The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study: Report One

Dr. Chris Higgins, Professor, Richard Ivey School of Business, U.W.O.
Dr. Linda Duxbury, Professor, School of Business, Carleton University

Final Report
March 2002

• Foreword
• Executive Summary

The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study:
Report One
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Foreword

The issues associated with balancing work ¹ and family are of paramount importance to individuals, the organizations that employ them, the families that care for them, the unions that represent them and governments concerned with global competitiveness, citizen well-being and national health. Although much has been written about the topic, only a handful of "high impact" studies has been conducted on this subject in Canada.² Despite the popular press's fixation on the topic (reflecting its readers' interest) there are, at this time, little sound empirical data available to inform the debate. This is unfortunate as credible research in this area has the power to change how governments and employers think about the issue and how they formulate and implement human resource, social and labour policy.

A decade ago we, along with our colleagues Dr. Catherine Lee at the University of Ottawa and Dr. Shirley Mills at Carleton University, conducted a national study of work-life conflict in Canada to "explore how the changing relationship between family and work affects organizations, families and employers."³ In total, 14,549 employees from 37 medium and large private-sector organizations and 5,921 employees from 7 federal public service departments participated in this research.

A lot has happened in the 10 years since we conducted our first study on work-family balance. Academic research on the topic has burgeoned. Our personal understanding of the dynamics between work and family domains has broadened, as we have undertaken research with a number of companies in both the public and private sector (a list of publications resulting from this research can be found in Appendix A).

Nationally, the 1990s was a decade of turbulence for working Canadians as companies downsized, rightsized, restructured and globalized. The recession of the early 1990s was followed by the "jobless recovery" of the mid-1990s and job security was the issue that absorbed many working Canadians and their families.

Organizations, faced with a glut of competent employees from which to choose, often paid little attention to becoming "best practice" with respect to human resource management. Paradoxically, at the beginning of the new millennium there has been a complete about-face with respect to this issue as employers, faced with impending labour shortages, have become preoccupied with recruiting and retaining "knowledge workers."⁴ Such employers have recognized that a focus on "human capital" is one key to increased productivity for the workforce of 2001 and beyond.

Throughout the 1990s, technological change and the need to be globally competitive increased the pressures on organizations and employees alike. Time in employment increased for many, as did the use of non-standard types of employment. Non-work demands also increased over the decade as family structures continued to change and the percentage of working Canadians with child care, elder care, or both (the sandwich generation) continued to rise.

Taken together, these changes suggest it is time for another rigorous empirical look at the issue of work-life conflict. The research outlined in this report and the others in the series was designed to provide business and labour leaders, policy makers and academics with an objective "big picture" view on what has happened in this area in Canada in the last decade and what the current situation is. As such, it will allow interested parties to separate the rhetoric from the reality with respect to work-life conflict. The research study has the following objectives:

1. Quantify the issues associated with balancing work and family, in the year 2001 and compare the situation today to that of 10 years earlier.

2. Quantify the benefits (to employees, employers, families and Canadian society) of work-family balance.

3. Quantify the costs (to employees, employers, families and Canadian society) of work-family imbalance.

4. Quantify the costs to the Canadian health care system of high levels of work-family conflict.

5. Help employees make the business case for change in this area in their organization.

6. Identify organizational best practices in terms of dealing with work and family issues.

7. Help organizations identify what they need to do to reduce work-family imbalance in their organizations.

8. Help employees and families identify what they can do to reduce work-family imbalance in their lives.

9. Empirically examine how public, private and not-for-profit organizations differ from each other with respect to the work and lifestyle issues identified above.

In other words, this research examines the issues associated with work-life conflict, identifies who is at risk, articulates why key stakeholders (i.e. governments, employers) should care and provides direction on ways to move forward. This research should:

• provide a clearer picture of the extent to which work-family conflict is affecting employees and employers in Canada;
  
  
• help organizations appreciate why they need to change how they manage their employees by linking conflict between work and life to the organization's "bottom line;"
  
  
• expand the overall knowledge base in this area; and
  
  
• suggest appropriate strategies that different types of organizations can implement to help their employees cope with multiple roles and responsibilities.

