Blog Post #4

Do you foresee that changes in the workplace will mean changes for family role division – so that work is accomplished AND the functions and responsibilities of the family to children, couples and the family as a whole are fulfilled?

As workplaces are evolving, so are family roles. New ways of working are allowing parents to work anytime and anywhere. This accessibility allows them to more easily take on multiple roles within their family. Historically, society has established men as the primary earner, and women the primary caretaker. As these gender roles are deteriorating through societal change, new ways of working are also working to fight these roles. Not only do these new ways of working significantly benefit new parents trying to balance roles, they change the way we look at role division amongst families in regard to gender. Although, these new ways of working are beneficial to families, it can also make it harder for family members to establish boundaries between each role. This increased sense of accessibility often allows family members to work wherever and whenever they want, and while this increases flexibility, it also can impede on their role as a caregiver. 

In households around the world, especially the United States, parents struggle with role division following the birth of their children. In the United States, where there is no right to paid family leave, families are often forced to send at least one parent back to work in order to maintain financial stability. Family role division and gender roles are encouraged due to the fact that women are more in need of maternity leave to recover from pregnancy, as well as the fact that men are often paid more. With men returning to work, especially when their salary is higher, financial stability becomes less of a worry. Simultaneously though, this forces one parent to take on the role of the primary earner, and the other the primary caretaker. This, in turn, creates a bigger divide between family roles, and often gender roles. Today, new ways of working are changing this. By allowing parents, especially new parents, the ability to work from home while taking care of their children, gives parents the ability to take on both roles of working and caretaking. Flexibility that comes with new ways of working, such as easier communication and creating your own schedule, is very beneficial for parents wanting to take on multiple roles. In the article, New Ways of Working: Impact on Working Conditions, Work-Family Balance, and Well Being, by Evangelia Demerouti, Daantje Derks, Lieke L. ten Brummelhuis, and Arnold B. Bakker (2014), it is stated, “This flexibility can give individual workers the opportunity to better balance their work and home domains, as they can allocate their time over work and family activities in a way that suits their situation best” (p.3). Being able to have more say and control over one’s work domain gives them the opportunity to function better and maintain their familial responsibilities. It allows parents to plan their work around responsibilities with their families, such as taking their children to and from day care. Parents who are able to balance their work and family create healthy boundaries that promotes their ability to manage multiple roles. 

Although some parents are able to maintain healthy boundaries between work and family life, some families are unable to do so, which negatively affects both realms. New ways of working give parents the ability to take on both work roles and parenting roles by increasing accessibility, but at times this accessibility becomes too much. Being able to pick how, where, and when you work can be detrimental as it blurs the line between work life and family life. “There are indications that the blurring of boundaries leads to a deteriorated work-family balance” (Demerouti et al., 2014, p. 4). These boundaries have the ability to create a health family life, but by being unable to separate work and family, health family life is threatened. In the article When You Just Cannot Get Away by Ronald W. Berkowsky (2013), boundary theory presents the idea of boundary permeability, which, “refers to the degree in which an individual may occupy multiple roles simultaneously… despite the existence of role boundaries even as an individual occupies one role, aspects of another may impede upon and influence the currently occupied role due to a more permeable or ‘blurred’ boundary between roles” (p. 521). Because of the availability that comes with new ways of working, boundaries become permeable. Technology allow parents to work and parent simultaneously. Attempting to take on both roles at once can be detrimental to role division, as it takes focus away from each role, so that each one is not given the attention it needs.

Overall, new ways of working can either be beneficial or detrimental to family role division. The accessibility and availability that technology gives members to work whenever and wherever they want allows family members to take on both roles of parenting and working. This can strengthen family connection, function and responsibilities as it allows parents to plan their work in ways that allow them to be present with their families as well. Even so, this accessibility can be consequential in terms of family and work functioning when parents are unable to establish clear boundaries between each role. Parents must be able focus on each role individually in order to be successful. 

References

Berkowsky, R. W. (2013). When You Just Cannot Get Away. Information, Communication & Society, 16(4), 519-541. doi:10.1080/1369118x.2013.772650

Demerouti, E., Derks, D., Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2014). New Ways of Working: Impact on Working Conditions, Work–Family Balance, and Well-Being. The Impact of ICT on Quality of Working Life,123-141. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8854-0_8