Working from home and work-related well-being: The role of work-family balance
Using 2024 microdata from four European countries, this study reveals that telework's impact on well-being is significantly gendered, with fathers experiencing higher burnout while women benefit from reduced exhaustion and increased engagement, particularly in dual-teleworking households, largely mediated by improved work-family balance.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
For decades, the modern workplace has operated on a simple, rigid assumption: to get work done, you must leave your home. The commute was the price of admission, a daily ritual that physically separated the professional self from the domestic one. But as the pandemic forced millions into their living rooms, that boundary dissolved. Suddenly, the kitchen table became a desk, and the school run happened between conference calls. This shift promised a new kind of freedom, a way to blend the demands of a career with the needs of a family. Yet, as the dust settled and remote work became a permanent fixture rather than an emergency measure, a more complex picture emerged. The question is no longer just whether people can work from home, but whether they are actually better off doing so. The answer depends heavily on who is doing the working, who is at home with them, and how the invisible labor of running a household is shared.
Researchers Fabrizio Méndez-Rivero and Martina Querejeta set out to untangle this knot, looking beyond the individual worker to see how the entire household functions. They gathered data from nearly 4,400 workers across Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, capturing a snapshot of life in 2024, a time when working from home had become a voluntary, settled habit rather than a crisis response. Their goal was to measure two specific things: how exhausted people felt at the end of the day, and how engaged or energized they felt while working. Crucially, they did not look at these workers in isolation. Instead, they examined the partner's situation, asking whether the spouse or partner was also working remotely or if they were still commuting to an office. They also measured something called work-family balance, which is simply the feeling of having enough control to manage both professional duties and home life without one constantly bleeding into the other.
The results reveal a story of sharp division, where the experience of working from home is almost entirely different for men and women. For men, particularly those with children, the data suggests that working from home often makes things harder, not easier. When men telework, they report higher levels of burnout, a state of deep mental and physical exhaustion. This effect is most intense for fathers whose partners are still working in an office. In these households, the man working from home does not seem to gain any extra energy or enthusiasm for his job; instead, he appears to feel more drained. The research indicates that for these men, the flexibility of remote work does not translate into a better balance between their job and their family life. The boundaries between work and home seem to blur in a way that increases stress rather than reducing it.
The picture for women is more nuanced but generally more positive, provided a specific condition is met. When women work from home, they report feeling less exhausted, a relief that comes from saving the time and energy of a daily commute. However, this benefit is not automatic. The most significant gains in well-being occur when both partners in a household work from home. In these "dual-teleworking" households, women show a substantial increase in their engagement with their work; they feel more dedicated, energetic, and absorbed in their tasks. The researchers found that this improvement is largely driven by a better sense of balance. When both partners are at home, the household seems to reorganize itself, allowing for a more equitable sharing of domestic duties and a clearer management of the line between work and family.
The study explicitly challenges the idea that working from home is a one-size-fits-all solution that benefits everyone equally. It argues that the well-being effects of remote work are not just about the individual's schedule or their job title, but are deeply embedded in the dynamics of the couple. For men, the presence of a partner working in an office while they are at home appears to create a specific pressure that leads to higher burnout, a feeling that is not explained by a lack of work-family balance but perhaps by other unmeasured pressures. For women, the arrangement is transformative only when the partner is also present at home. If a woman works from home while her partner goes to an office, she gains some relief from exhaustion, but she does not see the same boost in engagement or the same improvement in her overall sense of balance. In these asymmetric households, the traditional division of labor often remains intact, meaning the woman at home still bears the brunt of domestic responsibilities, limiting the potential benefits of the flexible schedule.
Ultimately, the research suggests that the success of working from home is less about the technology or the office building and more about the people sharing the space. The data shows that when both partners work remotely, they create a unique environment where the demands of work and family can be negotiated together, leading to better outcomes for women. When the arrangements are mixed, with one person at home and one at the office, the benefits are uneven and often come with hidden costs. The study does not claim that remote work is a perfect solution, but it does provide a clear map of where it works and where it fails. It highlights that for the promise of remote work to be fully realized, it requires a shift in how households operate, moving away from the assumption that one person's flexibility is independent of the other's. The findings suggest that the future of work will depend not just on where we sit, but on how we share the space and the responsibilities that come with it.
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