Strain and satisfaction carry across between work and home in both directions, so the two domains cannot be treated as separate systems.
The evidence supports transfer in both directions and for both strain and enrichment, with the negative direction usually measured as stronger. It undermines the assumption behind much workplace policy that the two spheres can be managed independently, and it means a change in one domain is an intervention in the other.
In practice
- A change to shift patterns is a change to childcare, and the organisation costs only the first.
- An employee's difficult year at home shows up as a performance issue, and is managed as one.
- Subject
- Creativity & Work
- Essay
- What gets in the way of good work