adoption is rather small (Waters and Bardoel, 2006 ) and often lag behind implementation (Adame-Sánchez et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and organizational culture.

Employees perceive WLB policy utilization may badly reflect their performance appraisal and promotion (Bourdeau et al. , 2019 ). Hence, seldom use the WLB policies (Dave and Purohit, 2016 ). The perception of the organization culture as isolated, unfriendly and unaccommodating (Fontinha et al. , 2017 ); a lack of supervisor and manager support and a lack of communication and education about WLB strategies (Jenkins and Harvey, 2019 ). This leads to counterproductive work behavior and work-family backlash (Alexandra, 2014 ). As a result, growing evidence suggests a dark side to WLB policies, but these findings remain scattered and unorganized (Perrigino et al. , 2018 ). Organizational culture significantly affects WLB policy utilization (Callan, 2008 ; Dave and Purohit, 2016 ).

Societal factors

Societal changes that have taken place globally and locally have impacted the individual’s lifestyle. In this modern techno world, a diversified workforce resulting from demographic shifts and communication technology results in blurring of boundaries between work and personal life (Kalliath and Brough, 2008 ).

Work-life balance and societal demands.

Being members of society, mandates employee’s participation in social events. But in the current scenario, this is witnessing a downward trend. The employee often comes across issues of inability to meet the expectation of friends, relatives and society because of increased work pressure. Societal demands significantly predicted WLB (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and societal culture.

Societal culture has a strong influence on WLB policy utilization and work and non-work self-efficacy. Specifically, collectivism, power distance and gendered norms had a strong and consistent impact on WLB Policy utilization by employees (Brown et al. , 2019 ). Women’s aspiration to achieve WLB is frequently frustrated by patriarchal norms deep-rooted in the culture (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ).

Work-life balance and societal support.

WLB was significantly predicted by support from neighbors, friends and community members (Mushfiqur et al. , 2018 ). Sometimes employees need friend’s viewpoints to get a new perspective on a problem or make a tough decision (Dhanya and Kinslin, 2016 ). Community support is an imperative indicator of WLB ( Phillips et al. , 2016 ).

Analyzes and results

Article distribution based on year of publication.

The WLB studies included for this review were between the periods of 1990–2019. Only a few studies were published in the initial period. A maximum of 44 papers was published during 2016–2019. Out of which, 17 studies were published during the year 2019. In the years 2018, 2017 and 2016 a total of 12, 7 and 8 studies were published, respectively. The details of the article distribution over the years illustrate a rising trend, as shown in Figure 3 .

Geographical distribution

Papers considered for this review were taken globally, including the research works from 26 countries. American and European countries contributed to a maximum of 60% of the publications regarding WLB research. Figure 4 illustrates the contribution of different countries toward the WLB research.

Basic classification

The review included 99 indexed research work contributed by more than 70 authors published in 69 journals. The contribution worth mentioning was from authors like Allen T.D, Biron M, Greenhaus J. H, Haar J.M, Jensen M.T, Kalliath T and Mc Carthy A. The basic categorization revealed that the geographical distribution considered for this review was from 26 different countries, as shown in Figure 4 . The research was conducted in (but not limited to) countries like Africa, Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, The Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, the USA and the UK. American and European countries together contributed to the maximum of 60% of publications. Further, the categorization uncovered that 7 out of the 99 journals contributed to 30% of the WLB papers considered for this review, clearly illustrated in Table 1 .

Methodology-based categorization of papers

The basic information like research methods, sources of data, the proportion of papers using specific methodologies were considered for methodology-based categorization. The categorization revealed that 27 out of 99 papers reviewed were conceptual and the remaining 72 papers were empirical. The empirical papers used descriptive, exploratory, explanatory or experimental research designs. Further, categorization based on the data collection method revealed that 69 papers used the primary data collection method. Additionally, classification uncovered that 57 papers used the quantitative method, whereas 11 papers used the qualitative approach and four used the mixed method. The most prominent primary method used for data collection was the questionnaire method with 58 papers, while the remaining 20 papers used interview (10), case study (5), experimental studies (3), daily dairy (1) or panel discussion (1).

Sector-based categorization of papers

The sector-based categorization of papers revealed that 41.6% (30 papers) of research work was carried out in service sectors. This is followed by 40.2% (29 papers) research in the general public. While one paper was found in the manufacturing sector, the remaining nine papers focused on managers, women, the defense sector, police and the public sector, the details of which are showcased in Table 2 .

Research gap

Individual factor.

The literature survey results demonstrated that the impact of employee education and experience on their WLB had not been examined.

The literature survey has uncovered that the relationship between income and WLB has not been explored.

The influence of domestic help on WLB has not been investigated.

Much of the research work has been carried out in developed countries like the US, UK, European countries and Australia. In contrast, very scarce research works have been found in developing countries and underdeveloped countries.

Not much work has been done in WLB regarding service sectors like fire-fighters, transport services like drivers, railway employees, pilots, air hostesses, power supply department and unorganized sectors.

A review of the relevant literature uncovered that studies concerning the individual’s ability to balance work and life are limited. The individual’s ability, along with WLB policies, considerably improved WLB. Individual strategies are the important ones that need investigation rather than workplace practices.

Kibur z et al . (2017) addressed the ongoing need for experimental, intervention-based design in work-family research. There are so far very scares experimental studies conducted with regard to WLB.

Organizational factor.

A very few studies explored the impact of the WLB policies after the implementation.

Studies concerning the organizational culture, psychological climate and WLB policy utilizations require investigation.

Organizational climates influence on the various factors that predict WLB needs exploration.

Societal factor.

The impact of the societal factors on WLB is not explored much.

Similarly, the influence of societal culture (societal beliefs, societal norms and values systems) on WLB is not investigated.

Discussion and conclusion

The current research work aspires to conduct a systematic review to unearth the research gaps, and propose direction for future studies. For this purpose, literature with regard to WLB was systematically surveyed from 1990 to 2019. This led to identifying 99 scientific research papers from index journals listed in Scopus, the web of science or the ABDC list. Only papers in the English language were considered. The review section elaborated on the evolution and conceptualization of WLB. Moreover, the literature review discussed in detail the relationship between WLB and other related variables. Further, the research works were classified based on the fundamental information revealed that a maximum of 44 papers was published during the year 2016–2019. The geographical distribution revealed that a maximum of research publications concerning WLB was from American and European countries. Further, the basic classification revealed that 7 out of the 69 journals contributed to 30% of the WLB papers considered for this review. The methodology-based classification unearthed the fact that 73% of the papers were empirical studies. Additionally, the categorization uncovered that 79% ( n = 57) of papers used quantitative methods dominated by survey method of data collection. Sector-based categorization made known the fact that a maximum of 41.6% of research work was carried out in the service sector. The research gaps were uncovered based on the systematic literature review and classifications and proposed future research directions.

Limitations

We acknowledge that there is a possibility of missing out a few papers unintentionally, which may not be included in this review. Further, papers in the English language were only considered. Thus, the papers in other languages were not included in this systematic review which is one of the limitations of this research work.

Implications

The discussion reveals the importance and essentiality of the individual’s ability to balance work and life. Consequently, the researchers have proposed future research directions exploring the relationship between the variables. WLB is an important area of research; thus, the proposed research directions are of importance to academicians. The review’s finding demonstrates that there are very scarce studies on the individual’s ability to balance work and life. This leaves a lot of scopes for researchers to do continuous investigation in this area. Hence, it is essential to conduct more research on developing individuals’ ability to balance work and life. There are a few experimental studies conducted so far in WLB. Future experimental studies can be undertaken to enhance the individual’s ability to balance work and life.

Flow chart of the steps in systematic review process

Framework for the literature review

Distribution of papers based on year of publication

Geographical distribution of papers across countries

Journals details

Table 1 List of papers included in the review

Adame-Sánchez , C. , Caplliure , E.M. and Miquel-Romero , M.J. ( 2018 ), “ Paving the way for competition: drivers for work-life balance policy implementation ”, Review of Managerial Science , Vol. 12 No. 2 , pp. 519 - 533 , doi: 10.1007/s11846-017-0271-y .

Ahuja , M. and Thatcher , J. ( 2005 ), “ Moving beyond intentions and towards the theory of trying: effects of work environment and gender on post-adoption information technology use ”, MIS Quarterly , Vol. 29 No. 3 , pp. 427 - 459 .

Allan , C. , O'Donnell , M. and Peetz , D. ( 1999 ), “ More tasks, less secure, working harder: three dimensions of labour utilization ”, Journal of Industrial Relations , Vol. 41 No. 4 , pp. 519 - 535 , doi: 10.1177/002218569904100403 .

Alvesson ( 2002 ), Understanding Organizational Culture , Sage Publications , London . 10.4135/9781446280072

Bacharach , S.B. , Bamberger , R. and Conely , S. ( 1991 ), “ Work-home conflict among nurses and engineers: mediating the impact of stress on burnout and satisfaction at work ”, Journal of Organizational Behavior , Vol. 12 No. 1 , pp. 39 - 63 , doi: 10.1002/job.4030120104 .

Bailey , T.R. ( 1993 ), “ Discretionary effort and the organization of work: employee participation and work reform since Hawthorne ”, Teachers College and Conservation of Human Resources , Columbia University .

Bardoel , E.A. ( 2006 ), “ Work-life balance and human resource development ”, Holland , P. and De Cieri , H. (Eds), Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Development: An Australian Perspective , Pearson Education , Frenchs Forest, NSW , pp. 237 - 259 .

Berg , P. , Kalleberg , A.L. and Appelbaum , E. ( 2003 ), “ Balancing work and family: the role of high - commitment environments ”, Industrial Relations , Vol. 42 No. 2 , pp. 168 - 188 , doi: 10.1111/1468-232X.00286 .

Bird , J. ( 2006 ), “ Work-life balance: doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls ”, Employment Relations Today , Vol. 33 No. 3 , pp. 21 - 30 , doi: 10.1002/ert.20114 .

Bourdeau , S. , Ollier-Malaterre , A. and Houlfort , N. ( 2019 ), “ Not all work-life policies are created equal: career consequences of using enabling versus enclosing work-life policies ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 172 - 193 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2016.0429 .

Brough , P. , Timm , C. , Driscoll , M.P.O. , Kalliath , T. , Siu , O.L. , Sit , C. and Lo , D. ( 2014 ), “ Work-life balance: a longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand workers ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 25 No. 19 , pp. 2724 - 2744 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2014.899262 .

Callan , S.J. ( 2008 ), “ Cultural revitalization: the importance of acknowledging the values of an organization's ‘golden era’ when promoting work-life balance ”, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal , Vol. 3 No. 1 , pp. 78 - 97 , doi: 10.1108/17465640810870409 .

Crawford , W.S. , Thompson , M.J. and Ashforth , B.E. ( 2019 ), “ Work-life events theory: making sense of shock events in dual-earner couples ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 194 - 212 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2016.0432 .

Dave , J. and Purohit , H. ( 2016 ), “ Work-life balance and perception: a conceptual framework ”, The Clarion- International Multidisciplinary Journal , Vol. 5 No. 1 , pp. 98 - 104 .

Denstadli , J.M. , Julsrud , T.E. and Christiansen , P. ( 2017 ), “ Urban commuting – a threat to the work-family balance? ”, Journal of Transport Geography , Vol. 61 , pp. 87 - 94 , doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.04.011 .

