Does your boss expect you to be ever-connected on emails and work without boundaries?
If so, besides causing harm to your health and well-being, it could also lead to conflict in family relationships, a new study has revealed.
Stress due to employers’ expectations of work during non-working hours brings strain in the family ties as the employee is unable to fulfil non-work roles at home.
Such expectations are “an insidious stressor that not only increases employee anxiety, decreases their relationship satisfaction and has detrimental effects on employee health, but it also negatively affects their partner’s health and marital satisfaction perceptions,” said Liuba Belkin, Associate Professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, US.
Employees do not need to spend actual time on work in their off-hours to experience the harmful effects.
The mere expectations of availability increase strain for employees and their significant others – even when employees do not engage in actual work during non-work time.
“The competing demands of work and non-work lives present a dilemma for employees, which triggers feelings of anxiety and endangers work and personal lives,” added William Becker, Associate Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the US.
Importantly, organisational expectations should be communicated clearly, Becker noted.
“If the nature of a job requires email availability, such expectations should be stated formally as a part of job responsibilities.”
Knowing these expectations upfront may reduce anxiety in employees and increase understanding from their family members, he said.
IANS