Theoretical Framework

There is a vast academic literature dealing with the issue of work-life conflict. A complete review of this literature is beyond the purview of this series of reports and counter to our primary objective, which is to get easily understood and relevant information on work-life conflict to key stakeholders (governments, policy makers, employees, employers, unions). That being said, readers who are interested in the theoretical underpinnings of this research are referred to Figure 1. This theoretical framework incorporates both fundamental concepts from the research literature and the key insights we have gained from our 10 years of research in this area. This research is based on the premise that an individual's ability to balance work and life will be associated with both work and non-work demands (i.e. time in and responsibility for various work and non-work roles), as well as a number of key demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, job type, socio-economic status, area of residence, sector). Further, it is hypothesized that an employee's ability to balance work and life demands will be associated with the following outcomes:

• organizational (commitment, intent to turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction, rating of organization);
  
  
• family (family satisfaction, family adaptation, family integration, parenting);
  
  
• individual (stress, depressed mood, perceived physical health, burnout, life satisfaction, caregiver strain); and
  
  
• societal (use of the health care system).

1 Throughout this paper, the term "work" refers to paid employment.

2 See, for example, MacBride-King & Paris, 1989; Duxbury et al., 1992; Higgins, Duxbury, & Lee, 1993; Duxbury & Higgins, 1998; Duxbury et al., 1999; MacBride-King & Bachman, 1999.

3 Duxbury et al., 1992, p. 16.

4 Peter Drucker (1999) coined the term "knowledge worker" to describe highly skilled employees whose work is complex, cyclical in nature, and involves processing and using information to make decisions.

Executive Summary

We all have a number of roles which we hold over the course of our life-spouse, parent, employee, sibling, friend, community member. Work-life⁶ conflict occurs when the time and energy demands imposed by all these roles are incompatible, so that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in another. Work-life conflict has three components: role overload (having too much to do), work to family interference (e.g. long work hours, inflexible work schedules, heavy work demands which limit an employee's ability to participate in family roles and functions), and family interferes with work (family demands such as a sick child or senior prevents attendance at work, ability to stay late at work, travel for one's job, or relocate).

To what extent is work-life conflict a problem in Canada? What progress has been made in this area? The answers to these questions are not clear. One can make the argument that work-life conflict increased throughout the 1990s as:

• a greater percentage of Canadian employees assumed more responsibilities (i.e. the number of working women, dual-earner and single-parent families, sandwich employees and employees who had responsibility for elder care has increased over the past decade); and

• labour market changes during the 1990s (i.e. employers downsized, rightsized and restructured) and technological changes have increased job insecurity, elevated work demands and blurred the boundary between work and family.

Alternatively, one could argue that balance has become less problematic. Proponents of this view contend that organizations have made significant progress with respect to work-life balance due to a greater need to recruit and retain workers, and changing attitudes toward work. Such changes, they argue, have provided a powerful impetus for companies to turn to more flexible, family-friendly workplaces as a means of retaining and energizing key employees and meeting strategic objectives.

In the new millennium, Canadian governments, employers, employees and families face a common challenge-how to make it easier for Canadians to balance their work roles and their desire to have a meaningful life outside of work. Obviously, more needs to be done to advance workplace and government strategies that assist Canadian workers and families (Scott, 2000). This research initiative is a step in this direction.

The overall objectives of this research initiative have been articulated in the foreword to this report. This report has the following general objectives:

1. to provide the reader with relevant background information on the topic of work-life balance;

2. to outline the research methodology employed in the study;

3. to describe the 2001 survey sample; and

4. to examine how key work-life factors such as time in work, time in home chores and child care and responsibility for child care have changed over time.

Specifically, this report answers the following questions:

• Who responded to the 2001 Health Canada work-life survey?

