xr:d:DAF9VeyAH0U:22,j:6186113373098887372,t:24022014

Slow Productivity – Cal Newport

by Book ReviewsWorkplace Norms, Expectations and Responsibilities

In his book Slow Productivity, Cal Newport makes a convincing argument that we need to slow down, rather than speed up if we are to become more usefully productive. 

He does a deep-dive into how we got to the place of what he refers to as ‘pseudo-productivity – The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort‘ in a knowledge-work context and how this is leading to burnout. 

This is especially relevant in the context of remote and hybrid workers, where productivity signalling is needed to showcase levels of busyness and relevance within a job role. 

The premise of this book is for knowledge workers to be less focused on producing lower-value knowledge widgets – juggling emails, messages, etc to feel more ‘productive’ and get more items ticked off the To-Do List. He suggests we spend more time engaging in deeper work that produces greater value knowledge products and output over an extended period. 

This logic is counter-intuitive for today’s fast-paced DigiTech-driven transaction-based business culture; where employees are mostly just a number and an individual career is more about transferable professional skills than staying with one company for extended periods. 

Maybe it’s time to shift our business culture to a more sustainable, more value-driven one of Slow Productivity.

Cal’s logic is sound and this way of operating within a business environment (whether employed or self-employed) along with the skills we should develop from his previous book Deep Work will give those who embrace these philosophies a strategic and tactical advantage over the prevailing shallower focussed skillset of the majority of knowledge workers.

About Cal Newport:

Cal Newport is an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, USA. He has published a number of non-fiction books and conducts a lot of research on the interaction of humans and technology. 

You can find out more about him on his website.

Book Review Related Articles
Digital Push Back

Digital Push Back

by Productivity and Attention

Productivity is one of those words that is often bandied about in business as something that needs to be improve upon.

But, what does it mean to be ‘productive’ as a knowledge worker? We may sense how productive we are being in a day, it is sometimes a KPI that forms part of our annual objectives, or maybe it’s a perceived state of how we contribute to our team goals.

In a manufacturing age, productivity can often be translated as developing more ‘knowledge widgets’ as a form of business asset building. So, being productive is synonymous with writing that report, building that presentation, completing that project, etc. It’s getting more stuff done, more quickly.

We know that being distracted by our notifications and online worlds can scupper our focus and the amount of work we are able to get done during a working day suffers, as a result. Spending more time scrolling through social media, watching cat videos or being distracted by notifications and messages from friends/family during the working day means less time spent getting work done.

But, what if the definition of productivity was not so much about numerical output, but more about quality and depth of output? How does digital technology affect that element of productivity?

A few ways are:

* Spending time scrolling through social media and watching short film clips reduces our attention span.

* Our ability to spend time thinking about and contemplating things and reflecting on life is reduced when we turn to a screen every time we have a break from work.

* Not giving the creative sections of our brain time to engage means we are less likely to come up with unique solutions to problems.

* If we are distracting ourselves with screens and devices, instead of taking time to think, reflect and be inspired, we tend to reduce our ability to think deeply.

Maybe part of what we need to be doing a lot more of is pushing back on our own definition of what it means to be digitally distracted and how this affects our productivity.

Maybe it’s not just about turning off our notifications. Maybe it’s about spending more time without our devices anywhere near us, so we can relearn what it means to give ourselves the opportunity to ‘just be’. Time to think, time to contemplate, time to go deep, time to be more creative, time to talk with others, time to just be with others. Maybe…

As a long-time fan of Cal Newport, I am delighted that he is bringing out a new book early this year – on this very topic – on how to become more productive. But this is not the kind of ‘generating knowledge widgets’ productive. Rather it is how to produce knowledge value – that creates change, has meaning, takes time, but is of great quality and value. 

Cal’s writing and thinking often flies in the face of mainstream corporate culture and also captures the essence of what a large (seeming) minority of disenfranchised knowledge workers are feeling, explains it so it makes sense and then provides solutions to the problem at hand.

