Why Women Teleworkers Experience More Work-to-Family Conflict than Men: The Mediating Role of Overtime Expectations

The adoption of teleworking, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has sparked debate about its impact on work and family conflict (WFC). This study explores when and why teleworkers experience greater WFC.  Specifically, we argue that teleworking frequency indirectly predicts higher work-to-family conflict for women but not for men via overtime expectations.  We hypothesize that women who telework more experience more work demands in the form of expectations to work overtime, leading to higher WFC. Results from a multilevel multigroup analysis of a sample of 5,511 employees across 22 European countries showed that there were no gender differences in the direct effect of teleworking frequency on WFC, with people teleworking more frequently reporting more WFC. However,  expectations to work overtime mediated the relationship between teleworking and WFC for women but not for men. Specifically, women reported being asked to work overtime more often than men which partially explained the association teleworking and WFC. Further, having children living at home moderated the relationship between teleworking frequency and expectations to work overtime for women but not for men, so that their association was positive only for women with no children. Findings offer practical implications for organizations seeking gender-equal remote work policies.