• What kinds of work and non-work demands and responsibilities do these individuals face?

• How has the amount of time spent in paid employment changed over the last decade?

• How has the amount of time spent in non-work activities changed over the last decade?

• How has the use of various alternative work arrangements changed over the last decade?

• Within Canadian families, who assumes primary responsibility for child care and elder care? Has the assumption of responsibility for child care changed over the last decade?

• What impact does gender, job type, dependent care responsibilities and sector of employment have on the types of work and non-work demands and responsibilities faced by Canadian employees?

• To what extent can the results obtained with this sample be generalized to the Canadian population as a whole?

Sample

This study involved a sample of Canadian employees who work for public (federal, provincial and municipal governments), private and not-for-profit (defined in this study to include organizations in the health care and educational sectors) sector organizations. All employees in the sample came from organizations employing 500 or more people.

In total, 100 companies with 500+ employees participated in the study (3.4% of the companies identified in the total sample frame): 40 from the private sector, 22 from the public sector and 38 from the not-for-profit sector. Private-sector companies from the following sectors were included in the sample: telecommunications, high technology, retail, transportation, pharmaceutical, financial services, entertainment, natural resources and manufacturing. The public-sector sample included 7 municipal governments, 7 provincial government departments, and 8 federal public service departments/agencies. The not-for-profit sector sample consisted of 15 hospitals/district health councils, 10 school boards, 8 universities and colleges, and 5 "other" organizations that could best be classified as not-for-profit/greater public service (e.g. social service, charity, protective services).

At the time of data analysis, we had received 31,571 useable responses for a response rate of approximately 26%. This response rate is acceptable given the length of the survey (it took 30 to 60 minutes to complete) and the fact that it was impossible to send out follow-up reminder notices to survey recipients. The sample is distributed as follows:

• Just under half (46%) of the respondents work in the public sector. One in three work in the not-for-profit sector and 20% are employed by a private-sector company.

• Just over half (55%) of the respondents are women.

• Just under half (46%) work in managerial and professional positions, 40% work in non-professional positions (e.g. clerical, administrative, retail, production) and 14% work in technical jobs. The majority of respondents in technical positions are men (67%) while the majority of respondents in non-professional positions are women (73%).

• Just over half (56%) of those in the sample have dependent care responsibilities. The rest (44%) do not.

Demographic Profile of Respondents

The 2001 survey sample is well distributed with respect to age, region, community size, job type, education, personal income, family income, and family's financial well-being. In many ways, the demographic characteristics of the sample correspond to national data, suggesting that the results from this research can be generalized beyond this research. Approximately half of the respondents to the survey can be considered to be highly educated male and female knowledge workers. The majority of respondents are part of a dual-income family and indicate that they are able to "live comfortably" (but not luxuriously) on two full-time incomes. Respondents who belong to a traditional, male breadwinner family are in the minority (5% of total sample, 11% of the sample of men) and outnumbered by respondents who are single parents. The fact that the traditional families tended to be headed by highly paid male managers and professionals suggests that this family arrangement is restricted to those with higher incomes.

The sample includes a substantial number of employees who may be at risk with respect to work-life conflict. The mean age of the respondents to this survey was 42.8 which puts them in the mid-career/fast track stage of the career cycle, the "full-nest" stage of the life cycle and the 40's transition stage of adult development. Each of these stages is associated with increased stress and greater work and family demands. Three quarters of the respondents to this survey are currently married or living with a significant other and 69% are part of a dual-income family. Eleven percent of the respondents are single parents. Twelve percent of the sample live in rural areas. One in three is a clerical and administrative employee with lower levels of formal education (i.e. reduced job mobility) and lower personal and family incomes. One quarter of the respondents indicated that in their family money was tight; 29% of respondents earned less than $40,000 per year and just over one-quarter lived in families with total family incomes that were less than the Canadian average. One in three of the respondents had a high school education or less.