In a December 2023 article for The New Yorker, he meditates on a few topics I often talk through:

  • Children ought not to be given access to social media before the age of 13 – although 16 is probably a better age from an emotional and psychological perspective.
  • We should be more selective about what technology we take on board, rather than immersing ourselves in the latest trends and gadgets.
  • Spending more conscientious time away from our distraction devices is good for our physical, mental, emotional and communal well-being.
  • Taking time out from devices is not just good for general mental well-being, but essential for creativity, reflection and self-esteem.
  • We need to change the paradigm of how we view our work, our lives, the perspectives we have around digital technology and the narratives we engage in around work and work culture.
  • ‘Pushing Back’ at the BigTech corporates is an individual decision about how to optimise tech use (and reduce where necessary). Government bodies are responsible for ensuring regulatory boundaries are put in place to limit the control and data mining of personal data by BigTech, but we need to ensure we use technology for our benefit and to continue to improve what we do, rather than allowing ourselves to be ‘enslaved’ by the gadgets we purchase and use.

Cal Newport’s new book (released in March 2024) is all about Productivity – and how we have fallen for the fallacy that greater levels of time spent working is the same as being productive and producing high-quality work. The premise in his (free to download) introduction is that: 

‘The relentless overload that’s wearing us down is generated by a belief that “good” work requires increasing busyness— faster responses to email and chats, more meetings, more tasks, more hours.’

This is going to be another well-thought-out, well-written and timely book. It’s well worth a read/listen as soon as it is out.

Related Digital Home Articles
623. Women in tech

Why do half of women in tech drop out by age 35?

by Individual Differences and ImpactResearch

In a collaborative report involving Code First Girls and Tech Talent Charter (TCC – a government-supported group of over 775 leading UK businesses and organisations) aimed to gain insights into the UK’s diversity talent shortage – and provide recommendations to address the diversity crisis.

It is revealed that half of the women in tech drop out by the age of 35, adding to concerns about the growing digital skills and gender gap.

Additionally, of the 149 million new jobs Microsoft predicts will be created by 2025 in software, data, AI and machine learning only 20% of the 5.8m newly skilled and qualified graduates will be women.

A few barriers for women in tech (and indeed in any industry) is: maternity leave, and work-family balance.

The top recommendations to encourage women to remain in tech include: flexible working, enhanced parental leave policies, and other female-specific family and healthcare policies and benefits.

Flexible working policies have been shown to have a positive impact on attracting and retaining talent. 

Job ads that include job flexibility in the offering have increased applicant volume by 30% and increased the proportion of female applicants.

88% of the 210,000 UK tech employees from TTC’s data reported having access to flexible work options including: part-time working (83%), job sharing (76%), condensed hours (65%) and remote working 47%). Other options available are a 4-day working week during the summer and uncapped holiday.

Although the availability of the report seems to focus on flexible work arrangements that are already available and female-related healthcare policies, the main solutions that seems to be suggested centre around making the tech workplace less of a ‘boys-club’ and slightly more inclusive to women’s family and healthcare needs. 

What the report doesn’t seem to address is the fact that flexible working policies are already available in almost 90% of tech companies and women are still leaving before 35. 

  • Could it be that there are much deeper underlying causes of women exiting the workplace by age 35 and not returning? 
  • Could workplace norms, narratives and job demands expectations also play a role?
  • Could the flexible workplace practices indeed be contributing to the inability to create work-home boundaries, which lead to higher stress, anxiety and feelings of burnout by the mid-30s, and making it less feasible for a healthy work-family life balance? 
  • Could the job demands that come from an industry that is already suffering from a skills shortage and an inherent need to grow and deliver at pace be significantly contributing to a stressful work environment that works for those in their 20s, but not always so well for those in their 30s? 
Read the press release from the research that was published in BM Magazine here
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Hybrid working and Realm based Transition Time

When hybrid working blurs the boundaries between work and life realms

by Work-Home Boundary Blurring

It is well understood that we exhibit different personas for different life roles. Each role we occupy requires differing personalities to manage, different expectations, different demands and different puzzles to solve.