Downes , C. and Koekemoer , E. ( 2012 ), “ Work-life balance policies: the use of flexitime ”, Journal of Psychology in Africa , Vol. 22 No. 2 , pp. 201 - 208 , doi: 10.1080/14330237.2012.10820518 .

Dumas , T.L. and Perry-Smith , J.E. ( 2018 ), “ The paradox of family structure and plans after work: why single childless employees may be the least absorbed at work ”, Academy of Management Journal , Vol. 61 No. 4 , pp. 1231 - 1252 , doi: 10.5465/amj.2016.0086 .

Ehrhardt , K. and Ragins , B.R. ( 2019 ), “ Relational attachment at work: a complimentary fit perspective on the role of relationships in organizational life ”, Academy of Management Journal , Vol. 62 No. 1 , pp. 248 - 282 , doi: 10.5465/amj.2016.0245 .

Emre , O. and De Spiegeleare , S. ( 2019 ), “ The role of work-life balance and autonomy in the relationship between commuting, employee commitment, and well-being ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 32 No. 11 , pp. 1 - 25 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2019.1583270 .

Fontinha , R. , Easton , S. and Van Laar , D. ( 2017 ), “ Overtime and quality of working life in academics and non-academics: the role of perceived work-life balance ”, International Journal of Stress Management , ( in Press ).

Fontinha , R. , Easton , S. and Van Laar , D. ( 2019 ), “ Overtime and quality of working life in academics and non-academics: the role of perceived work-life balance ”, International Journal of Stress Management , Vol. 26 No. 2 , pp. 173 , doi: 10.1037/str0000067 .

Galea , C. , Houkes , I. and Rijk , A.D. ( 2014 ), “ An insider’s point of view: how a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 25 No. 8 , pp. 1090 - 1111 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2013.816862 .

Greenhaus , J.H. and Kossek , E.E. ( 2014 ), “ The contemporary career: a work–home perspective ”, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior , Vol. 1 No. 1 , pp. 361 - 388 , doi: 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091324 .

Groysberg , B. and Abrahams , R. ( 2014 ), “ Manage your work, manage your life ”, Harvard Business Review , Vol. 92 No. 3 , pp. 58 - 66 , available at: https://hbr.org/2014/03/manage-your-work-manage-your-life

Haar , J.M. and Roche , M. ( 2010 ), “ Family-supportive organization perceptions and employee outcomes: the mediating effects of life satisfaction ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 21 No. 7 , pp. 999 - 1014 , doi: 10.1080/09585191003783462 .

Haar , J.M. , Sune , A. , Russo , M. and Ollier-Malaterre , A. ( 2019 ), “ A cross-national study on the antecedents of work-life balance from the fit and balance perspective ”, Social Indicators Research , Vol. 142 No. 1 , pp. 261 - 282 , doi: 10.1007/s11205-018-1875-6 .

Hughes , R. , Kinder , A. and Cooper , C.L. ( 2018 ), “ Work-life balance ”, The Wellbeing Workout , pp. 249 - 253 , doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-92552-3_42 .

Jackson , L.T. and Fransman , E.I. ( 2018 ), “ Flexi work, financial well-being, work-life balance and their effects on subjective experiences of productivity and job satisfaction of females in an institution of higher learning ”, South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences , Vol. 21 No. 1 , pp. 1 - 13 , doi: 10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1487 .

Jenkins , K. and Harvey , S.B. ( 2019 ), “ Australian experiences ”, Mental Health in the Workplace , pp. 49 - 66 . Springer , Cham .

Jensen , M.T. and Knudsen , K. ( 2017 ), “ A two-wave cross-lagged study of business travel, work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and psychological health complaints ”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , Vol. 26 No. 1 , pp. 30 - 41 , doi: 10.1080/1359432X.2016.1197206 .

Johari , J. , Yean Tan , F. and TjikZulkarnain , Z.I. ( 2018 ), “ Autonomy, workload, work-life balance, and job performance among teachers ”, International Journal of Educational Management , Vol. 32 No. 1 , pp. 107 - 120 , doi: 10.1108/IJEM-10-2016-0226 .

Jones , R. , Cleveland , M. and Uther , M. ( 2019 ), “ State and trait neural correlates of the balance between work-non work roles ”, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , Vol. 287 , pp. 19 - 30 , doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2019.03.009 .

Kalliath , T. and Brough , P. ( 2008 ), “ Work-life balance: a review of the meaning of the balance construct ”, Journal of Management & Organization , Vol. 14 No. 3 , pp. 323 - 327 , doi: 10.1017/S1833367200003308 .

Kar , S. and Misra , K.C. ( 2013 ), “ Nexus between work life balance practices and employee retention-the mediating effect of a supportive culture ”, Asian Social Science , Vol. 9 No. 11 , p. 63 , doi: 10.1016/j.soscij.2019.03.008 , doi: 10.5539/ass.v9n11p63 .

Kiburz , K.M. , Allen , T.D. and French , K.A. ( 2017 ), “ Work-family conflict and mindfulness: investigating the effectiveness of a brief training intervention ”, Journal of Organizational Behavior , Vol. 38 No. 7 , pp. 1016 - 1037 , doi: 10.1002/job.2181 .

Mushfiqur , R. , Mordi , C. , Oruh , E.S. , Nwagbara , U. , Mordi , T. and Turner , I.M. ( 2018 ), “ The impacts of work-life balance (WLB) challenges on social sustainability: the experience of nigerian female medical doctors ”, Employee Relations , Vol. 40 No. 5 , pp. 868 - 888 , doi: 10.1108/ER-06-2017-0131 .

Perrigino , M.B. , Dunford , B.B. and Wilson , K.S. ( 2018 ), “ Work-family backlash: the ‘dark side’ of work-life balance (WLB) policies ”, Academy of Management Annals , Vol. 12 No. 2 , pp. 600 - 630 , doi: 10.5465/annals.2016.0077 .

Phillips , J. , Hustedde , C. , Bjorkman , S. , Prasad , R. , Sola , O. , Wendling , A. and Paladine , H. ( 2016 ), “ Rural women family physicians: strategies for successful work-life balance ”, The Annals of Family Medicine , Vol. 14 No. 3 , pp. 244 - 251 .

Powell , G.N. , Greenhaus , J.H. , Allen , T.D. and Johnson , R.E. ( 2019 ), “ Introduction to special topic forum: advancing and expanding work-life theory from multiple perspectives ”, Academy of Management Review , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 54 - 71 , doi: 10.5465/amr.2018.0310 .

Ratliff , N. ( 1988 ), “ Stress and burnout in the helping professions ”, Social Casework , Vol. 69 No. 1 , pp. 147 - 154 .

Singh , S. , Singh , S.K. and Srivastava , S. ( 2020 ), “ Relational exploration of the effect of the work-related scheme on job satisfaction ”, Vilakshan – XIMB Journal of Management , Vol. 17 Nos 1/2 , pp. 111 - 128 , doi: 10.1108/XJM-07-2020-0019 .

Srinivasan , T. and Sulur Nachimuthu , G. ( 2021 ), “ COVID-19 impact on employee flourishing: parental stress as mediator ”, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance Online Publication , doi: 10.1037/tra0001037 .

Thilagavathy , S. and Geetha , S.N. ( 2020 ), “ A morphological analyses of the literature on employee work-life balance ”, Current Psychology , pp. 1 - 26 , doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-00968-x .

Turanlıgil , F.G. and Farooq , M. ( 2019 ), “ Work-Life balance in tourism industry ”, in Contemporary Human Resources Management in the Tourism Industry , pp. 237 - 274 , IGI Global .

Waters , M.A. and Bardoel , E.A. ( 2006 ), “ Work-family policies in the context of higher education: useful or symbolic? ”, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources , Vol. 44 No. 1 , pp. 67 - 82 , doi: 10.1177/1038411106061510 .

Yadav , V. and Sharma , H. ( 2021 ), “ Family-friendly policies, supervisor support, and job satisfaction: mediating effect of work-family conflict ”, Vilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management , doi: 10.1108/XJM-02-2021-0050 .

Zheng , C. , Kashi , K. , Fan , D. , Molineux , J. and Ee , M.S. ( 2016 ), “ Impact of individual coping strategies and organizational work-life balance programmes on australian employee well-being ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 27 No. 5 , pp. 501 - 526 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2015.1020447 .

Further reading

Allen , T.D. ( 2012 ), “ The work and family interface ”, in Kozlowski , S.W.J. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Psychology , Vol. 2 , Oxford University Press , New York, NY , pp. 1163 - 1198 .

Bell , A.S. , Rajendran , D. and Theiler , S. ( 2012 ), “ Job stress, wellbeing, work-life balance and work-life conflict among Australian academics ”, Electronic Journal of Applied Psychology , Vol. 8 No. 1 , pp. 25 - 37 .

Biron , M. ( 2013 ), “ Effective and ineffective support: how different sources of support buffer the short–and long–term effects of a working day ”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , Vol. 22 No. 2 , pp. 150 - 164 , doi: 10.1080/1359432X.2011.640772 .

Carlson , D.S. and Kacmar , K.M. ( 2000 ), “ Work-family conflict in the organization: do life role values make a difference? ”, Journal of Management , Vol. 26 No. 5 , pp. 1031 - 1054 , doi: 10.1177/014920630002600502 .

Clark , S.C. ( 2000 ), “ Work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance ”, Human Relations , Vol. 53 No. 6 , pp. 747 - 770 , doi: 10.1177/0018726700536001 .

Daipuria , P. and Kakar , D. ( 2013 ), “ Work-Life balance for working parents: perspectives and strategies ”, Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management , Vol. 2 No. 1 , pp. 45 - 52 .

Gregory , A. and Milner , S. ( 2009 ), “ Editorial: work-life balance: a matter of choice? ”, Gender, Work & Organization , Vol. 16 No. 1 , pp. 1 - 13 , doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00429.x .

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Acknowledgements

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Compliance of ethical standard statement: The results reported in this manuscript were conducted in accordance with general ethical guidelines in psychology.

Corresponding author

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 24 September 2024

Seven work–life balance tips from a part-time PhD student

• Simone Willis 0

Simone Willis is a systematic reviewer at Cardiff University, UK.

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As a part-time PhD student, blocking out time both work and study helped Simone Willis to keep a good work–life balance. Credit: Paul Goode Photography, Simone Willis

When I enrolled for a part-time PhD in 2016, it was for flexibility and financial reasons. I was working as a music tutor across Cardiff and South Gloucestershire, UK , teaching violin, flute and fife. These experiences, coupled with an undergraduate degree in music, led me to apply for a PhD exploring workplace stress and well-being in classical musicians and people studying at US conservatoires.

In the second year of my PhD, I accepted a part-time job at Cardiff University as a systematic reviewer, alongside my studies. Given the topic of my thesis, I wanted to to maintain a healthy work–life balance. Since graduation, I’ve stayed in that role, assessing medical devices and conducting evidence-synthesis projects in health and social care. I’ve also co-authored 13 papers examining mental health and well-being across a variety of sectors and settings. Using my experiences as inspiration, here are seven tips that helped me to balance my work, study and well-being during my PhD.

1. Treat your PhD like a job

I set boundaries for splitting my 9-to-5 week between work and study. This meant a 50/50 split of my working hours. Before I started my job as a reviewer, I spent 20 hours a week teaching music and 20 hours on my PhD.