There were a number of interesting demographic and socio-economic differences that were associated with gender. The men in the sample were slightly older than the women, more likely to hold managerial and technical positions, more likely to be married (especially the men in managerial and professional positions and the men with dependent care responsibilities), more likely to have a university education, and more likely to earn more than $60,000 per year. The women in the sample, on the other hand, were more likely to work in clerical and administrative positions and to earn less than $40,000 per year. Several pieces of data, including the fact that the women in our sample in managerial, professional and technical positions were more highly educated than their male counterparts, and the fact that the women in our sample earned less than the men even when education was controlled for, suggest that women who work for large firms have yet to achieve full equality with men at work.

The data also indicate that there is a strong association between socio-economic status and job type. Respondents in non-professional positions were more likely to have a high school education or less, receive lower financial remuneration and say that, in their family, "money is tight." The men and women in managerial and professional positions, on the other hand, were more likely to have a university education, be in families that earned $100,000 or more a year and say that, in their family, "money was not an issue." The men and women in technical positions were more likely to have a college degree. Their personal and family incomes were very similar to those in non-professional positions.

Finally, respondents with dependent care responsibilities differed in a number of interesting ways from those without dependent care responsibilities. Many of these differences were linked to gender. Respondents with dependent care were, on average, two years older. They were more likely to say that within their family "money is tight," although their family incomes were essentially the same as those without dependent care responsibilities. Men with dependent care responsibilities were more likely than women with dependent care responsibilities to be married. Women without dependent care responsibilities had more formal education (45% with university education) than the women with dependent care responsibilities (35% with university). No such difference was observed in the male sample. These findings suggest the following:

• dependent care increases financial strains within families, and

• professional women in Canada are delaying having children in order to focus their attention on their careers.

Dependent Care Responsibilities of the Respondents

The majority of employees in the sample have responsibilities outside of work. Seventy percent are parents (average number of children for parents in the sample is 2.1); 60% have elder care (average number of elderly dependents is 2.3); 13% have responsibility for the care of a disabled relative; 13% have both child care and elder care demands (i.e. are part of the "sandwich generation"). The fact that these data on non-work demands correspond closely to national data provided by Statistics Canada and the Vanier Institute suggest that the findings from this study can be generalized to all Canadians working for large firms.

Dependent care responsibilities do not depend on either job type or sector. They do, however, vary considerably by gender. The men in the sample were more likely to have children than the women (77% of men are fathers while 65% of women are mothers). Closer examination of the data shows that this gender difference in parental status is due to the fact that the women in professional and technical positions in this sample were less likely to have children than their counterparts in non-professional positions. No such difference was observed with respect to the men in the sample. In fact, just the opposite-the men in professional and technical positions were more likely to have children than their non-professional counterparts. Why are professional women less likely to have children? The data would suggest that motherhood and career advancement are not perceived by many of the professional women in the sample to be compatible goals. Just under half of the managerial and professional women in the sample agree that they had not yet started a family because of their career, and that they have had fewer children because of the demands of their work.

While it is tempting to conclude from these data that professional women need their organizations to be more sensitive to and supportive of work-life balance, the data suggest that changes also need to occur at home. For example, responsibility for child care is not associated with job type. The majority of men and women in both the 1991 and 2001 samples agree that in their family the female partner has the primary responsibility for child care. The majority of men and women in our sample who were part of a dual-career family (i.e. the wife held a professional position) also held this view. In other words, professional men who are married to professional women are no more likely to assume additional responsibilities at home than men who are married to women in less demanding jobs. Greater sharing of child-rearing responsibilities at home would, perhaps, reduce the need for professional women to have to choose between a career and becoming a mother.

While child care still appears to be considered by many men to be "woman's work," the data would suggest that they are less likely to hold this view with respect to elder care. While the majority of female respondents felt that they had the primary responsibility for elder care, they were much more likely to acknowledge that in their family elder care was shared or their partner's responsibility than they were to feel this way about child care. The men in the sample were also more likely to feel that elder care, as compared to child care, was shared.

