Abstract

This paper presents a 10-day diary study of psychological and relational costs of working from home for individuals in live-in partnerships when both partners work from home (WFH). As employees rely on the permeability afforded by information and communication technologies (ICTs) to coordinate work, family responsibilities, and interactions with each other, they experience heightened after-work frustration due to blurring of the boundary between work and family roles and strain on their cognitive and emotional resources. We integrate boundary theory and ego depletion theory (EDT), developing and testing a framework centered on after-work family role frustration in the WFH context. Our theoretical framework posits that the extent of work-to-family ICT permeability in WFH situations is positively associated with levels of after-work frustration. This frustration affects job productivity and can lead to potential conflict between partners. Given recent WFH-related findings showing that women bear a greater proportion of domestic responsibilities while also meeting job demands, we also examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between ICT permeability and after-work frustration. Additionally, we investigate the mitigating role of planning behavior in interrupting the cycle of ICT permeability and frustration. Our findings strongly support the proposed model, providing empirical evidence of the psychological costs of working from home and the effectiveness of planning as a mitigation strategy. Our study makes a significant theoretical contribution by illuminating the relationships among ICT permeability, after-work frustration, and work-family dynamics. This research extends the literature on the WFH phenomenon enabled by advanced ICTs such as email, text messaging, mobile phones, and remote meeting apps (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet). It provides critical insights for research on the future of work surrounding the well-being aspects of WFH. Practically, our findings offer actionable insights for individuals and organizations, helping them recognize and mitigate the psychological costs of working from home while better managing work-family boundaries to improve overall well-being.

DOI

10.17705/1jais.00964

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