Successfully juggling work and family

IF one keenly observes the faces of people working in various government offices and a number of private sector business entities, it would not be difficult to gauge the level of frustration in them, most of them appear to be just waiting to go home, desperately looking at the clock to announce the end of office hours.

One does not have to be a face reader to asses from their facial expressions that they are stressed out, unmotivated and unengaged.

According to the World Economic Forum, the productivity of a Saudi worker employed in the government sector has sharply dropped since the mid 80s and since then the performance has never seen a jump and continues to be mediocre.

Interestingly though, a group of researchers from the Pennsylvania State University had came up with a new finding; people have significantly lower stress levels when they are at the office compared to being at home. The researchers had tested the cortisol levels of 122 workers during the workday and on weekends using saliva samples; they found that levels of cortisol, which is a measurement reference for stress, were on the whole much lower when the person was at work than when he or she went home, as reported by the New York Times.

The research has been conducted in the United States, and at the first glance, it does not seem to make a lot of sense. How can the comfort at one’s home cause stress? In the case of Saudi Arabia, where most employees look eager to go home, the results sound rather laughable. However, do not jump to conclusions.

The research suggests that for many people, the daily commitments and responsibilities one has to assume at home are more stressful than the ones at the workplace. That is what makes the office, regardless of the employee’s productivity, more of a heaven compared to home.

“The fact that people’s stress levels go down when they are at work, I don’t think it means that they don’t like their homes or their kids,” said Sarah Damaske, an assistant professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State and the study’s lead author, as reported by the New York Times. “I think it suggests that there is something about work that is good for you. Being in the moment, focusing on a task, completing that task, socializing with your coworkers, all of these are beneficial and that’s part of what’s lowering your stress level.’’

The researchers had also asked men and women about their levels of happiness at work and at home. While men overall reported being happier at home than at work, women were happier at work than at home. Women also reported higher levels of happiness at work than did the men in the study. “Women have more to do at home when they come home at the end of a workday,” said Damaske. “They have less leisure time. There is all this extra stuff to be done in that second shift.”

One of the approaches to understand these findings is to consider the effects of time on stress levels. Usually employees spend more time at work as compared to that at home on weekdays. The remaining short time is dedicated to carrying out home-related tasks thus creating a lot of pressure and stress on the person who is supposed to juggle all these responsibilities. I know a lot of individuals who try to escape those responsibilities by not spending much time at home, they come back from office, have lunch, sleep, and leave home with their friends till midnight, usually leaving most of the kids’ responsibilities to their wives.

In such a context, the stress gap can be understood, although I would like to see how employee engagement and motivation could play as a factor in the formula.

The research ended up by suggesting more familyfriendly policies at work, like flexible hours, and working from home (interestingly, such suggestions usually come up as a way of boosting motivation and engagement at workplace as well), hoping that such a balance between time spent at home and office would resolve the conflict of competing responsibilities between work and family.

“This is not a call to work a million more hours or for women to not spend time with their families,” said Damaske. “There is something about combining work and family that makes a home — at least on a workday — a little less of a happy place.”