Family Quality Time for Employees Working From Home. Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic Comparisons
Keywords:
working from home, family quality time, work-life balance, COVID-19 pandemicAbstract
Data from a two-wave study (2018−2019 and 2020) on working conditions and on work-life balance for those working from home (WFH) point to the fact that the contribution of WFH to family quality time is distinct when gender, children and different levels of education are considered. Our first wave showed that for those who do not have children, the more they work from home, the greater the extent to which they agree that “WFH allows more quality time with the familyˮ. For men, WFH does not change the representation of quality time with the family. Implications point to an unequal representation and distinct gendered experiences of quality family time that hide different time use patterns in family members, with an even more clear division with the cultural shift around work generated by the current pandemic. Men tend to be more protected from household chores and possibly have different standards of what quality time means, which would explain our results. Moreover, data from 2020 suggests that the appreciation of WFH as contributing to quality family time is lower than the 2018−2019 data suggested, even when we control for education, age, number of children, living in Romania or outside it, gender, and number of members in the household. This further expands the discussion about different theoretical conceptualisations of quality family time, and about how the COVID-19 pandemic, with forced and sudden working from home policies, contributed to a deterrence of home as a restorative place.
Downloads
References
Aguilera, Anne, Virginie Lethiais, Alain Rallet, and Laurent Proulhac. 2016. “Home-based telework in France: Characteristics, barriers and perspectives.ˮ Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 92: 1−11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.06.021.
Alonso-Domínguez, Ángel, Javier Callejo, and Cecilia Díaz-Méndez. 2020. “How the type of working day affects work–life balance and mealtime balance: A study based on the time use survey.ˮ Time & Society 29, no. 4: 1082−1103.
Ashforth, Blake E., Glen E. Kreiner, and Mel Fugate. 2000. “All in a day's work: Boundaries and micro role transitions.ˮ Academy of Management review 25(3), 472−491.
Balzarini, Rhonda N., Amy Muise, Giulia Zoppolat, Alyssa Di Bartolomeo, David L. Rodrigues, María Alonso-Ferres, Betul Urganci et al. 2020. “Love in the time of COVID: Perceived partner responsiveness buffers people from lower relationship quality associated with COVID-related stressors.ˮ Social psychological and personality science https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221094437.
Bellani, Daniela, Gøsta Esping Andersen, and Lea Pessin. 2018. “When equity matters for marital stability: Comparing German and US couples.ˮ Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 35(9): 1273−1298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407517709.
Bellani, Daniela, and Daniele Vignoli. 2021. “Does love laugh at locksmiths? Partnership quality during the lockdown in Italy, France and Spain. Some descriptive findings.ˮ Cambio. Rivista sulle trasformazioni sociali 11(22): 27−37. doi: 10.36253/cambio-8946.
Clark, Sue Campbell. 2000. “Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance.ˮ Human relations 53(6): 747−770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001.
Cohen, Philip N. 1998. “Replacing housework in the service economy: Gender, class, and race-ethnicity in service spending.ˮ Gender & Society 12, no. 2: 219−231.
Crosbie, Tracey, and Jeanne Moore. 2004. “Work–life balance and working from home.ˮ Social policy and society 3(3): 223−233. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746404001733.
Dehner, George. 2013. Global flu and you: A history of influenza. Reaktion Books.
Dingwall, Robert, Lily M. Hoffman, and Karen Staniland. 2013. “Introduction: why a sociology of pandemics?.ˮ Pandemics and Emerging Infectious Diseases: The Sociological Agenda: 1−7. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118553923.ch1.
Dumas, Tracy L., and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks. 2015. “The professional, the personal, and the ideal worker: Pressures and objectives shaping the boundary between life domains.ˮ The Academy of Management Annals 9,(1): 803−843. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2015.1028810.
Eddleston, Kimberly A., and Jay Mulki. 2017. “Toward understanding remote workers’ management of work–family boundaries: The complexity of workplace embeddedness.ˮ Group & Organization Management 42(3): 346−387. https://doi.org/10.1177/10596011156195.
Eurofound. 2016. European Quality of Life survey, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/data/european-quality-of-life-survey.
Eurofound. (2020). Work, teleworking and COVID-19 Accessed on February 1st 2023, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/data/covid-19/working-teleworking.
