Please, Do Not Interrupt Me: Work–Family Balance and Segmentation Behavior as Mediators of Boundary Violations and Teleworkers’ Burnout and Flourishing

Vânia Sofia Carvalho,Maria José Chambel,Alda Santos,Maria Teresa Ribeiro

doi:10.3390/su13137339

Abstract

The lockdown, in the COVID-19 pandemic, is considered an external crisis that evokes innumerous changes in individuals lives. One of the changes is the work and family dynamics. Based on boundary theory we examine the mediated role of work and family balance and boundary segmentation behavior in the relationship between boundary violations and teleworkers’ stress and well-being. However, because women and men live their work and family differently, gender may condition the way teleworkers lead with boundary violations and boundary segmentation. Hypotheses were tested through moderated mediation modeling using data collected of 456 teleworkers during lockdown. In line with our expectations, teleworkers who have suffered most boundary violations were those with least boundary segmentation behaviors and with least work-family balance which, in turn was related to higher burnout and lower flourishing. Furthermore, gender was found to moderate the relationship between boundary violations from work-to-family and segmentation behavior in the same direction and this relationship was stronger for females than for males. We discuss implications for future research and for managing teleworkers, creating sustainability, both during a crise and stable days.

Highlights

Pérez and Eva CifreThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent social distancing measures forced a shift toward mass telework in most countries all around the world
This measurement model was compared to the one-factor model, which presupposes the saturation of all the items in a single latent variable that revealed a poorer fit (χ2 (703) = 5767.67, p < 0.01, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.53; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.50; root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.13)
The aim was to testtowork–family segmentation behavior and violations and well-being in a sample of teleworkers during work–family balance as underlying mechanisms to explain the relationship between lockdown

Summary

Introduction

Pérez and Eva CifreThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent social distancing measures forced a shift toward mass telework in most countries all around the world. Telework is considered a flexible arrangement to promote a healthy work and family relationship, allowing an employee to perform work away from the office for a part of the work week while keeping in contact via information and communication technologies (ICT) [1] Despite this practice being a flexible arrangement, its effects on the work and family relationship remain inconclusive [1,2,3]. Instead of incorporating its pre-outbreak principles of being a family friendly measure, teleworking during lockdown may, have had a negative impact on families It is, not surprising that both the lockdown and telework obligations may have had a negative impact on employees’ well-being [5,6]

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