Aside from a few late nights and weekends, I treated my PhD exactly like a part-time job. I blocked out time in my diary for both work and study, which helped me to plan and keep focused. Sticking to these boundaries allowed me to decompress and make time for friends, family and hobbies. I’d leave the office to attend a dance class and then catch up with my husband over dinner. Studying part-time meant that the PhD was not an all-consuming process and provided perspective — life outside the PhD continued.

2. Leave tasks incomplete

When switching between work and study, I often needed to pick up a train of thought from a few days before. A technique that worked well was writing a list of any uncompleted tasks at the end of my day, either scribbled on a sticky note on top of my keyboard, or as a comment on a document. These helped me to pick up ideas again later without needing to mentally retrace my steps. For example, if I was in the middle of writing a paragraph in the discussion section of my thesis, I’d leave a note to say, “Describing x finding, relate to y theory”, before heading off.

At first, leaving paragraphs with half-finished sentences or suggestions on where to take my writing felt counter-intuitive, but making these notes allowed me to write without losing momentum and gave me time for reflection.

3. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time available

Early on, I was overambitious when planning my studies, which led to frustration. For example, I planned to complete background reading and write my literature review in the first three months. In fact, this took much longer and was something I returned to in the final stages of putting together my thesis.

Over time, I developed a better sense of how long tasks would take, especially writing, and learnt to plan accordingly. I found a system that allowed me to write fluidly. First, I mapped out an overarching structure for my thesis, using headings and bullet points in a document. Second, I identified references and noted where they would go in the structure. Only then did I turn to writing each section in detail. In the final stages of writing my thesis, I was able to accurately map out monthly, weekly and daily writing tasks.

4. Be selective when saying ‘yes’

I also learnt to value my time and consider what opportunities to take on. It is tempting to say ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes along, but I developed skills in being selective and saying ‘no’ when needed.

I made my decisions by reflecting on the following: have I already done something similar? Is this opportunity something I want to do or something someone else wants me to do? Do I realistically have the time? Is this a one-time-only opportunity or will there be similar chances in the future? What are the potential benefits and harms of saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’?

In my second year, I chaired the doctoral-researcher committee, which organized events and represented PhD students on academic committees. I remember being asked whether I would be on the committee for another year, and my instinct was to say ‘yes’. But after a moment of reflection on those key questions, I realized that it was better to focus on my research. I ensured that the committee was in a good position and had recruited new members before I left.

5. Connect with peers

Sharing the journey with other PhD students was invaluable for receiving advice, celebrating the highs of publication and sharing the challenges and setbacks of data collection gone awry.

I was initially registered on an master’s leading to a PhD, so had to formally transfer onto a PhD programme in my second year. I needed to submit a written report as well as pass an interview. I remember speaking to Helen, one of my peers, about the process and she advised me on how to structure my application and we discussed the questions asked in her interview. This helped me to prepare for the interview and understand the strengths and weaknesses of my work.

I also worked in a shared office alongside 15 other PhD students. This space allowed me to connect with students at different points in their studies and be part of a community of doctoral researchers. More widely, talking to friends in other professions helped to keep the PhD in perspective and understand that there are many ways to be successful.

6. Communicate regularly with supervisors

Early on in my PhD, my director of studies suggested that I send an agenda ahead of meetings with my supervisors. This gave each meeting purpose and clarity in the topics to discuss. This was especially helpful in the write-up phase, when I needed to discuss different chapters and consider the thread throughout my thesis. To keep momentum, before each meeting ended, I scheduled the next meeting.

After each meeting, I sent a brief summary over e-mail, which allowed me to revisit important decisions later in the project. It was important to discuss issues before they escalated into bigger problems — my supervisors were a source of support and encouragement throughout my PhD.

7. Write as you go

When I first started, I had no concept of what 80,000–100,000 words looked like — only that it sounded like a lot. I was advised early on to write throughout the PhD process and not leave everything to the end. This appealed to me because I like having a plan and was concerned that I’d forget why I had made particular decisions if I left the writing until the end. Initially, however, I felt like I was getting nowhere, constantly redrafting and not knowing what direction to take with each individual chapter. Because my music degree was performance-based, I hadn’t had much practice writing in an academic style and it took me a while to develop my academic voice.

One thing that really helped was writing the manuscript for the first study from my thesis . This helped me to improve the structure of my work and to communicate an argument. Writing also helped me to clarify my understanding of the research area.

Although inspired by my experiences and those I interviewed working in music, I hope that these tips are transferrable to graduate students in a variety of disciplines.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02693-y

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

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Striking a Balance between Work and Play: The Effects of Work–Life Interference and Burnout on Faculty Turnover Intentions and Career Satisfaction

Sheila a. boamah.

1 Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada

Hanadi Y. Hamadi

2 Department of Health Administration, Brooks College of Health (Building 39), University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA; [email protected] (H.Y.H.); ude.fnu@50597310n (H.S.)

Farinaz Havaei

3 School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2B5, Canada; [email protected]

Hailey Smith

4 Department of Surgery-Jacksonville, Center for Health Equity & Engagement Research, Urban Health Alliance of Jacksonville, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32209, USA; [email protected]

Associated Data

Research data are not publicly available due to the restrictions (e.g., contains information that could compromise the privacy of research participants) and in accordance with the ethics agreement.

Background: The interactions between work and personal life are important for ensuring well-being, especially during COVID-19 where the lines between work and home are blurred. Work–life interference/imbalance can result in work-related burnout, which has been shown to have negative effects on faculty members’ physical and psychological health. Although our understanding of burnout has advanced considerably in recent years, little is known about the effects of burnout on nursing faculty turnover intentions and career satisfaction. Objective: To test a hypothesized model examining the effects of work–life interference on nursing faculty burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism), turnover intentions and, ultimately, career satisfaction. Design: A predictive cross-sectional design was used. Settings: An online national survey of nursing faculty members was administered throughout Canada in summer 2021. Participants: Nursing faculty who held full-time or part-time positions in Canadian academic settings were invited via email to participate in the study. Methods: Data were collected from an anonymous survey housed on Qualtrics. Descriptive statistics and reliability estimates were computed. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Data suggest that work–life interference significantly increases burnout which contributes to both higher turnover intentions and lower career satisfaction. Turnover intentions, in turn, decrease career satisfaction. Conclusions: The findings add to the growing body of literature linking burnout to turnover and dissatisfaction, highlighting key antecedents and/or drivers of burnout among nurse academics. These results provide suggestions for suitable areas for the development of interventions and policies within the organizational structure to reduce the risk of burnout during and post-COVID-19 and improve faculty retention.

1. Introduction

Burnout is rampant among the academic workforce and nursing faculty are no exception. The high prevalence of burnout among faculty is attributed to the characteristics of the work environment including excessive workloads, time demands, high expectations and fierce competition, and lack of support and poor leadership [ 1 , 2 ]. The ongoing rise of COVID-19-pandemic-related stressors and unrelenting/accelerating work expectations has further exacerbated burnout among faculty [ 3 ]. Emerging studies suggest that the pandemic has blurred the boundaries between individuals’ work and personal life, leading to more unequal work–life balances amongst faculty members [ 4 , 5 ]. From a psychological perspective, the COVID-19-induced shift to virtual/online formats for teaching and learning creates additional stress and challenge to faculty members due to the increased demands for student support and workload in the absence of face-to-face interactions [ 5 ]. Moreover, the demands of the pandemic and its innumerable effects have placed additional pressure on faculty and, in many ways, limiting their ability to initiate research without decreasing the pressure and expectation to publish [ 6 ], thus further increasing risks of burnout.

The high prevalence of burnout is grounds for concern, as it has deleterious effects on career longevity and job turnover, which further worsens the ongoing nursing workforce shortages and poses a serious risk for mental health challenges, faculty well-being, and quality of life [ 7 ]. It is critical that burnout and turnover of nursing faculty is addressed as it could bottleneck the number of nurses that would be able to receive training, restricting the number of clinical nurses in the future. While factors that lead to burnout have been widely discussed in the organizational and healthcare literature among clinical nurses [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], few studies have investigated the antecedents or predictors of burnout among nursing faculty [ 4 ]. To our knowledge, no study has comprehensively examined academic nurses’ work–life balance and association with burnout and turnover intentions during the pandemic. Given that the main causes of burnout are deeply rooted within the work environment, it is important to understand how organizational factors predisposes faculty to burnout especially in the context of COVID-19 to effectively mitigate the risks.

To extend evidence from past research, the present study investigated the mediating effects of burnout on the relationships between work–life interference and turnover intentions and career satisfaction among nursing faculty. Understanding these relationships is crucial to inform evidence-based interventions, strategies, and policies to address the dimensions of burnout in academic settings.

In this study, we integrated Greenhaus et al.’s [ 11 ] theory of work–life interference and Leiter and Maslach’s [ 12 ] burnout model as the theoretical framework to examine personal and workplace factors that influence nursing faculty retention outcomes (see Figure 1 ).

Hypothesized study model proposing the mediating effect of burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) on the relationship between work-life interference, turnover intensions, and career satisfaction.

1.1. Work–Life Interference

Work–life interference (or lack of balance) is defined as an inter-role conflict where work demands make it such that one is unable to concurrently meet personal life demands or vice versa [ 11 , 13 ]. The more individuals experience job demands, such as work overload and time pressure, the more work–life conflict they experience [ 14 , 15 ]. While the direction of the conflict between work and life is bidirectional, the work and personal/family boundaries are easily permeable meaning that work demands tend to interfere with personal/family life to a greater extent than if the case was in reverse [ 11 ].

Research on the intersection of work with personal life has gain considerable attention in recent years, in both directions—work affecting personal life and vice versa. Work–life interference has been found to act as a “psychosocial risk factor” for ill-health and depletion of psychological health and well-being, namely, life satisfaction [ 16 ]. Some of the outcomes that have been consistently demonstrated in studies in non-academic work settings as it relates to work–life interference include nurse burnout and turnover intentions [ 9 ], absenteeism, intention to leave [ 17 ], stress, and poor work-related performance [ 18 ]. In the academic context, work–life interference has been reported to be pervasive among university faculty members, especially for female faculty due to the academic work culture that focuses on high levels of productivity and minimizes traditional/domestic roles and responsibilities [ 19 ]. Given that balance between work and personal life remains a critical issue in academia and that incompatibility bears a negative effect on important work and health outcomes, it is critical to understand its role in burnout development.

1.2. Burnout

Burnout is defined as a psychological syndrome that arises from continued exposure to work-related stressors, and it is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and sensations of ineffectiveness and lack of achievement [ 12 ]. Emotional exhaustion is the prime manifestation of burnout, as it occurs when one experiences fatigue and depleted of emotional resources, resulting in cynicism or depersonalization and callousness toward others [ 10 ]. Cynicism can manifest itself as emotional resentment towards colleagues and/or the organization [ 20 ]. Common symptoms associated with burnout include chronic indecision, lack of motivation, irritability, disengagement, and withdrawal from participating in organizational operations [ 8 ].

