Gender, work–home conflict, and morbidity amongst white-collar bank employees in the United Kingdom

Most research on work–home conflict focuses solely on women. This study compares men and women’s perceptions of the extent to which paid work interferes with family life, and examines associations between work–home conflict and health. Data were collected from 2,176 full-time white-collar employees of a British bank. We did not find any significant gender differences in perceptions of work–home conflict. However, predictors of work–home conflict did vary by gender; having children and being in a senior position were more strongly related to work–home conflict for women than for men, while working unsociable hours was more important for men than for women. Work–home conflict was strongly associated with reporting fair or poor self-assessed health, a high number of reported physical symptoms and minor psychological morbidity (GHQ-12). These associations were equally strong for men and women. Our results suggest that work–home conflict is a problem for men as well as women