The traditional transition time between home and work (and back again) gave us the time and mental space to subconsciously shift ourselves between these two life realms & personas. It was also used to think through the obstacles, tasks and responsibilities that needed dealing with, giving time and space to think through possible solutions. 

Working from home limits that ability. A number of workers are also using that commute time to start work earlier and finish later. Rather than the perception that working longer hours makes a person more productive, research shows that doing so makes no to little difference from a daily productivity perspective.

Working longer hours, just makes us more tired and less productive. It therefore just means we take longer to get things done and reduce our overall work-life balance.

Additionally, the removal of the reflection and thinking time in the day reduces the ability for problem-solving and perspective-taking.

Hints and Tips:

If you are not commuting to work, rather than sit down at your desk and start working around the same time you would otherwise have left for the office. Use the time to do a ‘mock transition’ between your home and work responsibilities. 

Try doing the same activity you would have done if you were driving, bussing, walking or cycling to work. e.g.

  • go for a walk around the block
  • sit in a comfy chair and read a book or listen to music
  • engage in a hobby

Your brain and subconscious require time to transition between one life realm and another. It also needs downtime and creative/divergent thinking time. Creative thinking can only happen when you stop thinking analytically. That is why we have the best ideas when we are not thinking about the problem at hand and doing something else less mentally taxing like going for a walk, taking a shower, cooking dinner etc. 

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Home-Office-Boundaries

The advantage of creating bespoke boundary-blurring strategies

by ResearchWork-Home Boundary Blurring
'From Work to Life and Back Again: Examining the Digitally-Mediated Work/Life Practices of a Group of Knowledge Workers'.

Extracts and summary of the research by: Luigina Ciolfi & Eleanor Lockley (2018)

Key quotes from the research:

  • ‘[those in] knowledge-intensive roles devise strategies for handling work and non-work in light of a set of interconnected forces’ 
  • ‘Boundary dissolving and work-life blurring, and not just boundary setting and ‘balancing’, are essential resources within [boundary management] strategies’
  • ‘Boundary sculpting pertains not only to work pervading personal spheres of life, but also the opposite, and that establishing, softening and dissolving boundaries are practised to handle situations when the personal seeps into professional life’
  • ‘Establishing, softening and dissolving boundaries are practised to handle situations when the personal seeps into professional life’ 

Summary of the research:

The boundaries that we set, dissolve, blur and manage between work, home and play are how office workers juggle and deal with, the changing demands of both professional and personal tasks. Every worker has a boundary strategy that is unique to them and entirely dependent on personal preferences, individual circumstances, working styles, the expectations of others and specific work culture.

Home and hobbies can be time and labour-intensive, and require as much professional management as paid work. Home life can be as intrusive of work as work can be of home life. Boundaries that are set in one direction are independent to the boundaries set in the reverse direction.

The setting of boundaries is not limited to geographic location, time of day, technology ownership or application used, but can also include mindset, identities, ambitions, social practices and cognitive practices.

There is a continuum of boundary-setting strategies from ‘segmentation’ to ‘integration’ of work and home life. Everyone has a different interpretation of what the words and resulting actions mean to them.

Boundary strategies can either be a resource or a constraint. They can change and be adapted depending on life stage and lifestyle adjustments. Although a life stage is not a precursor that dictates the type of strategy we implement e.g. working parents can either be strong segmenters, or strong integrators as can single people, young or more mature workers.

Those whose work is closely tied to their core life passions view additional reading and work-type tasks as professional development or self-improvement. In contrast, others (a portion of whom may regard work as a means to an end) view having to engage in work-related tasks during personal time as eating into their recovery time or as unpaid work and time away from their family or hobbies.

Digital technology is a mediator of both boundary setting and blurring.

For some, being able to check emails and messages after hours can be a ‘lifeline’ to manage their workload – giving them a sense of control or to ‘signal availability’ when away from the office.

