In dual-income couples, working from home may be a better deal for husbands than wives in some respects, according to two related studies of workers in China and South Korea.
Research has shown that husbands and wives complete more family chores when working from home than in the office. However, when wives worked from home, husbands performed fewer family tasks than when their wives worked in the office. Wives performed no fewer tasks when husbands worked from home.
Additionally, wives in both studies felt more guilty regarding not doing household chores and spending time with family when they worked more in the office. In men, this result was found in one study.
“We found that men and women don’t have the same work-from-home experience,” said Jasmine Hu, lead author of the study and professor of management at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
“There are still gender differences in how they handle their work and family responsibilities.”
The study was recently published in the journal Staff psychology.
The researchers conducted two studies, both during the COVID-19 pandemic. One study looked at 172 married dual-earner couples in mainland China who had at least one child. This study was carried out around the start of the pandemic in April and May 2020.
The second study was carried out in South Korea, later in the pandemic from June to August 2021. It involved 60 dual-income couples, some with children and some without.
In both surveys, all participants completed two surveys each day for 14 consecutive workdays. Each husband and wife reported their work-from-home status and the amount of work and family chores they performed.
They also completed various measures, which might include work-family conflict and family-work conflict, the degree of guilt they feel towards their family and work, and their psychological withdrawal from work and family.
The results showed that when husbands had flexible working hours, wives completed significantly more tasks when working from home than in the office. When wives had inflexible work arrangements, husbands performed far more family duties when working from home.
“These results suggest that husbands might help wives who work remotely when they have more flexible work schedules and do more family work when their wives have more rigid work schedules,” Hu said.
Overall, the results suggest that when the lines between work and family are blurred, dual-earner couples feel the conflict.
Results showed that when employees (husbands and wives) worked from home, they increased the amount of work they did around their home and family, but it increased their feelings of inter-role conflict, psychological withdrawal work and feelings of guilt regarding working for their employer.
“Managers need to have realistic expectations of how much work their remote employees can handle effectively and show a better understanding of dual-income couples’ work-from-home situations,” Hu said.
Hu said the results suggest that husbands with flexibility in scheduling work can provide more support to their wives to complete remote work tasks.
“Organizations and managers should give their male employees more flexibility when possible so they and their families can better adapt to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. .
While many of the work-from-home policies investigated by this study were put in place due to the pandemic, Hu said things won’t go back to the way they were when the pandemic is over.
“COVID-19 has forever changed the way we work. Remote work is going to become much more of a norm,” she said.
“People have really gotten used to the benefits of working from home and many won’t want to go back to the office full time.”
Hu said she sees hybrid working as the best possible future for working couples.
“This will allow employees to have the flexibility they get from working from home, while also having the ability to interact more with colleagues in the office, which can increase collaboration and inspire creativity and innovation” , she said.