Parent's Relative Perceived Work Flexibility Compared to Their Partner Is Associated With Emotional Exhaustion

Prospective effects of work-time control on overtime, work-life interference and exhaustion in female and male knowledge workers

AIMS

Employee-based flexible working hours are increasing, particularly among knowledge workers. Research indicates that women and men use work-time control (WTC; control over time off and daily hours) differently: while men work longer paid hours, women use WTC to counteract work-life interference. In a knowledge-worker sample, we examined associations between WTC and overtime, work-life interference and exhaustion and tested whether gender moderates the mediating role of overtime.

METHODS

The sample contained 2248 Swedish knowledge workers. Employing hierarchical regression modelling, we examined effects of control over time off/daily hours on subsequent overtime hours, work-life interference and exhaustion in general and in gender-stratified samples. Using conditional process analysis, we tested moderated mediation models.

RESULTS

Control over time off was related to less work-life interference (βmen= -0.117; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.237 to 0.003; βwomen= -0.253; 95% CI: -0.386 to -0.120) and lower exhaustion (βmen= -0.199; 95% CI: -0.347 to -0.051; βwomen= -0.271; 95% CI: -0.443 to -0.100). For control over daily hours, estimates were close to zero. While men worked more overtime (42 min/week), we could not confirm gender moderating the indirect effect of control over time off/daily hours on work-life interference/exhaustion via overtime. Independent of gender, effects of control over time off on work-life interference were partly explained by working fewer overtime hours.

CONCLUSIONS

Control over time off was related to lower exhaustion and better work-life balance (in particular for women). We found no evidence for men's work-life interference increasing with higher WTC owing to working more overtime. Knowledge workers' control over time off may help prevent work-life interference and burnout.

The Effect of Employee-Oriented Flexible Work on Mental Health: A Systematic Review

The effect of flexible work on mental health is not well known. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effects of employee-oriented flexible work on mental health problems and associated disability. Literature searches were conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, ProQuest and EconPapers databases from their inception through October-November 2020. Sixteen studies on the associations of worktime control, working from home, or flexible working arrangements with mental health related outcomes were included in the review: one cluster randomized controlled trial, two non-randomized controlled trials, two cross-over studies, and 11 prospective cohort studies. Three reviewers independently assessed the met-hodological quality of the included studies and extracted the data. The included studies differed in design, intervention/exposure, and outcome, so meta-analysis was not carried out and qualitative results were reported. A few prospective cohort studies found that low employees' control over worktime increases the risk of depressive symptoms, psychological distress, burnout, and accumulated fatigue. One cross-over and a few cohort studies found small beneficial effects of working partly from home on depressive symptoms, stress, and emotional exhaustion. A small number of controlled trials, cross-over or cohort studies found that flexible working arrangements increase employees' control over working hours, but have only modest beneficial effects on psychological distress, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. This systematic review suggests that employee-oriented flexible work may have small beneficial effects on mental health. However, randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies are needed to identify the health effects of flexible work.

The Influence of Workload and Work Flexibility on Work-Life Conflict and the Role of Emotional Exhaustion

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between contextual work-related factors in terms of job demands (workload—WL) and job resources (work flexibility—WF), work–life conflict (WLC) and the burnout dimension emotional exhaustion (EE) in a large population-based sample. Building on the job demands resources model (JDRM), we have developed the hypothesis that WL has an indirect effect on EE that is mediated by WLC. We conducted a secondary analysis using data from the Dresden Burnout Study (DBS, N = 4246, mean age (SD) = 42.7 years (10.5); 36.4% male). Results from structural equation modelling revealed that EE is positively associated with WL (β = 0.15, p = 0.001) and negatively associated with WF (β = −0.13, p = 0.001), also after accounting for potential confounding variables (demography, depressive symptoms, and lifetime diagnosis of burnout). Both effects are mediated by WLC (β = 0.18; p = 0.001 and β = 0.08; p = 0.001, respectively) highlighting the important role of WLC in employee health. In summary, WF may help to reduce burnout symptoms in employees, whereas WL may increase them. Study results suggest that both associations depend on WLC levels.