Impact of COVID-19 ON WORKING WOMEN

By Dana Sumpter
Pepperdine University
&
Mona Zanhour
California State University, Long Beach

During the COVID-19 pandemic, working parents experienced an extreme disruption to their work and family roles. This inductive research studied the experiences of working mothers in the United States during this time, who worked at home with children at home with them. Captured through interviews with 54 working mothers, their experiences highlight several emergent themes that relate to and extend from extant understanding of how individuals and organizations responded to this cross-domain disruption. First, there was an entrenchment of ideal worker culture expectations, reinforced in the workplace, at home with male partners, and internalized within individuals. Second, what are typically considered “flexible” work practices (such as working from home or having flexible work hours) resulted in negative work and personal outcomes, such as overwork, increased stress, and decreased self-care. Third, employers responded differentially in how they supported or understood their employee challenges during this time, from which we identified certain practices as being more or less helpful for employee sustainability. Employers and managers were often unaware of the psychological pain experienced by their employees, and their care for and empathy to these conditions decreased over time during the pandemic. Finally, many individuals are considering making changes to their jobs or careers as a result of what they have experienced, as major changes to their work and family domains and roles have shifted their priorities, perception of fit with current employer or role, and vision of how a career pivot could enhance their work/life balance. When employers and managers cared less about the pain of their employees, these employees were paying attention, and are seeking to make changes as a result. These findings offer a qualitative investigation into the lives of working mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing insights into the challenges pushing mothers out of the workforce, and how this can related more broadly to other individuals of stigmatized groups.

Dana Sumpter received her Ph.D. from University of California Irvine. She is an associate professor of Organization Theory and Management at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business. Her research focuses on the intersection of relational behavior at work and managerial systems, with a particular focus on cross-cultural management. Secondarily, she studies gender and work/family issues in organizations. Formerly a Vice President of Human Resources at Citigroup, she draws from her travels, her work as an expatriate in Asia, and her research on international management in teaching graduate-level cross-cultural management and diversity.

Personal suffering in the workplace

By Ashley Hardin
Washington University in St. Louis

Becoming aware of personal suffering in the workplace is inherently relational and subsequently challenging, but necessary in order for compassion to unfold. To investigate this process, we draw on four distinct qualitative datasets, gaining the perspective of 250 individuals across 298 instances of personal suffering, both individual and widespread. By examining this pervasive human process, we uncovered insights from our data regarding four particular aspects of the relational process of surfacing personal suffering. First, we detail what it means to become aware of another’s suffering at work. Second, we reveal how individuals initially think about their own receptivity towards engaging around the topic of suffering at work. Third, we unpack the moves individuals make to signal their position with others and then examine how these moves come together through interaction, leading to mutual boundary adaptation. Finally, we explore the impact this process has on these individuals going forward. In uncovering the intricacies of this process, we develop an elaborated, relational view of surfacing suffering at work, which has implications for compassion at work, self-disclosure, and boundary management work.

Ashley Hardin received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Washington University’s Olin Business School, where she investigates interpersonal processes in organizations and how these processes are influenced by aspects of people’s non-work lives spilling into the workplace. Prior to pursuing her PhD and joining Olin, she worked as a Senior Associate Consultant for Bain & Company and the Bridgespan Group.