Characteristics of Work

What do we know about the work environments of those who responded to the survey (and by extension the work environments of Canadians who work for larger organizations)? Half belong to unions. One in three supervises the work of others. The demands associated with supervision are substantial as the typical supervisor has a very wide span of control (an average of 20 direct reports). This span of control is significantly higher than was observed in the 1991 sample (an average of 6 direct reports), a finding that is consistent with the fact that many organizations shed layers of management as part of their downsizing and restructuring initiatives. These data suggest that one consequence of this strategy is an increased workload for the supervisor that "survived."

Despite the turbulence of the 1990s, the data from the 2001 survey would suggest that most Canadian employees make a long-term commitment to their employers; the average respondent has been working at his or her current organization for an average of 13.9 years. Unfortunately, the data would also suggest that the rhetoric about the importance of continuous learning and career development has not translated into concrete actions in these areas as the average 2001 respondent has been in his or her current job for an average of 7.3 years. These data would suggest that Canada's largest employers need to do more with respect to career development.

The survey data also suggest that employers' sensitivity to work-family issues continues to lag behind the emergence of these concerns as an issue for employees. The majority of employees in the Canadian workforce are members of dual-income families with dependent care responsibilities (child care, elder care, or both). As such, they require a diversity of work schedules. Unfortunately, the data indicate that the majority of Canadians in both the 1991 and 2001 samples work "regular" hours (i.e. little to no formal flexibility with respect to arrival and departure times, no work location flexibility). The percentage of respondents using the most desired "family-friendly" flexible work arrangements (flextime and telework) has not changed over the decade and remains relatively low (approximately 20% work flextime and 1% telework). In fact, for many Canadian employees work schedules may have deteriorated over the decade as the percentage of the workforce who use work schedules known to increase work-life conflict and stress (i.e. rotating shifts, fixed shifts, atypical work arrangements) has increased.

The data also indicate that access to flexible work arrangements is not evenly distributed throughout the workforce. Further examination of the data indicates that those employees who have the greatest need for flexible work arrangements (i.e. parents and employees with elder care responsibilities) do not have access to them. This would suggest that despite all the talk about "family friendly" and "employer of choice," the myth of separate worlds still appears to be the operating principle in many of Canada's largest employers.

It is also interesting to note that while few respondents formally telework, 12% engage in guerilla telework (i.e. informal work at home). This would suggest that work at home is possible (i.e. work can be done outside of the regular office environment) and that employees do want to use such arrangements. These findings suggest that barriers to telework exist at the organizational level. Private-sector employees and employees without dependent care responsibilities are more likely to perform guerilla telework. The latter finding is interesting in that it refutes the perception that employees work at home so they do not have to arrange child care.

Finally, it is interesting to note that one in three respondents arranges their work schedule so that they and their partner can share child care (i.e. work a different shift from their partner so that they do not need to arrange any kind of child care). This strategy, typically referred to as "off shifting," is a strategy that is primarily used by men in managerial and professional positions with dependent care responsibilities to help them balance competing work and family demands. While such arrangements may be beneficial to children, how they affect marriages and work-life conflict is still largely unknown.

Work Demands

The data are unequivocal-a substantial proportion of Canadians who work for large employers regularly engage in overtime work. The following key observations can be drawn from the data on overtime:

• employees are more likely to work unpaid overtime than paid overtime;

• the amount of time per month spent performing supplemental work at home and unpaid overtime is considerable and greater than the amount of time spent in paid overtime;

• employees donate a significant proportion of unpaid time to their employer (approximately five days per month);

• while the types of employees performing paid and unpaid overtime are slightly different (managers and professionals are more likely to perform unpaid overtime while non-professionals are more likely to perform paid overtime), a substantial proportion of all employees in the various job types considered in this analysis work paid and unpaid overtime;

• many employees feel that they cannot say "no" to overtime work (i.e. have low control over work time);

• overtime demands appear to be the most onerous in the not-for-profit sector;

• men appear to have more pressures with respect to the performance of both paid and unpaid overtime than women, suggesting that there are still gender differences with respect to what companies expect from their employees/the demands employees place on themselves; and

• the use of unpaid overtime has increased substantially over the decade.