For others, access to emails outside of working hours is an interference. They use various tactics to fence off work from private time. These can range from:

  • technology-based solutions – such as leaving laptops and mobiles in a car boot overnight or setting out-of-office messages – to
  • person-based solutions – such as informing others of availability patterns and when to expect a response.

Reflection on the research:

The researchers specifically qualify that they ‘do not buy into the myth of the mobile worker who can seamlessly handle demands through flexible work arrangements and ubiquitous technology’ and ‘self-regulation is a crucial component for knowledge-intensive flexible work’. This is an important consideration in the remote and hybrid work environment. Although many take on a remote/hybrid or flexible working pattern, the expectation can be that it is as easy to maintain focus and productivity in the same way as being in the office does. Spending time with others in a similar activity is a key motivator to keep going and needs less self-regulation than sitting alone in a quiet space. Remote/hybrid and flexible workers will need different strategies and develop purposeful working patterns and tools/strategies to keep them motivated and focused away from the office.

What also seems to come through in this research is the notion that the setting and dissolving of boundaries between work and home life is something that workers need to proactively sculpt, manage and adjust according to life circumstances and demands.

The researchers also view ‘boundary sculpting [to] relate to spaces/locations (being at the office, or travelling, or at home), time (times of the day or days of the week), tasks (certain tasks are acted upon, others are not) or social circles/other people’. The creation of work-home-play boundaries is not limited to just whether or not we are looking at our work emails and messages during non-work time, but rather that both active and passive engagement in work during private time is a form of boundary setting.

Read the original article here

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Some acronyms used in the research document: 

  • CSCW: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
  • HCI: Human-Computer Interaction
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Sociology Review 2019 WFB Mgt

Differing forms of work-family boundary management

by ResearchWork-Home Boundary Blurring
'Technology, Work, and Family: Digital Cultural Capital and Boundary Management'.

Extracts and a summary of research by: Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Jerry A. Jacobs, and Nancy P. Rothbard (2019) – (based in Canada and the USA) who set out to develop a framework for how technology, work and family intersect, especially regarding how tech is changing the boundaries between work, home and play. Although this is a 2019 Annual Review of Sociology, conducted prior to the shift towards greater degrees of hybrid work, the principles of the theories remain unchanged.

Key quotes from the research:

  • ‘…boundaries between work and family are permeable … events from one domain affect the other… it is the permeability of these boundaries that makes boundary management such a key skill, enabling people to balance work and family life.’
  • ‘… technologies directly influence how people experience work and family life by further increasing the porousness of the temporal, spatial and relational boundaries between work and family roles and identities. This porousness in turn makes the management of connectivity, online self-preservation, and privacy more challenging and calls for more elaborate technology management.’
  • ‘technology management: work performed to gain control over technology and its associated social norms in order to align one’s use of technology and one’s values and goals.’ 

Summary of the research: 

The boundaries that we create between work and home can be compared to a ‘mental fence’ that divides two differing life roles. Like any physical geographic boundary, this fence can have varying degrees of permeability and cross-over-ability.

However, we only have a small amount of control over this mental fence that we create. Company norms, team expectations, or our own internal mental processes may scupper our ability to manage these mental fences. 

Boundary Types

There are not just 1, but rather 3 types of boundary fences that we need to consider: temporal, spatial and relational. 

  • Temporal boundaries are time-based and exist whether we work in a flexible or a more structured role. Conducting work outside of the times we have set aside for work each day is an example of the blurring of this boundary. There is some debate as to the impacts versus payoffs of a constant state of connectivity with work via technology (mainly through mobile phones). The downsides including overwork, productivity levels and work-family conflict are weighed up against the upsides such as greater ambition and work involvement.
  • Spatial boundaries are our ability to separate the places where we engage in work and home activities. With better connectivity and the ability to work from home, these boundaries have become a lot more porous. Even carrying a mobile phone with you after work hours, that instantly connects you to work email, is an example of expanding work into nonwork time and infringing on both temporal and spatial boundaries.
  • Relational boundaries refer to a person’s choice of whether to build friendships with work colleagues or keep these relationships strictly professional. This includes linking up with work people on social media sites – depending on the level of personal or professional self that is revealed on each platform. 

