How An Always On Work Culture Damages Workers and Employers

The glamorization of high-pressure work environments, like the infamous “996” culture (where staff work from 9am until 9pm 6 days a week), often portrays relentless dedication and long hours as key to career success.¹⁾China steps in to regulate brutal ‘996’ work culture, BBC News, 1 September 2021

A PR boss at Chinese tech firm Baidu publicly apologized in May after glorifying a work-till-you-drop culture. Qu Jing advised staff not to expect weekends off and denied any responsibility for employee welfare, saying: “I’m not your mother.”²⁾Chinese PR boss says sorry after glorifying work-till-you-drop culture, The Guardian, May 9, 2024

It is not surprising that there was a public outcry around a culture that discourages a work-life balance. The effects of this can be profound,³⁾Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation. MITSloan, January 11, 2022 especially for young workers who want to develop their careers amid blurred boundaries between work and personal life.⁴⁾I warned City intern Moritz Erhardt not to work too hard, teacher says. The Times, August 22 2013

And it appears a healthy home life is important to work performance too. In studies we conducted with dual-earner couples aged 40 and over from the US, our results showed that feeling supported at home spills over into the workplace. This can improve both creativity and performance.⁵⁾Stollberger, J., Las Heras, M., & Rofcanin, Y. (2022). Sharing is caring: The role of compassionate love for sharing coworker work–family support at home to promote partners’ creativity at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(10), 1824–1842. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000985

Two interesting results came to light. First, our results showed that constant exposure to mobile phones during non-work hours (referred to as “phubbing”) damaged the support and communication between couples at home.

Employees who engaged less with their phones at home were able to enjoy the support and communication of their partner better. As employees, they felt more proactive and energized at work.

Second, by focusing on the times when positive experiences from home cross into the work domain, we found that supportive colleagues (for example, someone who would help out a colleague who had a family emergency) made employees more engaged at work.

Employees who felt supported by their partner (at home) and colleagues (at work) felt energized and “in the flow”, and they contributed to company success by showing creativity and innovation.

The changing workplace

While flexible working has become the norm in the wake of COVID, companies have increasingly been offering more flexibility. Another study shows that young employees who have discretion over when and where they work perform better in their job.⁶⁾Rofcanin, Y., Las Heras, M., Jose Bosch, M., Stollberger, J., & Mayer, M. (2020). How do weekly obtained task i-deals improve work performance? The role of relational context and structural job resources. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(4), 555–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2020.1833858

What we noticed was that the employees went above and beyond their work requirements. This piqued our interest, and our follow-up research focused on the factors that contributed to these elevated performance levels.⁷⁾Rofcanin, Y., Afacan Findikli, M., Heras, M.L., Ererdi, C. (2022). Idiosyncratic Deals and Individualization of Human Resource Management Practices: The Growth of HR Differentiation. In: Anand, S., Rofcanin, Y. (eds) Idiosyncratic Deals at Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88516-8_6

We found a new type of leadership trait, which we called “family-supportive leadership”. This management style aims to foster a culture that values work-life balance through empathy.

We found working with family-supportive leaders who can show empathy enhances employee performance and well-being. Through a family-supportive work culture, employees growing through the ranks are more likely to feel energized at work.⁸⁾Yongxing Guo, Siqi Wang, Yasin Rofcanin, Mireia Las Heras, A meta-analytic review of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSBs): Work-family related antecedents, outcomes, and a theory-driven comparison of two mediating mechanisms, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Volume 151, 2024, 103988, ISSN 0001-8791, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2024.103988.

We conducted a meta-analysis (a scientific review of all studies published) on family-supportive leadership to understand the link between this type of leadership, the work culture and employee behavior.

Our review demonstrated that empathy from a manager improves the performance of employees – as well as the employee’s job satisfaction. It also reduces burnout. The underlying reason for these positives is that family-supportive leadership minimizes conflict between work and family as much as possible.

What’s more, these leaders are praised by their teams, which has positive effects on employee morale and motivation. Where work culture supports family and leisure, we found that employees were more creative.

And in a more recent study that we conducted with young employees and their managers in Mexico – where there is an emphasis on long working hours with men predominantly the breadwinners – we found that family and leisure-supportive culture plays an important role in keeping employees engaged. We measured vigor, dedication and absorption around work, which ultimately led to better performance.⁹⁾Rofcanin, Y., Las Heras, M., Bosch, M. J., Wood, G., & Mughal, F. (2019). A closer look at the positive crossover between supervisors and subordinates: The role of home and work engagement. Human Relations, 72(11), 1776-1804. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726718812599

In light of the Baidu misstep, it’s crucial to recognize the broader implications of work exploitation in large corporations. When employers prioritize relentless productivity over creating a balance between work and family lives, it perpetuates a cycle of exploitation that places profits over employee well-being.

We have some key takeaways for leaders, companies and employees.

• invest in programs to develop family-supportive leadership practices and attitudes (for example, reduced workload arrangements or carer support groups)
• create a culture that’s respectful of the work-family and work-leisure balance. Ensure that norms, behavior and attitudes respect the non-work lives of employees and pay attention to the boundary between work and family lives
• be aware of the dangers associated with phubbing and constant phone access. Employees who constantly feel connected develop signs of burnout, exhaustion and depletion over time. A possible solution is to normalize switching off, recovery and relaxation strategies after work and during weekends
• invest in employee strengths (these areas where they shine at work). This is important, as employees who build on their strengths tend to feel inspired and find meaningfulness in their work.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.