European Commission. (2019). Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). 2019 country report. Romania. Accessed on June the 3rd at https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/digital-economy-and-society-index-desi-2019.
Eurofound. 2017.Sixth European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report (2017 update), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Fraudatario, Maria Camilla, and Riccardo Zaccaria. 2020. “Families and Intimate Relationships during COVID-19: Family Networks of Neapolitan Students.ˮ Italian Sociological Review 10(3S): 753−775. http://dx.doi.org/10.13136/isr.v10i3s.397].
Godderis, Rebecca, and Kate Rossiter. 2013.”‘If you have a soul, you will volunteer at once’: gendered expectations of duty to care during pandemics.ˮ In Pandemics and Emerging Infectious Diseases: The Sociological Agenda, edited by Robert Dingwall, Lily M. Hoffman, Karen Staniland, 134−138. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118553923.ch12.
Grünberg , Laura (coord.), Andreea Rusu, and Elena Samoilă. 2019. “Barometrul de gen : România 2018”, Bucureşti : Editura Hecate.
Hilbrecht, Margo, Susan M. Shaw, Laura C. Johnson, and Jean Andrey. 2013. “Remixing work, family and leisure: teleworkers' experiences of everyday life.ˮ New Technology, Work and Employment 28 (2): 130−144. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12010.
Hensher, David A., Matthew J. Beck, and Edward Wei. 2021. “Working from home and its implications for strategic transport modelling based on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.ˮ Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 148: 64−78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2021.03.027.
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 1997. The time bind: When work becomes home, and home becomes work. Macmillan.
Holmberg, Martin. 2017. “The ghost of pandemics past: revisiting two centuries of influenza in Sweden.ˮ Medical humanities 43(3): 141−147.
Hopkins, John L., and Judith McKay. 2019. “Investigating ‘anywhere working’ as a mechanism for alleviating traffic congestion in smart cities.ˮ Technological Forecasting and Social Change 142: 258−272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.032.
Illouz, Eva. 2007. Cold intimates: The making of emotional capitalism. Polity Press.
INSSE.2013. “Utilizarea timpului în România. Cercetarea statistică privind utilizarea timpului (TUS) realizată în gospodăriile populaţiei în perioada septembrie 2011− septembrie 2012”. Accesat în data de 20.06.2021, disponibil la: https://insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/comunicate/com_anuale/util_timpul/utilizarea_timpului_r13.pdf.
Jabs, Jennifer, and Carol M. Devine. 2006 “Time scarcity and food choices: an overview.ˮ Appetite 47, no. 2: 196−204.
Jarosz, Ewa. 2016. “The duration and dynamics of leisure among the working population in Poland. A time-use approach.ˮ World Leisure Journal 58, no. 1: 44−59.
Kremer-Sadlik, Tamar, and Amy L. Paugh. 2007. “Everyday Moments: Finding ‚quality time'in American working families.ˮ Time & Society 16 (2−3): 287−308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X07080276.
Loo, Becky PY, and Zhiran Huang. 2022. “Spatio-temporal variations of traffic congestion under work from home (WFH) arrangements: Lessons learned from COVID-19.ˮ Cities 124: 103610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103610.
Merz, Joachim, and Tim Rathjen. 2014. “Time and income poverty: An interdependent multidimensional poverty approach with German time use diary data.ˮ Review of Income and Wealth 60(3): 450−479. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12117.
Moeckel, Rolf. 2017. “Working from home: Modeling the impact of telework on transportation and land use.ˮ Transportation Research Procedia 26: 207−214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.07.021.
Murtorinne-Lahtinen, Minna, Sanna Moilanen, Mia Tammelin, Anna Rönkä, and Marja-Leena Laakso. 2016. “Mothers’ non-standard working schedules and family time: Enhancing regularity and togetherness.ˮ International journal of sociology and social policy 36(1/2): 119−135. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-02-2015-0022.
Ochs, Elinor, and Tamar Kremer-Sadlik. 2015. “How postindustrial families talk.ˮ Annual Review of Anthropology 44: 87−103. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014027.
Powell, Abigail, and Lyn Craig. 2015. “Gender differences in working at home and time use patterns: Evidence from Australia.ˮ Work, employment and society 29(4): 571−589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017014568140.
