The Paradox of Time: Work, Family, Conflict, and the Social Construction of Time

ABSTRACT

Today’s employees work longer hours and face constraints from nonstandard, rotating, or unpredictable schedules. Even when they are home, employees are often tethered to their jobs by technology and expected to be available. Higher demands on an employee’s time can lead to burnout and greater job-related stress, impacting work-family conflict. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we analyze how women in dual-income heterosexual partnerships make sense of and manage their family relationships in light of the competition between work-imposed demands and family time. Our study shows how women attempt to control their time by setting boundaries, scheduling, and allowing work and family time to blur as a way to address hectic work and family lives; however, this is often not successful, leading to paradoxical outcomes, particularly for those with children. Nevertheless, our participants make their limited time meaningful as a source of connection within their relational lives by ritualizing meals, accomplishing tasks, and sharing space. This study extends our theorizing on how work and family demands shape perceptions and meanings of the structure of time.

Acknowledgments

This paper is the product of a larger collaborative mixed methods project entitled, Work, Family, and Relationships. The authors wish to thank Boris Baltes (Wayne State University) for feedback on the paper, and Jamie Cobb (Wayne State University) for her time and meticulous details on managing the data.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Krista M. Brumley

Krista M. Brumley, PhD, is an associate professor of sociology at Wayne State University. Her research focuses on gender, work-family conflict, and work organizations. Dr. Brumley’s work has been published in journals such as Gender & Society, Sociological Spectrum, Community, Work, and Family, Sociological Inquiry, and Gender, Work, and Organization.

Katheryn Maguire

Katheryn Maguire, PhD, is a professor of communication at Wayne State University. Her research centers on relational and family communication, stress and coping, work-family conflict, long distance relating, and relationship maintenance. Dr. Maguire’s work has been published in journals such as Journal of Applied Communication, Communication Monographs, Communication Quarterly, and the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. She is the author of Stress and Coping in Families. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Shirin Montazer

Shirin Montazer, PhD, is an associate professor of sociology at Wayne State University. Her research focuses on sociology of mental health, work-family conflict, and immigration. Dr. Montazer’s work has been published in journals such as Society and Mental Health, Social Science Research, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Social Currents.