The increasing porousness of each of these boundaries requires greater levels of awareness, motivation and active management to navigate and curate multiple identities and life roles.

This constant management of online identities is referred to as ‘digital cultural capital’, which requires technical skill and is both time and effort-intensive. It also requires awareness of the impact of self-information disclosure on both personal relationships and professional reputation. 

Connectivity Decisions

The first challenge in managing digital cultural capital is connectivity decisions. Although some groups have little control over their connectivity decisions – often due to company cultural norms and expectations – most people have some control over their digital connectivity, which allows them to feel some element of digital control (rather than being controlled by their devices).

Some of the strategies that are used to manage connectivity are: keeping the phone out of easy reach or sight, managing notifications per app, decisions on how to be notified and when to check, and respond to, notifications. Some people leave work phones at work, in the boot of their car or turn them off when arriving home.

Online Self-preservation

The second challenge is online self-preservation management – i.e. monitoring how one appears in cyberspace – and includes both what is posted about yourself as well as what others post about you (with or without your permission). It requires constant surveillance and work to present a unified online presence, and has the potential to be perilous.

Whatever the online strategy used to manage an online profile, it requires everyday awareness, effort, skill and decision-making to consider the online content audience, as well as personal and professional impact.

Privacy Management

The third challenge is around privacy management. Technology amplifies the placement and blurring of boundaries between private and social life. There is debate amongst academics and lawyers as to whether online content is private or public and many questions are arising around privacy, visibility and surveillance.

Efforts by individuals to safeguard their personal information is a form of technology management and also require extensive energy and effort. 

Connectivity Management

Perspectives on connectivity vary across social groups.

Higher-income bracket individuals tend to limit their connectivity. They also attempt to transfer their digital cultural capital values and perspectives onto their children – encouraging a more active social life offline and spending time discussing digital deviant behaviour such as cyberbullying, risky behaviour such as compromising photo disclosure, and the need to switch off.

They tend to spend more time monitoring their children’s media use, helping them develop good digital habits and working on their privacy settings.

Read the original article here

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Working after hours

Contact with work after hours is linked to family conflict, distress and sleep issues

by Individual Differences and ImpactResearch
'Are communications about work outside regular working hours associated with work-to-family conflict, psychological distress and sleep problems?'
Extracts and summary of the research by: Scott Schieman and Marisa C. Young (2013)

Key quotes from the research:

  • ‘…work contact is associated with higher levels of work-to-family conflict, distress and sleep problems.’
  • ‘…simultaneous exposure to high pressure and contact [with work after hours] heightens arousal that , in turn, poses a greater threat to one’s sense of equilibrium, energy, and mental or physical resources that either one does on its own.’
  • ‘…job pressure might exacerbate the impact of work contact…[in] that both pressure and contact – as different but interrelated demands – draw on the same limited volitional resource…’

Summary of the research: 

Those who are in constant contact with work in private time are more likely to experience conflict with the family by reducing the level of finite time and energy workers have outside of work. Increased work engagement also increases psychological stress and exacerbates sleep issues.

 There are some caveats to this: 

  • Workers who have the ability to manage their workload, such as job control (i.e. flexibility as to when they get the work done) and autonomy (i.e. when and how they get their job done) are less impacted by work contact after hours
  • Those who have more challenging roles that are require the learning of new things, include creative elements, span a variety of different tasks and get to use their skills and abilities are less likely to experience family conflict, be stressed and have sleep issues 
  • In contrast, those whose roles are overwhelming and/or highly pressured intensifies the work contact after hours and exacerbates family contact and sleep problems. 

Having a highly pressurised job or one that is overwhelming is more likely to lead to greater levels of work contact after hours, which reduces the amount of time spent with others. Even that time with family is spent in a state of stress which also reduces the amount of recovery sleep received. 