Rosselin, Céline. 1999. “The ins and outs of the hall: A Parisian example.ˮ In At home: An anthropology of domestic space, edited by Irene Cieraad , pp. 53−59, Syracuse University Press.
Roxburgh, Susan. 2006. ““I wish we had more time to spend together...” The distribution and predictors of perceived family time pressures among married men and women in the paid labor force.ˮ Journal of Family Issues 27(4): 529−553. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X05284008
Southerton, Dale. 2020. “Time Scarcity: Work, Home and Personal Lives.ˮ In Time, Consumption and the Coordination of Everyday Life, pp. 43−67, Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60117-2_3.
Sullivan, Cath, and Suzan Lewis. 2001. “Home‐based telework, gender, and the synchronization of work and family: perspectives of teleworkers and their co‐residents.ˮ Gender, Work & Organization 8(2): 123−145. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0432.00125.
Sladká, Dominika, and Martin Kreidl. 2022. “Working from Home, Work–Family Conflicts and Partnership Quality during the Covid-19 Pandemic.ˮ SOCIOLOGICKY CASOPIS-CZECH SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW 58(4): 373−399. DOI: 10.13060/csr.2022.024.
Smite, Darja, Nils Brede Moe, Jarle Hildrum, Javier Gonzalez Huerta, and Daniel Mendez. 2023. “Work-from-home is here to stay: Call for flexibility in post-pandemic work policies.ˮ Journal of Systems and Software 195: 111552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111552.
Tejero, Lourdes Marie S., Rosemary R. Seva, and Vivien Fe F. Fadrilan-Camacho. 2021. “Factors associated with work-life balance and productivity before and during work from home.ˮ Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 63(12): 1065. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002377.
Tietze, Susanne, and Gillian Musson. 2002. “When ‘Work’ Meets ‘Home’ Temporal flexibility as lived experience.ˮ Time & Society 11(2−3): 315−334. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X02011002008.
Tietze, Susanne, and Gill Musson. 2005.”Recasting the home-work relationship: a case of mutual adjustment?ˮ Organization Studies 26(9): 1331−1352. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840605054.
Timsal, Ahmad, and Mustabsar Awais. 2016. “Flexibility or ethical dilemma: an overview of the work from home policies in modern organizations around the world.ˮ Human Resource Management International Digest 24(7): 12−15. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-03-2016-0027.
Țălnar-Naghi, Dana Ioana. 2021. “Research note: Job satisfaction and working from home in Romania, before and during COVID-19.ˮ Calitatea vieţii 32(2): 1−22. https://doi.org/10.46841/RCV.2021.02.01
Van Der Lippe, Tanja, and Zoltán Lippényi. 2020. “Beyond formal access: Organizational context, working from home, and work–family conflict of men and women in European workplaces.ˮ Social indicators research 151: 383−402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1993-1.
Voicu, Mălina, Bogdan Voicu, and Katarina Strapcova. 2009. “Housework and gender inequality in European countries.ˮ European sociological review 25(3): 365−377. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcn054.
Voicu, Bogdan, Neguț, Adriana, Tufă, Laura, Glăvan, Eugen, Florea, Alexandra, and Țălnar-Naghi, Dana. 2020. “Working from home 2.1 Cum s-a lucrat de acasă în carantină”, Report accessed on February 1st 2023: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxycXNhcm98Z3g6MjM2Zjg2OTc3NzY3ODBkMQ.
Vuk, Goran, John L. Bowman, Andrew Daly, and Stephane Hess. 2016. “Impact of family in-home quality time on person travel demand.ˮ Transportation 43: 705−724. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9613-2.
Wajcman, Judy. 2008. “Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time.ˮ The British journal of sociology 59 (1): 59−77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00182.x.
Whillans, Ashley V., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Paul Smeets, Rene Bekkers, and Michael I. Norton. 2017.”Buying time promotes happiness.ˮ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (32): 8523−8527. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706541114.
Williamson, Sue, and Alicia Pearce. 2022. “COVID-normal workplaces: Should working from home be a ‘collective flexibility’? ˮ Journal of Industrial Relations 64 (3): 461−473. https://doi.org/10.1177/002218562210948.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2023 Romanian Academy Publishing House
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