Work demands have increased over time

Comparisons done using the 1991 and 2001 samples suggest that time in work has increased over the decade. Whereas one in ten respondents in 1991 worked 50 or more hours per week, one in four does so now; during this same time period, the proportion of employees working between 35 and 39 hours per week declined from 48% of the sample to 27%. This increase in time in work was observed for all job groups and all sectors.

The trends observed with respect to time in work and overtime work suggest that it has become more difficult over the past decade for Canadian employees (especially those working in managerial and professional positions) to meet work expectations during regular hours. It would appear that employees who work for larger organizations have attempted to cope with these increased demands by working longer hours and taking work home. Further work is needed to determine why work demands have increased over the decade. Competing explanations drawn from the data include:

• organizational anorexia (downsizing-especially of the middle manager cadre-has meant that there are not enough employees to do the work and managers to strategize and plan);

• corporate culture (if you don't work long hours and take work home, you will not advance in your career, not keep your job during downsizing);

• increased use of technology (data collected elsewhere in the survey provide partial support for this supposition);

• global competition (work hours have been extended to allow work across time zones, increased competition and a desire to keep costs down has limited the number of employees it is deemed feasible to hire);

• the speed of change has increased to the point where many organizations have lost their ability to plan and prioritize-workloads increase when organizations practise crisis management (partial support for this hypothesis comes from data collected elsewhere in the survey);

• employees are worried about the consequences of "not being seen to be a contributor";

• non-professionals may fear that they will lose their jobs if they do not work overtime, and

• professionals may worry that their career will stagnate if they do not work overtime.

Finally, it should be noted that the link between hours in work and role overload, work-life conflict, burnout and physical and mental health problems suggest that these work loads are not sustainable over the long term.

Work requirements (especially with respect to travel and overtime) do not support balance

The data indicate that the "myth of separate worlds" still operates in Canada's largest employers. The expectation that an employee will spend both weekday and weekend nights away from home if their job requires it appears to be quite prevalent and many employees feel that they cannot refuse overtime work. Just over one in three respondents work in jobs that require them to spend an average of 3.1 weeknights a month away from home. One in three holds jobs that call for them to spend one quarter of their weekend nights away from home. Another third have jobs that compel them to spend approximately two days per month on the road commuting to other work sites. Finally, one in six respondents said that he or she could not refuse to work overtime if asked. An additional 37% of respondents indicated that they could only refuse overtime "sometimes."

Who has the heaviest work demands?

The findings from this study would suggest the following groups: men, managers and professionals, and employees who work in the not-for-profit sector. The data presented in this section unequivocally support the idea that men have heavier work demands than women. Men (regardless of sector, job type or dependent care status) spend more hours per week in paid employment than women (44.1 hours versus 40.6), are more likely to work paid overtime (34% versus 28%), unpaid overtime (55% versus 45%) and do supplemental work at home (58% versus 43%). They also spend more hours per month, on average, in paid overtime (12 hours versus 10 hours) and unpaid overtime (20 hours per month versus 14 hours). Men also have heavier travel demands (more likely to have to spend weekdays and weekends away).

Managers and professionals of both genders also had markedly higher work demands. They spend more time per week in work, have heavier travel demands (more likely to spend weekday and weekend nights away from home) and dedicate more time to unpaid overtime and supplemental work at home. It should be noted that male managers and professionals had particularly heavy workloads. The fact that managers and professionals (regardless of gender) were less likely than those in technical or non-professional positions to work paid overtime is likely due to the fact that companies have different expectations of their professional personnel with respect to the time they should contribute to work.