Having a more rewarding role, that allows a worker the ability to work around other life commitments, and provides a level of personal growth and feeling valued is more likely to lead to lower levels of stress and better sleep, even if the worker has regular contact with work during private hours. 

Read the original article here

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Every increasing Boundary Blurring

The ever-increasing blurring of the boundary between work and home

by Work-Home Boundary Blurring

Prior to the introduction of the Blackberry at the turn of the century, generally for many, when we left the office, our work for the day was done. We spent limited time thinking about work and focussed on doing things we found enjoyable.

The Blackberry dramatically changed that. 

Initially, having a mobile email device massively improved productivity levels and meant we could be perceived by others as responsive, dedicated and engaged employees.

Then, rapid response times quickly escalated into a workplace norm. Those who didn’t answer an email within a few hours would include a form of apology for the response delay. Little actions like these, intended as a form of placation, indirectly stated to the reader that the sender had response time expectations much shorter than what they had taken to reply. 

The escalating perceived need to respond quickly to emails, messages and texts means that apps need to be left open throughout the day and kept an eye on throughout the evening. Not responding quickly can be perceived as showcasing a lack of commitment. For those desiring to switch off completely from work after hours, there is a potential fear of being left out or left behind, especially when many in the team are engaged in the ongoing conversation. 

Since the turn of the century, the psychological expectations around being an ‘effective worker’ have permanently shifted. Quicker responsive communication is now equated to higher perceived levels of productivity and efficiency as a worker. 

So, we’re at work and we work, and we’re at home and we work. We never really switch off. 

Research shows that those who operate like this are more likely to have:

  • Greater family and partner/spouse conflict.
  • Higher levels of stress and anxiety
  • Physical health issues (due to being constantly hyper-vigilant with lower quality and quantity of sleep)
  • Higher levels of cognitive exhaustion
  • Lower levels of overall productivity

We know that creating a strong physical and mental boundary between work life and home life is critical for cognitive and physical recovery from the demands of knowledge work. But, most people don’t have a strategy for separating out the two life realms, unless they make a cognitive effort to do so. 

And having a ‘strong boundary’ means knowing what type of work-life balance you prefer (or need) and making conscious choices around how to do that. For some, not checking work emails after 7pm or before 8am is what they need. For others, having the option of taking time out during the day from work, but allocating a few hours in the early morning or evening works best. It is about being clear with yourself and others about how you prefer to separate out, or integrate, your home and work life. It also means allowing yourself time to physically and mentally recover from the work you do. 

There is much being reported in the media (especially since March 2020) about work-life balance. But, every person has a different nuanced ideal of what that looks like for them. e.g. 

  • For one person, being able to decide their own working hours to get their work done is key
  • For another person, having chunks of work time that can be juggled around their home commitments works best in managing multiple responsibilities
  • For another, having a 6-8 hours stretch of work that allows them to shut off completely from work at a certain point in the day and not pick it up again until the following morning is the only way they can mentally and physically recover

We’re all different and work best with a level of flexibility and job control in order to get work done and maintain our own version of work-life balance. 

Our individual, bespoke needs and ability to segment or integrate our work and home life are important in reducing overall stress, anxiety and burnout. 

Most importantly, the key in this is actually developing an individual strategy, to manage and separate out the two life realms. For managers, it’s about recognising that others in the team may have a very different interpretation of what a good work-life balance is and finding ways to optimise it.