The effects of burnout have been well documented in the organizational literature. Factors such as prolonged heavy workloads, insufficient time for personal life, or a paucity of human or material resources can increase the risks of burnout [ 21 , 22 ]. Among clinical nurses, burnout has been linked to decreased job satisfaction [ 23 ], turnover intentions [ 20 ], reduced work effort, and lower-quality patient care [ 24 ]. Pre-pandemic research shows, in academia, burnout has been associated with a decline in faculty members’ ability to teach [ 25 ], lack of concentration and creativity, deterioration in mental and physical health [ 7 , 26 ], high turnover intentions [ 21 , 25 ], and actual turnover [ 27 ]. A 2019 study by Alves and colleagues found that burnout had a direct negative effect on faculty members’ quality of life, regardless of their field of expertise/study. More profoundly, female academics reported to have experienced a higher likelihood of burnout and dissatisfaction because of work–life imbalance and unresolved interpersonal conflicts [ 28 , 29 ]. Since burnout has been closely related to clinical nurse retention and is seemly prevalent among women, it is crucial to understand the effects of burnout on nursing faculty retention factors, specifically job turnover intentions and career satisfaction.

1.3. Turnover Intention

Turnover intention refers to the subjective account of one’s likelihood of leaving their employment in the near future [ 30 ]. It is the last stage of cognitive withdrawal, whereby an employee takes active steps to search for alternative employment [ 30 ]. Employee turnover has a substantial impact on remaining employees and the organization in terms of the direct cost of new recruitment, selection, and training of new staff. The indirect costs of turnover include diminished workplace morale and productivity, loss of organizational knowledge, and employee demoralization [ 31 ]. According to research, an individual’s intention to leave an organization is the immediate and the most reliable and consistent predictor of actual turnover [ 31 , 32 ]. Organizational/institutional characteristics and collegial relationships are crucial to employee turnover. For example, in the nursing literature, factors such as the practice environment, including leadership support, collegial relationships, professional autonomy, and role conflict, were identified as key predictors of clinical nurses’ turnover intentions and eventual turnover [ 24 , 33 , 34 ].

In academia, high turnover of the faculty leads to a decline in research activities and students’ learning [ 35 ]. More profoundly, high turnover contributes to increased burnout among remaining faculty furthering the supply–demand gap in nursing faculty workforce and the general nursing clinical workforce. Studies show that female academics have the highest attrition rates due to the fact of reports of female academics often being assigned heavier teaching loads and fewer resources than their counterparts [ 28 , 29 , 36 ]. For example, female faculty often feel pressured to assume heavier student advising committee loads, especially in departments with fewer women (e.g., STEM faculty), which negatively impacts on their productivity and satisfaction [ 29 , 37 ]. This is particularly concerning since nursing continues to be a primarily female-dominant profession. Although a wide range of research has been conducted on faculty turnover, few studies have focused on nurse faculty. Given the current gap in nursing faculty supply and demand in Canada [ 38 ], the retention of nursing faculty should be the top priority of institutions/organizations that aim to be efficient and effective in their operations.

1.4. Career Satisfaction

Career satisfaction is an individual’s evaluation of an organizational/workplace factors (e.g., advancement, development, and income) relative to their own goals, expectations, and accomplishments [ 39 ]. It is an important construct in career success and commitment [ 40 ]. In academia, one key aspect of faculty career satisfaction is the nature of the work itself as it relates to teaching, research, and service obligations [ 41 ]. Another important component of satisfaction is a sense of community within the workplace and how faculty members perceive they are valued, respected, and recognized (e.g., receiving rewards, comparable salaries) by their peers and organization [ 42 , 43 ]. Additionally, faculty members perceived that control of their career development [ 41 ], high degrees of autonomy [ 44 ], and the challenge they take from their work [ 43 ] were significant contributing factors to their career satisfaction. Research indicates that a faculty member who had leadership support and mentor experience greater academic success and career satisfaction [ 45 ]. In turn, faculty members who mentored colleagues and students and have quality relationships had increased career satisfaction [ 43 , 46 ].

Past studies [ 47 , 48 ] have found that the quality of work–life of faculty have a significant impact on their satisfaction and morale. For example, a recent study correlated a lower perception of medical faculty members’ quality of life with poor physical, psychological, and social health [ 7 ]. Among faculty, the level of satisfaction in their career was a key component in their intent to leave their organization or academia. Provided that multiple factors go into faculty retention, focusing exclusively on the linkages among work–life interference, burnout, turnover intentions, and career satisfaction should better illuminate the work-and-life-related factors that lead faculty to opt-out of an institution.

1.5. Hypothesized Model (Specific Aims)

Based on our theoretical framework and previous research from the nursing and management literature, we predicted that higher faculty ratings of work–life interference would be associated with higher emotional exhaustion which, in turn, would be related to higher cynicism and, ultimately, increased turnover intentions and lower career satisfaction.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. study design.

This study adopted a non-experimental predictive design to examine the relationships described in the hypothesized study model.

2.2. Participants and Settings

Nursing faculty members employed in both college and university settings in Canada were recruited to participate in this study. Inclusion criteria consisted of faculty with various appointments/positions (e.g., lecturers, assistant professor, and teaching track) in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Adjunct, casual, or visiting professors were excluded. Eligible participants were identified based on their institution’s online profile and were sent an email request with a link to complete a web-based structured questionnaire housed in Qualtrics. The survey consisted of several baseline characteristics along with valid and reliable instruments. The survey package included a letter explaining the study risks and benefits and strategies undertaken to ensure confidentiality and anonymity (e.g., no directly identifiable information or IP addresses). Data for this study were collected in summer 2021. Participation was voluntary and respondents could withdraw from the survey at any time prior to submitting their response. Return of a completed survey indicated consent to participate. To improve survey response rates, the Dillman [ 49 ] method was used. To maintain confidentiality, participants were randomly assigned personal identifying numbers (PIN) numbers to complete the survey anonymously (see study protocol – page 4, paragraph 2) [ 50 ]. Non-responders were sent a reminder email three weeks after the initial invitation, followed by a reminder message four weeks later to optimize response rates and to obtain an adequate sample size (≥200 participants) [ 51 ].

2.3. Instrument Validity, Reliability, and Rigor

In total, four instruments were used to measure the key variables in this analysis. All the measures were standardized questionnaires with acceptable psychometric properties and demonstrated construct validity [ 12 , 52 ]. The scores for each of the items were averaged to obtain an overall measure for each of the variables.

Interference between work and personal life was measured using a modified version of Fisher-McAuley et al.’s [ 52 ] work interference with personal life (WIPL) scale. The WIPL is a questionnaire designed to measure directions and domains of work-personal life interference and enhancement. The 7-item scale measures the extent to which an employee’s working life has affected maintaining a work–life balance. Scale items include, “My personal life suffers because of my work” and “I often neglect my personal needs because of the demands of my work”. Responses are provided on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Not at all) to 7 (Almost all the time), with lower scores indicating a better work–life balance and high scores representing work–life interference. The construct validity of the WIPL scale was established in a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that showed a good fit for the hypothesized factor structure ( χ 2 = 247, df = 122, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.06) [ 9 ]. Internal consistency reliability was established among nursing and business samples [ 9 , 11 ] with Cronbach’s α of 0.92 and 0.89, respectively. Internal scale consistency was comparable in this study (α = 0.93).

Burnout was measured by the emotional exhaustion and cynicism subscales of the Maslach burnout inventory-general survey (MBI-GS) [ 10 ], each consisting of 5 items. Sample items of the MBI-GS are framed as statements of job-related feelings (e.g., “I feel burned out from my work”; “I feel confident that I am effective at getting things done”) and are rated on a 6-point Likert scale from 0 = never to 6 = daily. Burnout is reflected in higher scores on exhaustion and cynicism and lower scores on efficacy, whereas the opposite pattern reflects greater engagement. Higher scores (≥3.0) on each subscale reflect burnout [ 12 ]. Previous research using the MBI-GS among nurses has demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity [ 9 , 12 , 53 ]. Cronbach’s α in the present study was 0.95.

Intention to leave the job was measured using a three-item scale developed by Camman et al. [ 54 ]. The items on the scale determined whether the employee is likely to voluntarily leave the organization in the near future. Respondents rated items such as, “I plan to leave this organization in the next year” on a 7-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). This scale has demonstrated construct validity and acceptable internal consistency in samples of clinical nurses [ 9 ] and frontline nurse managers [ 55 ] with Cronbach’s α of 0.92 and 0.80, respectively. Similar Cronbach’s α are reported in this study.

Career satisfaction was measured using the five-item career satisfaction scale developed by Greehaus et al. [ 11 ]. Respondents indicated their level of agreement with each of the statements (sample item: “I am satisfied with the progress I have made toward meeting my overall career goals”) on a 5-point Likert scale rating from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The mean score was computed as an index of career satisfaction, with a higher score indicating greater satisfaction. Reliability testing of the scale using a normative sample was shown to be internally consistent with a Cronbach’s α of 0.84 [ 56 ]. In the present study, the internal reliability was acceptable (α = 0.79).

2.4. Data Analysis

Data were downloaded from Qualtrics and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS ® ) (version 25, Armonk, NY, USA) [ 57 ] and later exported to the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) statistical software program (version 25) [ 58 ] for structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Descriptive statistics, including measures of central tendency and dispersion, were computed and the reliability of each measurement tool was tested using Cronbach’s α coefficient. Collinearity diagnostics indicated the absence of singularity or multicollinearity [ 51 ]. The hypothesized model in this study was tested using path analysis within SEM procedures in AMOS [ 58 ]. Significance levels of the direct and indirect effects in the model were estimated using Preacher and Hayes’ bootstrapping method with 5000 bootstrap samples [ 59 ] as a more robust way of testing mediation hypothesis. Statistically significant results were achieved if the 95% confidence intervals did not contain zero [ 60 ]. In SEM, a sample size of ≥200 is recommended [ 51 ] to have confidence in the goodness-of-fit tests. The index of overall fit of the hypothesized model was evaluated using the following criteria: the omnibus fit indices (e.g., chi-square, p -value, and chi-square/degrees of freedom ratio), the incremental fit indices (e.g., comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), and the incremental fit index (IFI)) [ 61 ]. The critical value for CFI and IFI is ≥0.90 [ 51 ]. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) can be considered an “absolute fit index”, with 0 indicating the “best fit” and values > 0 suggest a worse fit [ 51 ]. Values of 0.05 or below on the RMSEA are generally considered indicative of a close-fitting model. Values between up to 0.08 and 0.10 [ 61 ] are considered acceptable. However, an RMSEA ≥ 0.10 suggests a model that may have more serious problems in its specification [ 51 ]. Assessment of the above criteria are reported in Section 3 .

2.5. Ethical Consideration

Data collection began after obtaining ethics approval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (#1477).

3.1. Demographic Characteristics

Among the 1649 eligible participants invited, a total of 645 participants provided valid responses (response rate = 39.1%). Faculty mainly self-identified as female (93.6%), 83.1% were White, and 68.7% were married. The majority (81%) reported being employed in a university, and over three-quarters (76.1%) were non-tenured. Thirty-eight percent worked in a large university, and 33.3% worked in a mid-sized university. Respondents worked mostly in a full-time permanent capacity (70.2%), were either master’s (54.9%) or PhD (31.9%) prepared, and 40.9% had been at their current organization for over 10 years. An additional demographic profile of the participants is reported in Table 1 .

Frequencies for faculty demographic characteristics.

3.2. Descriptive Statistics

The means, standard deviations (SDs), Cronbach’s alpha reliabilities, and the correlation matrix for the major study variables are reported in Table 2 . Scores on each measure were normally distributed and all alphas were within acceptable ranges (0.79–0.95). Faculty, on average, reported moderately high levels of work interfering with life (M = 4.59, SD = 1.38) and emotional exhaustion (M = 3.68, SD = 1.68). Scores on cynicism (M = 2.91, SD = 1.44) and turnover intentions (M = 2.16, SD = 1.01) were rated slightly low. Overall, respondents to the survey were highly satisfied with their careers (M = 4.08, SD = 0.76).

