Is it just about the mode of working? Avoiding work-life conflict when teleworking and working on-site: a latent profile analysis
Jurgita Lazauskaite-Zabielske, Ieva Urbanaviciute, Rita Jakštienė, Juste Margeviciene, Arunas ZiedelisPurpose
This study aims to explore levels of work-life conflict among office workers and teleworkers, considering working-time autonomy, organisational expectations for overtime and responding outside working hours.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from the tenth European Social Survey (edition 3.0) were utilised. The sample consisted of employed individuals aged 18–65 from 19 European countries (N = 12,212; mean age = 43.32, 51.3% women). Latent profile analyses were performed to analyse the data.
Findings
Four profiles were revealed, characterised by varying telework intensity, working time autonomy, expectations to overwork and expectations to respond outside working hours. Moreover, there were significant between-profile differences regarding one's work-life conflict. The lowest levels of time-based work-life conflict were observed among logged-off office workers and teleworkers. In contrast, strain-based work-life conflict was lowest among time-flexed and logged-off teleworkers and the highest among time-fixed and logged-in office workers.
Originality/value
Using representative data from 19 European countries, this study highlights the importance of managing organisational expectations for working overtime, communicating outside working hours and providing autonomy over working time to avoid work-life conflict for both teleworkers and office workers.