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Generational Differences

Are there generational differences in expectations of work technology use after hours?

by Individual Differences and ImpactResearch
'Technological Tethering, Digital Natives, and Challenges in the Work-Family Interface'.
Extracts and summary of the research by: Andrew D. Nevin and Scott Schieman (2020)

Key quotes from the research:

  • ‘…mobile technologies have facilitated the extension of traditional working hours, reflective of workers being “technologically tethered” to their jobs while at home so that they are more accessible than ever to their employers … constant connectivity has become normalised in today’s society and ingrained in organizational cultures by fostering unrealistic expectations of worker availability, which has contributed to current norms of excessive job contact, multitasking, and working overtime’.
  • ‘…the modern worker represents one who is technologically tethered, that is, restricted by traditional separations of physical work and home environments while being digitally available for job contact and monitoring at all times … through technology, fast-paced work demands are “no longer bound by time and space” and have begun to transcend fixed work schedules … often workers cannot choose to disconnect from their devices, which reduces their autonomy and ability to cope with work stress’.
  • ‘…widespread expectations have emerged about the ability of digital natives to better manage technology-based tasks in the workplace and to handle increasing communication demands via work extending technologies.’

Summary of the research: 

‘Digital Natives’, i.e. those who have grown up using technology on a daily basis, are thought to be better more digitally intelligent and have superior digital skills than older ‘Digital Immigrant’ workers. 

This stereotype has been popularised by the media, who showcase them as needing constant stimulation, being more tech-savvy and more likely to use tech to learn and communicate with others. This has led to the perception that they are more likely to adapt to workplace tech demands, better at multi-tasking and more likely to seek out tech-centric roles.

However, the analysis of this research concluded that there was no difference in the generations in terms of their ability to cope with workplace technology use after hours.

Structural ageism assumes that older workers are less able to adapt to newer technologies, however, this study refutes that sentiment and suggests this assumption instead leads to discriminatory experiences amongst digital immigrants and can lead to reduced productivity. 

The study showcases that neither digital natives nor digital immigrants are able to cope with their workplace tech-tethering, which is synonymous with the modern workplace. 

Digital Natives are not better at balancing their various life roles and are as likely to either cope or struggle with role multitasking and constant workplace connectivity. 

The study did confirm previous findings that women are more likely to experience higher levels of role conflict through after-hours work tech use.

It also confirmed that those in higher status roles were more likely to subscribe to the ‘ideal worker’ norms that encourage overwork, increase work hours and workplace technology use after hours. These workers need both a more individualised and a more active commitment to work-life balance strategies. 

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Productivity of Working Mothers

The paradox of perceived productivity in working parents

by Presence at Home and Family ImpactResearch
'The Paradox of Family Structure and Plans after Work: Why Single Childless Employees May Be the Least Absorbed at Work'.

Extracts and summary of the research by: Tracy L Dumas and Jill E. Perry-Smith (2018)

Key quotes from the research:

  • ‘single, childless workers reported lower absorption that workers with other family structures’
  • ‘anticipating domestic responsibilities after work reinforces, rather than distracts from, the work mindset, thus keeping employees more immersed psychologically in their work’

Summary of the research: 

Traditional workplace perceptions generally hold that being single is indicative of a person’s ability to be devoted to their work. Single people demonstrate this commitment by working longer hours. They additionally have less home-based distraction during and after working hours.

The same general perception is that those who are married and/or have children have family responsibilities that negatively impact devotion to work, productivity and work performance.

This research showcases the opposite to be a better reflection of reality. It found that parents are, in fact, more absorbed in their work during contracted office hours. 

  • Those who are married and/or have children tend to own their houses, take on cleaning and DIY tasks themselves and are more involved in domestic duties. These parents, when anticipating after-work chores, see their work as more fulfilling and compelling than the anticipated home-based (after-work) tasks. They tend, therefore, to be more absorbed in, focused on and productive while at work.
  • Single employees tend to engage in more leisure activities after work. These after-work activities may be more compelling than their work tasks. This may encourage their minds to wander away from the task at hand, reducing the tendency to be mentally absorbed in their work, and resulting in psychological detachment from work earlier in the day.  
  • Research by Hamilton and colleagues (2006) found that single and childless workers tended to experience greater levels of work-life conflict because of the expectation and pressures from work to be always available. This is because of the perception that they are unencumbered, and therefore always contactable. They also feel as though they do not get the support they would like from work when trying to build a non-work life. 
Read the original article here

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