Correlations, means, standard deviations, and reliabilities of the major study variables.

M = mean; SD = standard deviation; α = Cronbach’s alpha. ** Significant = p ≤ 0.001.

3.3. Test of the Hypothesized Model

The hypothesized model was supported by the model fit statistics: χ 2 (5) = 7.883, p = 0.001, IFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, and RMSEA = 0.03, indicating that the data were a good fit to the model. As hypothesized, work interference with life domains had a strong direct positive effect on emotional exhaustion (β = 0.67, p < 0.001) which, in turn, had a significant positive effect on cynicism (β = 0.71, p < 0.001). Cynicism was positively associated with turnover intentions (β = 0.60, p < 0.001) and negatively with career satisfaction (β = −0.31, p < 0.001). In addition, turnover intentions had a negative direct effect on career satisfaction (β = −0.55, p < 0.001). The standardized effects of coefficient in the model are illustrated in Figure 2 .

Final study model. Standardized coefficients.

4. Discussion

This study investigated the extent to which work demands of nursing faculty were related to their turnover intentions and career satisfaction through experiences of burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism). Overall, the results provide support for the hypothesized model linking faculty work–life interference with increased burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) and subsequent higher turnover intentions and lower career satisfaction. We found that work–life interference had a robust positive effect on emotional exhaustion which, in turn influenced cynicism as described in the burnout theory. In addition, cynicism had both a negative effect on career satisfaction and a direct positive effect on turnover intentions, which is a phenomenon that occurs after sustained emotional exhaustion resulting from stressful working conditions [ 12 ]. Subsequently, increase in turnover intentions was shown to have led to lower career satisfaction.

Consistent with previous research in the education and healthcare fields, work–life interference was related to high levels of emotional exhaustion [ 9 , 25 , 62 ]. The interactions between work and home (non-working) life are important for ensuring well-being, especially during COVID-19 where the lines between work and home are blurred [ 63 ]. The increasing demand for work in nursing schools and colleges has led to an increase in workload, long workhours, course overloads, additional clinical rotations, and irregular work schedules attributed to environmental distributions [ 64 , 65 ]. This was highlighted in a report by The National League for Nursing (NLN), indicating that nursing faculty work more than 56 hours per week with a high workload and found it challenging to achieve a work–life balance [ 66 ], especially for faculty who teach in multiple differing environments, including clinical/hospital settings that involve day, evening, and weekend hours. The findings in our study confirm this, where nursing faculty reported that working longer hours and experiencing greater work–life imbalance predisposed them to higher risk for emotional exhaustion and cynicism.

Ongoing exposure to workplace stressors, including heavy workload and work–life interference, is the primary mechanism for developing severe burnout as confirmed by this study, where emotional exhaustion among faculty led to increased cynicism. Cynicism can be attributed to faculty members’ feelings of disrespect and anger towards their organizations or discomfort, hatred, and even shame when they think about their organizations, which may lead to decline in organizational commitment and eventual turnover [ 67 ]. In the healthcare literature, increased cynicism has been found to lead to deviant behavior, such as misappropriation, intentional wrong doings, damaging materials, and aggression, which can be damaging to the organization [ 68 , 69 ]. Cynicism can lead to serious disruption in the teaching–learning environment [ 62 ]. When faculty members lose trust in their organization and have increased cynicism, they are unwilling to stay with the organization, leading to a higher turnover rate [ 70 , 71 ]. Operating with fewer human resources results in greater dissatisfaction among existing faculty, leading to nursing faculty seeking other positions outside their current organizations and eventually leaving academia altogether [ 72 , 73 ]. Another study identified the factors leading to high turnover rates due to the fact of dissatisfaction including lack of extrinsic rewards, scheduling conflicts, family/work imbalance, poor collegial interaction, limited professional opportunities, praise/recognition, and control/responsibility [ 70 , 74 , 75 ]. When these factors are not being satisfied, staff become cynical and lack trust within the organization and are highly inclined to seek employment elsewhere.

As indicated in this study, the negative implications of work–life imbalance and burnout among nursing faculty can be long lasting as it influences key workplace retention factors. While no one is immune to burnout, a US-based study found that PhD-prepared faculty experience higher emotional exhaustion compared to DNP-prepared faculty [ 28 ]. Furthermore, early career researchers are more likely to experience sustained emotional exhaustion as, historically, most nurse academics transition from a clinical background with little preparation for the complex faculty role [ 76 ], which further contributes to their vulnerability in the high-pressure academic work environment. For example, a Canadian study showed that when nurses are being recruited to work, they are not prepared for the level of mental exhaustion in relation to their perspective of the challenges of the career [ 77 ]. Specifically, lack of leadership and collegial support has been linked to increased turnover intentions [ 38 , 75 ], disappointment, and dissatisfaction of the career chosen and eventual turnover [ 38 ]. This extends to mid-career and senior faculty, where negative working conditions can play a key role in early retirement [ 28 ]. Increased career exits further contribute to nursing faculty shortage, which negatively impact student training, mentoring, and preparation of highly skilled nurses equipped to care for patients [ 65 , 78 ].

Our findings suggest that there is a need to politically address burnout, as studies in Canada and in other countries indicate that burnout can lead to emotional and physical symptoms such as an uneven chronotype [ 73 , 79 , 80 , 81 ], as the physical and psychological symptoms may negatively impact the mental well-being of faculty resulting in high turnover and career dissatisfaction as shown in this study. In contrast to our study findings, one study has shown that very few nursing faculty members leave their careers due to the fact of dissatisfaction, especially if they have higher education in that field [ 82 ]. While retaining such faculty is important, it is even more crucial to understand the impact of faculty dissatisfaction on their productivity, organizational commitment, morale, and workplace culture. To retain satisfied nursing faculty, academic leaders must find ways to support the development of programs and implement targeted interventions to help nursing faculty navigate work–life balance and manage stress and burnout, including setting work options for flexible work practices and maximum hours worked per week to maintain productivity [ 75 , 81 , 83 ]. Additionally, leaders should implement workplace wellness policies, commit to plans that will increase efficiency and productivity, and frequently review long-term plans to help prioritize organizational goals and objectives [ 84 ]. In creating these supportive working conditions, these leaders will enable nursing faculty to adopt empowering strategies shown to reduce burnout including prioritizing their personal health, engaging in a balanced work–life practices and personal activities, seeking peer support, and advocating for systemic change [ 48 , 85 , 86 ]. These strategies are important especially during and post-COVID-19, as burnout can have a ripple effect leading to a further shortage of registered nurses to provide high-quality care to patients and communities.

While burnout is a common phenomenon in academia, in addition to supporting previous literature [ 75 ], this study introduced and tested the mediating effects of burnout on the relationships between work–life interference, turnover intentions, and career satisfaction among nurse academics in Canada. The results afford increased understanding of nursing faculty’s experience and may provide suggestions for suitable areas for the development of interventions and policies within the organizational structure to reduce the risk of burnout and faculty leaving their positions. Given the strong evidence of the negative health and organizational effects of burnout [ 7 ] and the current nursing faculty shortage, it is particularly important to address work–life issues in effort to sustain a strong nursing workforce.

5. Strengths and Limitations

This study has several strengths. For example, to our knowledge, this is among the first studies to link work–life interference, burnout, turnover intentions, and career satisfaction in the nursing or management literature in a comprehensive way among Canadian nurse academics. Furthermore, this is among the few studies reporting nursing faculty environment and related stressors during a global pandemic. The use of validated instruments to measure burnout, emotional exhaustion, and career satisfaction allows for easier comparison to other results/data reported in other national and international studies using these same measures. Additionally, the survey was anonymous which hopefully served to produce more honest, candid responses from those who completed and returned a survey. Another strength of this study is its implementation period, during summer 2021, which was in one of the peak time frames of the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, these data arguably capture the perspectives and views of nursing faculty as they practiced nursing during these unprecedented times.

Using this cross-sectional design, we were unable to confirm causation. Therefore, the results presented should be translated as non-directional relationships [ 87 ]. Given the response rate is moderate and comparable to studies with similar samples, the findings can only be generalized to other academic institutions with similar challenges. Additionally, we did not perform comparative analysis on the academic rank and/or location for those who did not respond compared to those who did, to justify absence of selection bias. Another potential limitation is that we might have missed nursing faculty who may have a faculty appointment in a setting other than ‘nursing’; however, part of our process searched based on faculty members’ degrees (e.g., RN) rather than solely on a faculty member’s department that held their primary academic appointment.

6. Conclusions

This research adds to the small but crucial body of research describing the effects of work–life imbalance and burnout on faculty retention and career satisfaction. Our findings suggest that academic institutions and organizations need to pay close attention to the drivers of burnout and associated symptoms and ensure that concrete and proactive approaches and mechanisms are in place to mitigate the effects of psychological stress and burnout on faculty mental health and wellness, especially during and post-pandemic. With the current nursing practice and faculty workforce shortages, every effort must be made to create healthy work environments to retain satisfied and productive faculty, as it has subsequent effects on the quality of student training, mentoring, and quality research to advance nursing practice globally. Promoting work–life balance and workload management, including reducing teaching assignments and service commitments, providing adequate time for research activities, and pausing the tenure clock for pre-tenured faculty, is a great start to improving faculty satisfaction, retention, and career longevity.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge with heartfelt thanks the respondents for their participation in this research.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, S.A.B.; methodology, S.A.B.; formal analysis, S.A.B.; data curation, S.A.B.; writing—original draft preparation, S.A.B., H.Y.H. and H.S.; writing—review and editing, F.H. and F.W.; funding acquisition, S.A.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This study was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (grant number: 430-2020-01042).

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was approved by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (#1477; approved: 1 December 2020).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Work–Life Balance: Definitions, Causes, and Consequences

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• Paula Brough 4 ,
• Carolyn Timms 5 ,
• Xi Wen Chan 6 ,
• Amy Hawkes 7 &
• Laura Rasmussen 7  

Part of the book series: Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences ((HDBSOHS))

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This chapter reviews the multiple definitions of work–life balance, including definitions focused on the equity of time spent in the work and non-work domains, satisfaction with performance/time spent in each domain, and the salience of each role for an individual. There is a general consensus that a preferred definition should focus on work– life rather than work- family , in order to include non-family responsibilities and demands, such as study or travel commitments. The chapter also discusses the common antecedents and consequences of work–life balance arising from both work and non-work domains. These include work demands and resources, family demands and resources, and personality antecedents including evidence associating psychological capital constructs with work–life balance. Finally, this chapter considers the future directions for work–life balance research, focusing on technological advancements (e.g., Fitbits) and individual levels of mindfulness and resilience. The chapter concludes by noting the increasing evidence linking employee appointments and retention with an organization’s positive work–life balance culture.

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Brough, P., Timms, C., Chan, X.W., Hawkes, A., Rasmussen, L. (2020). Work–Life Balance: Definitions, Causes, and Consequences. In: Theorell, T. (eds) Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31438-5_20

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Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis

• Aziz Mensah 1 &
• Nicholas Kofi Adjei 2 , 3  

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The pressing demands of work over the years have had a significant constraint on the family and social life of working adults. Moreover, failure to achieve a ‘balance’ between these domains of life may have an adverse effect on their health. This study investigated the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among working adults in contemporary welfare countries in Europe.