It is also interesting to note that men and women in the not-for-profit sector sample had particularly onerous work loads. The men in the not-for-profit sector sample were shown to have the heaviest burdens with respect to paid overtime. The women in this sector were more likely to feel that they could not refuse overtime. Both men and women in this sector were more likely to engage in supplemental work at home, work unpaid overtime and travel on the weekends. They also "donated" the most time to their employer. The heavy workloads in this sector are consistent with the budget cuts and downsizing initiatives experienced within both the education and health care fields in the last few years (i.e. fewer bodies to do the same amount of work). It should also be noted that private-sector employees also spend a high number of hours per week in paid employment. The travel and overtime demands reported by those in the private sector are, however, lower.

Despite the fact that they have heavier demands and more responsibilities outside of work, employees with dependent care commitments spend the same amount of time in work each week as their counterparts without dependent care. These data suggest that men and women who have dependent care responsibilities have more demands on their time than those without such obligations (i.e. time in work is the same but time spent in non-work activities is higher). Men with dependent care responsibilities have greater work demands than their female counterparts; they invest more time in paid work per week and spend more weeknights away from home than women with dependent care responsibilities. This greater investment in work may give men an advantage with respect to career advancement.

It is also interesting to note that employees with dependent care responsibilities are more likely to perform supplemental work at home. Future analysis of the data will determine if this strategy is an effective way for parents and those with elder care responsibilities to cope with increased work demands or if it is associated with increased work-life conflict.

Family Demands

The employees who answered our survey spent approximately 17 hours a week in non-work-related activities-a significantly lower amount of time than they spent in paid employment. Time in non-work activities is not associated with sector. It is, however, linked to gender, dependent care status and job type.

The women in our sample spent 12.2 hours in home chores per week-a higher number of hours than spent by the men in the sample (10.1 hours per week). The men in the sample, on the other hand, spent more time per week in leisure (9.6 hours per week) than the women (8.5 hours per week). While the men were also more likely than the women to engage in volunteer activities (43% of the men in the sample volunteered versus 34% of the women), the amount of time spent in volunteer activities (3.7 hours per week) was not associated with gender.

The data are unequivocal-employees with dependent care responsibilities have more demands on their time than their counterparts without child care or elder care. They spent more than twice as much time in non-work activities as those without dependent care status (23 hours versus 10 hours) and approximately 3 hours less per week in leisure. Families with dependent care responsibilities devote approximately 110 hours per week to work and non-work activities-a substantially greater time commitment than observed in families without dependent care responsibilities (90 hours per week). In this sample, child care could be seen to generate heavier time demands than elder care. Respondents with elder care responsibilities spent approximately 5.3 hours helping their elderly relative; parents spent approximately 10.8 hours per week in child care.

A key finding from this research is that the role of "caregiver" is not as strongly associated with gender as it was in the past. Traditionally, research in this area has determined that women spend more time in child care than men. Such was not the case in this study, as mothers and fathers who engaged in child care spent essentially the same amount of time each week in child care-related activities (the typical mother in the sample spent approximately 11.1 hours per week in child care while the typical father spent approximately 10.5 hours). Similarly, the men and the women in the sample with elder care responsibilities spent approximately the same amount of time per week in elder care activities (the typical man with elder care responsibilities spent 4.6 hours per week in their care while the typical women spent approximately 5.2 hours).

These data would suggest that women's entry into the paid labour force has had a measurable impact on the division of family labour within the home. The fact that we did not observe large gender differences with respect to the amount of time devoted to child care may be attributed to the fact that time for family-related activities has declined as time in work has increased (after all, there are only 24 hours in a day!). A comparison of the 1991 and 2001 data sets provides support for this conclusion. These data indicate that while both genders are now spending less time in family activities than previously, the decline in time spent in child care has been more precipitous for women (dropped by 33% over the decade) than for men (dropped 15%). Competing explanations for these findings include the following:

• mothers have reallocated their time because they are working outside the home;

• smaller families have reduced the number of years with very young children;

• more pre-school children, regardless of their mother's employment status, spend time outside the home in day care and play groups;

• men have become more involved in child rearing; and

• technology (i.e. cell phones, beepers) has made it possible for parents to be "on call" without being physically present in the home.

