The Benefit of Bad Economies: Business Cycles and Time-Based Work-Life Conflict
Abstract
Recent management research has indicated the importance of family, sleep, and recreation as important non-work activities of employees. Drawing from entrainment theory, we develop an expanded model of work-life conflict to contend that macro-level business cycles will influences the amount of time employees spent on both work and non-work activities. Focusing solely on those who are employed, we examine a large nationally representative data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We find that during economic booms, employees work more, and therefore spend less time with family, sleeping, and recreating. In contrast, in weak economies, employees spend less time working, and therefore spend more time sleeping, with family, and recreating. Thus, we extend theory on time-based work-to-family conflict, showing that there are benefits to weak economies.