Data from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey 2015 on 32,275 working adults from 30 countries in Europe were analysed. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between work-life balance and self-reported health among men and women. We further used a 2 stage multi-level logistic regression to assess variations in self-reported health among welfare state regimes by gender.

The results showed a strong association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.93–2.23). However, the magnitude of the effect differed slightly by gender (men: aOR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.78–2.18 vs women: aOR = 2.23; 95% CI: 2.01–2.47). Furthermore, we found variations in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health between welfare states regimes. The association was found to be weaker in the Nordic and Southern welfare states than the Liberal, Conservative, and Central Eastern European welfare states. Although the associations were more consistent among men than women in the Conservative welfare states regime, we found higher associations for women than men in the Southern, Nordic, Liberal, and Central Eastern European welfare states.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence of some variations in the association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men and women across welfare states regimes in Europe. The results demonstrate the need for governments, organizations and policymakers to provide conducive working conditions and social policies for working adults to deal with competing demands from work and family activities.

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Introduction

The changing patterns of work over the years have had a significant constraint on both the family and the social life of working adults [ 1 ]. With the limited 24 h’ time resource available in a day, working adults may be confronted with many challenges, including deadlines to meet targets, financial obligations, and pressing family responsibilities. These situations may create role conflict, which can affect the level of involvement in their work, family and social life [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Some scholars suggest that higher demands from household activities make it difficult to balance work and family life [ 2 , 3 ]. A recent study on work-life conflict among employees in Europe revealed a work-life ‘imbalance’ among employees in Europe [ 5 ]. This phenomenon has partly been attributed to an increase in the involvement of women in the labour force and the rising involvement of men in performing housework, including child care and family chores [ 6 , 7 ]. The Evidence further suggests that time allocated by men to housework activities has increased over time [ 8 , 9 ], while female participation in the labour market has also increased over the years [ 10 ]. Work-life conflict may arise when there is a role conflict in the satisfaction of work and family life [ 11 ], and failure to achieve a ‘balance’ between these domains may have an adverse effect on working adults’ health [ 5 , 12 , 13 ].

Work-life conflict among employees is known to be related with many health problems, including poor physical health [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], poor-self reported health [ 15 , 17 ], psychological distress [ 14 , 18 ], poor mental health [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] and life dissatisfaction [ 22 ]. However, work-life conflict and health outcomes may differ by gender due to the unequal distribution of work-related roles [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. For example, some previous studies found a positive relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working women than men [ 25 , 26 , 27 ], while other studies suggest similar outcomes between men and women [ 5 , 28 ]. In a longitudinal study among working adults in Sweden, Leineweber et al. [ 27 ] found an association between work-life conflict and suboptimal self-reported health among working women than men. Similarly, Eek and Axmon [ 26 ] found that women in relationship with unequal distribution of work and family activity reported a higher level of fatigue, stress, and physical symptoms than those in relationship with equal distribution of responsibility. In contrast, Kinnunen and his colleagues [ 28 ] found no evidence of gender difference in the association between poor work-life balance and health outcomes such as life satisfaction and well-being.

Gender, work life balance, and welfare policies

Gender plays a key role in understanding how work and other domains of life are distributed and performed [ 29 ]. The term is not static but rather a phenomenon where identity is continuously renegotiated [ 30 , 31 ]. Evidence suggests that traditional and societal expectation of behaviour differs between men and women [ 32 , 33 ], where women are responsible for caregiving (family activities) and other household activities, while men assume the primary role for paid work activities [ 10 , 34 ]. For example, using time use data, Aliaga [ 35 ], Hagqvist [ 36 ] and Adjei et al. [ 37 ] indicated that women spent more time on family activities than men, while men spent more time on paid work activities than women. Similarly, research conducted by Boye [ 38 ] revealed that about 40% of working-age women are not engaged in paid work activities as compared to men (1.5%). The study further showed that women spend about 13 h more on unpaid work per week as compared to men. Hochschild [ 39 ] argued that although women’s contribution and participation in paid work activities have dramatically increased over the years, it has not been accompanied by a proportionate measure of increase in time allocation to unpaid work by men. Women continue to spend more time on household activities as compared to men [ 40 ]. However, recent studies suggest that women have reduced their time and involvement in unpaid work while men have increased the amount of time devoted to unpaid work activities [ 9 ], especially child care [ 8 , 9 ]. Kan et al. [ 41 ] argued that the change in the reduction of time spent on household activities by women could be attributed to the increase of women in the labour market rather than a change of ideology among men in the performance of household activities.

The rational view proposed that work-family conflict will increase when there is an increase in the amount of time spent on both work and family activities [ 32 ]. This phenomenon has been attributed to role strains [ 42 ]. In their study, Frone et al. [ 15 ] noted that long working hours, psychological involvement in work, inflexible working time arrangement, lack of clarity of work function, and role overload are indicators that influence work-life conflict among employees. There have been many studies on gender and work-life conflict [ 33 , 43 , 44 ]; however, the findings from these studies are inconclusive and contradicting [ 45 ]. While some studies found higher work-life conflict among women than men [ 33 , 43 , 44 ], few studies failed to demonstrate any significant difference among men and women [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. In a cross-sectional study in the UK, Emslie et al. [ 46 ] found that both white-collar men and women employees in the Bank have the same level of work-family interference. Similarly, Schiemann et al. [ 47 ] found no gender difference in work-life conflict among higher status workers in Canada. These authors attributed their findings to the egalitarian gender role balance that suggest that the level of expectation in terms of sharing financial and family responsibilities is similar for men and women [ 47 ]. Nonetheless, using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), Busch-Heizmann and Holst [ 44 ] found a higher prevalence of interference between work and family life among working women than men in Netherland. Gutek et al. [ 33 ] attributed some of the reasons to the fact that women still retain their primary role of performing care and other household activities even when they are confronted with higher job demands. Men, on the other hand, are more satisfied when they devote more time and effort to paid work- than household activities [ 49 ]. Ngo and Lui [ 45 ] also suggested that work- life conflict is higher among women due to limited control over conflicting domains of life. It has also been established that women who are affected by work-life conflict may experience higher forms of stress and other adverse health outcomes than men [ 33 , 43 ].

Gender inequality in work-life conflict has also been linked with socio-economic policies that exist within countries [ 50 ]. According to Gornick [ 51 ], extensive parental leave, support for childcare and elderly care, strong labour regulation, and universal health service that exist within countries are factors that may influence interference between work and family life. The development of welfare policies may also be rooted in historical, social, and economic development that exist in a country [ 52 ]. Hence, there may be variations among countries in terms of generosity, focus, and goals of social and welfare policies [ 53 ]. Contemporary welfare policies may be classified into five distinct regimes, namely, Nordic (social democratic), Liberals (Anglo-Saxon), Conservative (Corporatist), Southern Europe, and Central Eastern Europe (CEE) [ 54 ]. Esping-Andersen [ 53 ] described countries in the Nordic welfare states regime as having policies that are ‘encompassing,’ where the level of social support is generous and universal. This type of welfare system encourages dual-earner family roles, extensive support to single parents, and a regulated labour market, which allows more women to participate in the labour market [ 55 ]. In addition, there is provision for publicly funded child and elderly care services [ 55 , 56 ], and extensive paid parental leave days for working women and men [ 57 ]. Liberal welfare states, on the other hand, are characterized by a strong male-breadwinner model with childcare primarily provided by a private venture with low state support [ 58 ]. These countries are also characterized by weak employment regulations and less generous state provision of social services and benefits [ 53 , 59 ]. Conservative welfare states are characterized by traditional male breadwinner family models and have strong labour market laws to regulate employment [ 53 ]. In this regime type, families bear the responsibility for primary social welfare benefits [ 59 ], and most working mothers engage in part-time or secondary jobs without good economic remuneration [ 60 ]. In the Southern European welfare states regime, social benefits are much lower [ 59 , 61 ] as compared to the Conservative welfare states regime. Moreover, care services are largely provided by family, friends, and volunteers. Familialism is stronger in this regime type [ 39 ], and there are gender roles, where men are known to be ‘breadwinners’ and women as ‘caregivers’ [ 39 ]. The CEE welfare states are also characterized by the dual-earner family model but weak trade unions and labour regulations [ 62 ], and a traditional division of housework [ 63 ].

Welfare policies may influence work-life balance and might subsequently have an effect on health outcomes [ 5 , 14 , 15 , 64 ]. Countries with more generous social policies such as quality child care service, extensive parental leave, and generous social benefits may influence the magnitude of the association between work-life conflict and health-related outcomes [ 5 , 64 , 65 ]. For instance, Artazcoz and his colleagues [ 64 ] could not find any evidence that work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in northern Europe, where many generous welfare policies exist, but the study found an association between work-life conflict and poor health in Conservative and Southern European welfare states with less generous welfare benefits. In contrast, Hagqvist and his colleagues [ 12 ] noted that Nordic countries may show higher association between work-family conflict and low well-being as compared to countries with a more traditional family model in Europe.

A plethora of studies on work-life balance and health status have been based on a single country [ 25 , 41 , 66 ]. Still, only a few studies have focused on cross-country variation in welfare state typologies as well as gender differences [ 9 , 67 ]. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has used a more comprehensive cross-country sample as the underlying conceptual structure for making a comparison. Hence, this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the gender difference in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. In addition, we analyse whether these effects vary across different welfare state regimes in Europe. By drawing on the theoretical relationship that exists between work-life conflict and self-reported health, the following research questions will be addressed:

Is there a relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in contemporary welfare states in Europe?

Does the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health differ by gender?

To what extent do these relationships vary by welfare state regimes among men and women in Europe?

This study was based on the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS 2015), conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EWCS survey data covered 35 countries in Europe. This includes EU28 countries, two countries from the European Free Trade Association (Norway and Switzerland), and five potential EU candidates’ countries (Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Serbia, and Montenegro). The target population of the survey was working adults who were between the ages of 15 years and above. The EWCS adopted a multistage, stratified, random sample in selecting the target population in each country. The target sample size for most countries was 1000, however, because some countries had larger workforce than others, the sample size varied [ 68 ]. For instance, the target sample size was increased to 1200 for Poland, 1300 for Spain, 1400 for Italy, 1500 for France, 1600 for UK, and 2000 for both Germany and Turkey. Furthermore, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) also offered opportunity for countries to top-up their sample size. This opportunity was taken up by Belgium, Slovenia, and Spain which allowed them to increase their sample size to 2500, 1600, and 3300 respectively. Each country was stratified by region and the degree of urbanization. Primary sampling units (PSU) were randomly selected with probability proportional to size in each of the stratum. A random sample of household or individuals were further selected from each PSU [ 68 ]. A total of about 44,000 respondents were selected for a face-to-face interview in their respective households.

We restricted our analysis to working adults aged 16–64 years who were non-retired, not full-time homemaker, not a full-time student, and nondisabled. Respondents who refused to answer specific questions or do not know answers to specific questions were also excluded from the analysis. We also limited our study to 30 countries in Europe (i.e., the EU 28 countries, Switzerland and Norway). Missing responses were excluded because they accounted for less than 2% of the sample size. In the final analysis, we included a total of 32,275 participants.