In other words, the gender difference in time spent in child care has diminished as women spend less time in child care, men spend more and the need to spend high amounts of time in child care is reduced (see Bianchi (2000) for an excellent discussion of this phenomenon).

The data can also be interpreted to mean that in many Canadian families men and women are now equal partners with respect to the amount of time they devote to child care. This interpretation of the data is supported by the fact that 44% of the men and 33% of the women in the sample perceive that responsibility for child care is equally shared in their family. Follow-up research is needed to explore this issue in more detail (i.e. is this an artifact of this study and how the data were collected or does it reflect a new reality for some Canadian families; are the types of child care and elder care tasks done within the family linked to gender even if time in tasks is not).

It should also be noted that this "enlightened" attitude with respect to the distribution of "family labour" does not extend to home chores. The women in the sample spent substantially more time in home chores per week than the men, regardless of sector, job type or dependent care status. This finding would suggest that in many Canadian families home chores are still perceived by many to be "women's work."

Finally, it is interesting to note that the women in managerial and professional positions in our sample spend more time in child care per week (11.5 hours) than women in other types of jobs, or their male counterparts in managerial and professional positions. They are also in families which devote more hours per week to work and non-work activities (106 hours per week). These data would suggest that many professional women in Canada have bought into the concept of "supermom" and place very high demands on themselves with respect to both work and family.

What Can Employers Do?

The data offer the following suggestions for employers who wish to help their employees balance work and family. Employers need to:

1. identify ways of reducing employee workloads (this is especially true for not-for-profit sector employers). Special attention needs to be given to reducing the workloads of managers and professionals in all sectors;

2. identify ways to reduce the amount of time employees spend in job-related travel;

3. recognize and reward overtime work;

4. reduce their reliance on both paid and unpaid overtime;

5. give employees the opportunity to say "no" when asked to work overtime. Saying "no" should not be a career-limiting move;

6. make alternative work arrangements more widely available within their organization;

7. look at career development and career advancement opportunities through a "work-life" lens. Employees should not have to choose between having a family and career advancement; and

8. examine work expectations, rewards and benefits through a "life-cycle" lens (i.e. what employees are able to do/motivated to do and what rewards and benefits they desire will change with life-cycle stage).

What Can Employees Do?

Employees should:

9. say "no" to overtime hours if work expectations are unreasonable;

10. try to limit the amount of work they take home to complete in the evenings. If they do work at home, they should make every effort to separate time in work from family time (i.e. do work after the children go to bed, have a home office);

11. try to reduce the amount of time they spend in job-related travel; and

12. take advantage of the flexible work arrangements available in their organization.

What Can Governments Do?

Governments (federal, provincial and municipal) need to:

13. take the lead with respect to the issue of child care. In particular, they need to determine how to best help employed Canadians deal with child care issues (i.e. develop appropriate policies for parents of children of various ages, identify and implement relevant supports);

14. take the lead with respect to the issue of elder care. In particular, they need to determine how to best help employed Canadians deal with elder care issues (i.e. develop appropriate policies, identify and implement relevant supports);

15. "lead by example" with respect to the availability and accessibility of flexible work arrangements (i.e. it is not enough just to offer a wide variety of alternative work arrangements, employees must feel that they can use such arrangements without penalty);

16. investigate ways to increase Canadians' awareness of how social roles and responsibilities have changed over the past several decades, what changes still need to happen, and why (i.e. social marketing campaign, education programs in schools, advertisements); and

17. examine how they can reduce the "financial penalties" associated with parenthood (i.e. determine how to concretely recognize that this group of employees has higher costs).

⁶ Throughout the paper, the term "work" refers to paid employment.

The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study:
Report One
(1,041 KB) in PDF Format 
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