TRENDING SCIENCE: Couples working from home: Who benefits more?

The global pandemic has driven many couples into a world of work from the comforts of their homes. These men and women face several challenges in balancing domestic requirements with career tasks.

In the journal ‘Personnel Psychology’, researchers from The Ohio State University in the United States provide evidence on who is coming out on top. “We found that men and women don’t have the same experience working from home,” commented lead author Jasmine Hu, professor of management at the same institution in a news release. “There are still some gendered differences in how they manage their job and family responsibilities.”Men did fewer household and family tasks than when they were in the office. In contrast, women with flexible schedules had many more chores to do, in addition to their normal jobs. The results were based on a survey of over 220 dual-earner couples with and without children from China and South Korea during 2020 and 2021.

The findings concluded that men with flexible schedules working from home carried out far fewer household chores and tasks than their wives. Furthermore, wives felt guiltier than their husbands about not doing chores or spending quality time with family.

Husbands providing more support for their wives is key. The study suggests they share the household duties. “These findings suggest that husbands could help remote working wives when they have more flexible work schedules and do more family tasks when their wives have more rigid work schedules,” Prof. Hu explained.

Employers also need to be more adaptable and demonstrate consideration. “Organizations and managers should give their male employees more flexibility when possible so they and their families can better adapt to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic,” she further elaborated. “Managers should form realistic expectations about how much work their remote working employees can effectively handle and show more understanding of the home working situations of dual-earner couples.”For better and for worse, remote work has become instilled in our culture. “COVID-19 forever changed how we work. Remote working is going to become much more of a norm,” stated Prof. Hu. “People have really gotten used to the benefit of working from home and many won’t want to go back to the office full time.”

Remote work is here to stay, and so is the resulting tension and conflict that comes with it. How can working couples find a happy medium? Prof. Hu believes hybrid work is the answer. “This will allow employees to have the flexibility they get from working at home, while also having the opportunity to interact more with colleagues at the office, which can increase collaboration and inspire creativity and innovation.”