Self-reported health, our outcome variable of interest, was measured using the question, “How is your health in general?” Responses were rated from 1 (very good), 2 (good), 3 (fair), 4 (bad), 5 (very bad). Self-reported health has been shown to be a good proxy for measuring health status and a reliable technique as a predictor of mortality [ 69 ]. To avoid much-skewed distribution of responses [ 70 ], we dichotomized the responses as done in previous studies [ 5 , 64 , 71 , 72 ]. Respondents who answered very good and good were categorized as having “good self-reported health”, while those who answered fair, bad, and very bad were categorized as having “poor self-reported health”. Our approach for dichotomizing the responses for the self-reported health was supported by existing research which mentioned that when five multiple options are available for a respondent to choose, the response that falls in the middle is closer to the negative responses as compared to the positive responses [ 73 ].

Work-life balance, our primary exposure of interest, was measured with the following question: “In general, how do your working hours fit in with your family or social commitments outside work?” Responses were: very well, well, not very well, and not at all well. To aid interpretability of our study, we further dichotomized the answers as good work-life balance (“very well” or, “well”) and poor work-life balance or work-life conflict (“not very well”, or “not at all well”).

The working characteristics of respondents were measured based on the Standard Industrial classification (NACE), sector, years of service, working arrangement, form of employment, type of employment, and weekly hours. NACE was classified into four categories (agriculture, industry, service, and other). Sector of employment was classified into five categories (private, public, joint private-public, NGO, and other). Shift work was measured with the question, “do you work shifts?” The responses were grouped as “Yes” or “No”. Working arrangement was categorised as (set by company, can choose between fixed schedule, flexible working time, working time is determined by self). We dichotomized the type of employment (employee and self-employed). Working hour was divided into five categories (30 h and below, 31–40 h, 41–50 h, 51–60 h, 60 h +). Regarding welfare regime types, we grouped countries according to common welfare state regime features. This study adopted Ferrera [ 74 ] and Bambra and Eikemo [ 75 ] classification of welfare typologies: Nordic (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway), Conservative (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherland, Luxembourg, and Switzerland), Liberals (United Kingdom and Ireland), Southern Europe (Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, and Malta), and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Croatia).

Demographic characteristics including gender (male and female), household size, and age, marital status (single or widowed, married or cohabiting), and living with child (yes, no) were further explored. Socio-economic position was measured by education and occupation. Education was categorized in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education-2011 (early childhood, primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, post-secondary, short cycle tertiary, bachelor, master, doctorate). The measurement of occupation was in line with the International Standard Classification of Occupation-08 (managers, armed forces, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, agricultural workers, plant and machine operators, and elementary occupations).

Analytical strategy

Descriptive statistics were used to describe the study population. Furthermore, a bivariate test was performed on the measured variables by gender. We adopted a chi-square test for categorical variables [ 76 ], and a point biserial correlation test for continuous variables [ 77 ]. Variables that were significantly associated with the outcome variable were selected to estimate the odds ratios. In order to determine the association between self-reported health and work-life balance, a multivariate logistic regression was applied, adjusting for socio-economic position, working conditions, and demographic characteristics. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval for all models estimated were presented for analysis. In addition, we estimated the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) to test for multicollinearity of the independent variable and the covariates. The VIF is a more superior technique in determining collinearity [ 78 ]. According to O’Brien [ 78 ], a threshold value of VIF < 10 is an indication of low multicollinearity or non-existence of multicollinearity. Due to the clustering nature of the sample, we extended our multivariate logistic regression to a multi-level logistic regression to examine variations between welfare regimes and by gender. A two-stage multi-level logistic regression was applied with individual working adults nested within welfare state regimes. This was done across welfare state regimes, where the strength of the associations was compared. Furthermore, we estimated the median odds ratio (MOR) and the variance partition coefficient (VPC). The VPC is the percentage of variation that may occur in higher levels (welfare state regimes) [ 79 ]. Similarly, the MOR quantifies the level of variations that may exist between countries in Europe [ 5 ]. If the MOR is equal to 1, then there is no variation between countries across welfare state regimes, however, if the MOR is larger than 1, then there is a variation between countries in Europe [ 80 ]. All analyses were performed using Stata V14 [ 81 ] and done separately for men and women.

General distribution and sample characteristics

Table  1 provides information on the general descriptive statistics of working men and women of the 6th EWCS 2015. The mean age across welfare states regimes was quite similar among men and women. We observed good work-life balance among working men to be higher in the Nordic welfare states regime (85.6%), followed by the Conservative welfare states regime (82.0%). Women in the Nordic welfare states regime also had the highest (86.9%) frequency of good work-life balance, followed by the Conservative welfare states regime (85.1%). Furthermore, the highest proportion of poor work-life balance was reported among men (23.5%) and women (19.0%) in the Southern welfare states. In general, we found higher proportions of poor work-life balance among men than women across welfare states regimes. Regarding self-reported health, some gender differences were observed across welfare states. We observed the highest percentage of good self-reported health among men (84.8%) and women (87.2%) in the Liberal welfare states as compared to the other welfare states. In contrast, both working men (23.8%) and women (27.0%) in the CEE welfare states reported the highest poor self-reported health. In general, women reported slightly higher levels of education than men across the welfare states regimes. Also, the frequency of engaging in shift work was higher among women than men, particularly in the CEE welfare states regime (men: 24.8% vs women: 30.0%). Men were more likely to have their working time determined by themselves as compared to women in all the welfare states regimes. On the other hand, women frequently had their working time arrangements set by their companies. The results further revealed that men had long working hours and higher occupational status than women across all welfare states regimes.

Bivariate analysis

The results of the bivariate analysis between self-reported health and the measured variables are shown in Table  2 . The bivariate analysis showed a significant association between work-life balance and self-reported health for both working men and women. Age was positively associated with self-reported health (men ( r  = 0.213) vs. women ( r  = 0.207)). We, however, found a negative but low correlation between household size and self-reported health for both men ( r  =  − 0.056 ) and women ( r  =  − 0.057). Marital status was found to be significantly associated with self-reported health for women, but not men. Meanwhile, a significant association was found between type of employment and self-reported health among men but not women. Overall, there were similar patterns of associations between measured variables and self-reported health among men and women.

The results for the VIF’s are shown in an additional file supplied in the table: S 1 and S 2 . We compared the VIF’s of all the measured variables by gender. The maximum VIF for working men was 2.16, and the mean VIF was 1.45. For working women, the maximum VIF was 2.01, and the mean VIF was 1.33. The VIF estimated for men and women were quite similar. In fact, the estimated VIF’s were less than 2.5, which meets the threshold [ 78 ], for non-existence of multicollinearity.

Multivariate analysis

Table  3 provides information on the multivariate logistic regression. After adjusting for socio-economic factors, working characteristics, and demographic characteristics, the results showed a significant association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI: (1.93–2.23)). We also found a significant association between poor work-life balance and self-reported health for both men (aOR = 1.97; 95% CI: (1.78–2.18) and women (aOR = 2.21; 95% CI: (1.99–2.45)). However, the magnitude of the association differs slightly among men and women.

Multilevel logistic regression

Table  4 shows the country variation that exists in the relationship between poor self-reported health and work-life conflict. We used a two-stage multilevel logistic regression to assess variations that exist between welfare states regimes. After controlling for socio-economic positions, working characteristics, and demographic characteristics, the multilevel models showed a significant relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported. However, the magnitude of the associations differs slightly across welfare states regimes. For instance, we found the association to be slightly higher for women than men in the Nordic (men: aOR = 1.77; 95% CI: (1.26–2.47) vs women: aOR = 1.92; 95% CI: (1.37–2.69)), Liberal (men: aOR = 2.23; 95% CI: (1.55–3.21) vs women: aOR = 2.39; 95% CI: (1.51–3.78)), Southern (men: aOR = 1.65; 95% CI: (1.36–2.00) vs women: aOR = 2.02; 95% CI: (1.64–2.48)), and CEE welfare states (men: aOR = 1.91; 95% CI: (1.59–2.30) vs women: aOR = 2.29; 95% CI: (1.92–2.73)), but slightly higher for men than women in the Conservative welfare states (men: aOR = 2.62; 95% CI: (2.17–3.17) vs women: aOR = 2.42; 95% CI: (2.00–2.94)). While the largest odds between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men were found in the Conservative welfare states, the Liberal and the CEE welfare states, the smallest association was observed in the Southern European welfare states followed by the Nordic welfare states. Among women, the highest association was found in the Liberal and Conservative welfare states, while, the lowest association was observed in the Nordic welfare states regime.

Overall, we found small variation in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health between countries in Europe (men: MOR = 1.18 vs women: MOR = 1.29), and the percentage of variations were slightly higher for women (VPC = 2.07%) than men (VPC = 0.9%).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine gender and welfare state regime differences in the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among working adults with a comprehensive cross-country sample in Europe. The descriptive results revealed that working men in Europe had poor work-life balance than women in the Nordic, Conservative, Liberal, Southern, and CEE welfare states. We found the highest proportion of good work-life balance in the Nordic welfare states regime, while the highest proportion of poor work-life balance was found in the Southern European welfare states regime. More importantly, the result showed that poor work-life balance, as measured in the EWCS 2015 was strongly associated with poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. However, the magnitude of the association was slightly higher for working women than men. Furthermore, we observed slight variations in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health across welfare states regimes in Europe. While the largest association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for both men and women were observed in the Liberal welfare states and the Conservative welfare states, the smallest association was found in the Nordic and Southern welfare states.

Work-life balance and health

Prior evidence that examined work-life conflict among men and women showed inconsistent findings [ 5 , 33 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Overall, our study found a higher frequency of poor work-life balance among men than women across welfare states regimes in Europe. This finding is consistent with a study conducted by Jansen et al. [ 82 ], who found evidence that men are most affected by work-life conflict as compared to women. While working men and women in the Nordic (men = 85.6% vs. women = 86.9%) and the conservative (men = 82.0% vs. women = 85.1%) welfare states reported the highest proportions of good work-life balance, the highest proportion of poor work-life balance among men and women were found in the Southern (men = 23.5% vs women = 19.0%), CEE (men = 19.1% vs women = 15.3%), and Liberal (men = 19.0% vs women = 15.4%) welfare states. These findings were partly in agreement with the findings of the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey by Lunau et al. [ 5 ]. They found a higher prevalence of poor work-life balance among working men and women in the Southern, CEE, and Former Soviet Union welfare states. Juxtaposing our results to the findings by Luanu et al. [ 5 ] revealed that poor work-life balance among employees in Europe appears to have reduced over time, perhaps, due to improvement in working conditions for employees [ 83 ].

Our results further revealed a strong association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe. This finding is in congruence with other studies that found a negative association between poor work-life balance and self-reported health [ 5 , 41 , 66 , 84 ]. For instance, a systematic review by Allen, Herst, et al. [ 66 ] suggest that poor work-life balance was associated with poor health outcomes including psychological strain, depression, burnout, stress, and substance abuse. Likewise, research conducted among workers in Korea indicated that poor work-life balance was positively associated with poor health outcomes such as fatigue, general health, mental health, sickness absenteeism, musculoskeletal diseases, and work-related risks to health and safety [ 41 ]. This adverse relationship can partly be explained by the multiple role engagement and overload of demands and responsibilities among working adults [ 43 ].

Regarding gender, while some studies suggest that there is no difference in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men and women [ 5 , 28 ], few studies noted higher adverse health outcomes among women than men [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Our findings from the multivariate analysis indicated that there is a negative relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among men and women in contemporary welfare states in Europe, consistent with prior studies [ 5 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, there is a slight difference in the strength and magnitude of the association, where the association is slightly higher among women than men. This outcome has been attributed to behavioural norms and societal expectations for men and women [ 33 ], and differential exposure to multiple role engagement and overloads, pressures of family, work demands, and social commitment [ 43 ]. While women are expected to devote more time to family roles such as housekeeping, elderly care, and child care, men are expected to engage more in paid work activities [ 10 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 85 ]. This finding was evident in our study as the proportion of weekly working hours was higher among men than women, even though women reported higher levels of education than men in Europe. This unequal distribution of work-related activities (i.e. paid work and housework) may partly explain the gender work-life “imbalance” [ 25 , 26 ] and adverse health outcomes, especially among women [ 27 ].

In terms of the variations between welfare states, the two-stage multilevel logistic regression showed a higher magnitude in the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for both men and women in the Liberal welfare states regime, where there is a strong male breadwinner tradition, minimal social policies, and poorly regulated labour market [ 58 , 59 ]. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the association for both genders in the Conservative welfare states regime was slightly higher than the Nordic, Southern, and the CEE welfare states. Women had higher associations between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health in this welfare states than men. We speculate that the presence of weak employment regulation and weak unions may allow for strict managerial control, which may increase job pressure and job insecurity [ 86 ]. In addition, the weak provision of social benefits for ‘child and elderly care’ [ 58 ] may exert pressure on women than men when combining care, household activities, and work demands [ 64 ].

Similar to other studies [ 13 , 64 , 87 ], we found a negative relationship between poor work-life balance and self-reported health for both men and women in the Conservative welfare states regime which is characterised by traditional breadwinner model and strong labour laws which regulate the labour market [ 53 , 74 ]. Surprisingly, working men and women in the Conservative welfare states regime had the highest magnitude regarding the association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health. There is some evidence that women who live in Conservative welfare states report poorer health status than men due to poor work-life balance [ 87 ]. In contrast, our findings suggest a slightly higher magnitude in the association for men than women. These gender differences may probably be due to temporary contracts [ 88 ], as well as part-time employment for women as compared to men [ 60 ], which may provide women with more time resources to deal with competing demands than men [ 12 , 13 ]. Further, we found a lower association between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health for working adults in the Nordic welfare states regime than the Conservative, Liberal, and CEE welfare states. This may partly be attributed to the generous and encompassing social policies including child care for pre-school, universal health care, elderly care, and long parental leave days that exist in the Nordic welfare states [ 53 , 55 , 56 , 57 ], which may contribute to lower levels of work-life conflict and consequently better self-reported health [ 5 , 12 , 13 ]. However, poor work- life balance was slightly associated with poor self-reported health among women than men in the Nordic welfare states. The slight gender difference in the association may be related to the so-called “parallel ideals” that exist in the Nordic countries where equality is important; yet societal and cultural expectation of women as caregivers still exist [ 12 , 64 , 89 ]. Surprisingly, we found weaker associations between poor work-life balance and poor self-reported health among working adults in the Southern European welfare states as compared with Conservative and Liberal welfare states, especially among men. This is very striking considering the fact that Southern welfare states are characterized by minimal social welfare benefits than the conservative welfare state [ 64 ]. In view of the above discussion, and based on the median odds ratios (MOR) and the variance partition coefficients (VPC) that were estimated in the two-stage multi-level logistic regression, our findings suggested that the effect size of work-life balance on health status may vary between welfare states in Europe, particularly, among women than men. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the variation between welfare state regimes that was identified in our study were quite marginal.

In order to address the issue of work-life conflict among working adults in the welfare states in Europe, countries must design, and implement effective industrial relation laws, legislation, and policies that can effectively protect the health and safety of working adults [ 90 , 91 ]. The existing laws and regulation can also be effectively enforced through agencies, where labour inspectorate can oversee the enforcement of existing labour protection laws and work-life policies such as work time arrangement, paid parental leave days, and child and elderly care. Furthermore, welfare states should establish strong state institutions and judicial systems to serve as mediators that can assist workers and employers in the resolution of disputes [ 90 ]. For example, there must be well-functioning labour court, special tribunal and arbitration system which is easily accessible for workers and employers to address disputes pertaining to work and family life [ 90 ]. Finally, governments must encourage and strengthen frequent tripartite negotiation between welfare states and its representatives, employers, trade unions, and other stakeholders to dialogue on the implementation and sustainability of family-friendly policies [ 90 , 91 ].

Limitation and strength

Although the findings of this research are in line with previous research and empirical reviews, there are some conceptual limitations that need to be addressed. Firstly, the measure of work- life balance by the EWCS 2015 was assessed by using only one question on “whether working hours fit in with family or social commitments”. Although work-family fit serves as an important proxy in dealing with issues of work-life balance, it lacks the theoretical basis in describing how the dimensions of work-life conflict and facilitation operate together in shaping the individual and organization [ 92 ]. Greenhaus and Beutell [ 3 ] noted that work-life conflict can be measured through different dimensions such as time, strain, and behaviour based conflict. However, the EWCS 2015 only captured the time conflict dimension and not strain and behaviour-based conflict. As suggested by Choi and Kim [ 41 ], future studies should combine both the work-life balance measurement in the EWCS to the OECD measurement of work-life balance to form one comprehensive question that includes all the dimensions. Secondly, we used self–reported health as the outcome variable. This subjective measure has been linked with heterogeneity problems [ 93 , 94 ], where people living in different locations, and with different socio-economic status, family demographic status, and gender may adopt different thresholds in assessing their health [ 94 ]. Nevertheless, self-reported health has been shown to be an accurate measure and a strong predictor for mortality [ 95 ]. Thirdly, our findings were based on cross-sectional data, which makes it difficult to make definitive conclusions on the direction of the relationship between work-life balance and health status among employees [ 96 ]. Notwithstanding these limitations, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health according to welfare state regime typology.

We conclude that poor work-life balance is associated with poor self-reported health among working adults, particularly among working women than men in Europe. However, the magnitude and strength of these associations slightly differ across countries in different welfare states regimes. This study thus serves as the baseline for policymakers and stakeholders to fully understand the need to help reduce pressing demands from life domains. Organizations must also create good working atmosphere and flexible working time to deal with issues of jobs strain in order to reduce health problems.

Availability of data and materials

The data used for this study comes from European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Detailed information on the survey design and characteristics are provided on the https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/european-working-conditions-surveys/sixth-european-working-conditions-survey-2015 homepage.

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Additional file 1: table s1.

Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of measured variables by men. Table S2 Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of measured variables by women.

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Mensah, A., Adjei, N.K. Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis. BMC Public Health 20 , 1052 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09139-w

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The Surprising Benefits of Work/Life Support

It’s a secret weapon for achieving organizational diversity. by Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbin

Summary .   

To succeed, almost every employee needs work/life support at some point. Women and people of color need it the most, research shows, because they face greater challenges and have fewer resources available to them. They are also the least likely to receive it, however, and as a result often are forced to change or leave jobs and lose out on opportunities for advancement.

Given that situation, the authors decided to examine what effects various corporate work/life programs had on the management workforce. Analyzing data from more than 800 U.S. companies over 30 years, they found that when companies offered flexible work schedules, family leave, and childcare support to all employees, the percentage of women and people of color in management rose significantly. In fact, those work/life benefits had a larger impact than the most popular racial-equity programs did.

Companies have long known that programs promoting work/life balance boost productivity, reduce turnover, and improve employees’ mental and physical health. And now it’s clear that they are also a powerful way to increase organizational diversity.

Corporate programs that support work/life balance promote productivity, reduce turnover, and improve employees’ mental and physical health. That much is well-known. But our research has revealed another benefit: They can also boost your organization’s diversity. In fact, when it comes to increasing diversity among managers, they’re better than the most popular racial-equity programs.

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Mixing it up: hybrid work models can offer the best of both worlds for worker wellbeing and productivity

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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sparked debate on the future of work in New Zealand this week when he ordered public service employees back to the office .

But Luxon’s edict neglects a broader transformation in work culture.

Work from home (WFH) arrangements have grown considerably over the past decade, propelled by an increase in dual-income households and rapid technological advancements.

The COVID pandemic acted as a catalyst for further change, proving that many jobs could successfully be performed remotely.

Our upcoming article in the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations addresses the pros and cons of remote work. We highlight how a hybrid model – mixing days in the office with days working from home – can improve wellbeing, engagement and productivity.

We found embracing a hybrid approach may lead to better outcomes as society shifts with technology and employment expectations. And, despite the prime minister’s demands on public service workers, it may be too late to go back.

Embracing flexibility

Under current rules , employees can request flexible working arrangements. Employers must provide valid reasons if they decline the request.

According to a 2023 survey from Human Resources New Zealand, 40% of HR professionals noted productivity gains as a critical advantage of WFH arrangements.

And some professional organisations have embraced work from home or hybrid work arrangements.

The New Zealand Law Association , for example, has emphasised the significant benefits of flexible work for their members, including increased employee engagement, productivity, and overall wellbeing.

A report from Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission noted the public service’s success in delivering quality services during the pandemic while working remotely.

The commission’s current guidance on hybrid work arrangements supports flexibility that allows working from home to focus and working together when necessary.

Does WFH reduce efficiency?

Luxon argues forcing workers back to the office will promote efficiency. But there is little evidence suggesting New Zealand’s productivity has significantly declined with WFH or hybrid arrangements.

Instead, we found office-only arrangements risked introducing new inefficiencies for the government. These included new layers of permissions and reporting on arrangements that have already been agreed to.

The assumption that office work suits everyone is also contradicted by experiences during and after COVID.

During the first year of the pandemic, many workers felt the void of casual interactions that once sparked creativity. They also struggled with isolation. This was especially pronounced for caregivers, often women, who had to juggle professional duties with increased childcare responsibilities.

Despite this, a University of Otago survey conducted during the pandemic noted 67% of participants preferred a hybrid work model.

Many expressed optimism regarding remote work’s continuation, with significant portions reporting stable or increased productivity, although some struggled with home distractions.

And our research found taking a hybrid approach to work – with one or more days at home – reduced the risks from professional and social isolation and improved collaboration.

Opportunities to work at home some of the time also allowed time for focused work, reduced commuting time and improved wellbeing.

Boosting productivity from home

Luxon’s assertion that working from home is “not an entitlement” aligns with traditional views on work. These include the belief that time at a desk is a measurement of productivity, rather than measuring the outcomes from work.

However, a growing body of evidence indicates remote work can elevate both productivity and employee satisfaction.

Eliminating daily commutes allows employees to redirect time toward focused work, positively impacting job satisfaction and mental wellbeing.

Moreover, remote work fosters inclusivity , enabling organisations to source talent from a broader geographic area, which in turn enhances diversity and innovation.

A report from McKinsey & Company found businesses adopting flexible work arrangements are better positioned to navigate future uncertainties, sustaining or even boosting productivity.

A survey by the Australian Council of Trade Unions exploring WFH revealed nearly 48% of participants experienced enhanced productivity, attributed in part to the elimination of commuting.

However, it also highlighted challenges. Some 40% of respondents said they were facing longer work hours, which can lead to burnout. Addressing these issues is essential to maintaining employee wellbeing.

The future of work

Instead of enforcing strict office attendance, leaders should adapt to the changing work landscape.

Promoting flexible arrangements can foster a more productive and engaged workforce, ultimately benefiting New Zealand’s public service in today’s dynamic environment.

Balancing both office and remote work presents the most promising path forward.

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