Are you a single professional without children? At work, is there an expectation—whether explicit or unspoken—that you can work longer hours compared to your married colleagues who are parents just because you have no children yourself? On a more positive note, do you enjoy the freedom and flexibility of being single, allowing you to engage in hobbies or to occasionally file a leave of absence to travel domestically or abroad?
In this article, I present highlights of the work of my doctoral mentee Jelica ‘Jel’ Enriquez who successfully defended her dissertation towards the end of 2024. In her dissertation “All Work and No Play? Perspective of Single Professionals without Dependent Children on Work-Life Balance in the Contemporary Workplace: A Multiple Case Study,” she talked about how single professionals strive to attain work-life balance by either integrating or segmenting their professional and personal domains.
Jel’s work is especially relevant because it captures the voice of single professionals whose perspectives on work-life balance are underrepresented in academic literature, which mostly dwelled on the concerns of married employees with dependent children. It is no surprise that work-life balance policies and programs in many organizations are designed in favor of married employees (e.g., family day, maternity and paternity leaves, scholarships for children of employees) and largely neglect the unique challenges of single professionals, whose notion of work-life balance might differ compared to their married colleagues.
Jel’s dissertation was informed by boundary management theory, which suggests that individuals deliberately create, maintain, and negotiate boundaries that separate their work (professional) and non-work (personal) domains. The degree of integration or separation of these domains is primarily determined depending on whether boundaries are rigid and impermeable or flexible and permeable.
Permeability pertains to the degree to which a person can fulfill a certain role in one domain while occupying the space associated with another domain (Clark, 2000). For example, if an employee booked a flight to Boracay during work hours, this signifies a permeable border because being in the work domain does not preclude non-work activities. Psychological permeability, also known as spillover, refers to a situation during which an individual’s emotions, worries, and attitudes have the tendency to transfer across domains (e.g., an employee is compelled to check her emails even during the Christmas holidays because she could not keep herself from worrying about work-related concerns.
Flexibility, on the other hand, is the degree to which a border might tighten or expand based on the demands imposed by the work and non-work domains (Clark, 2000). For instance, an employee who is allowed to leave the office two hours earlier than usual to accompany his mother to the hospital enjoys a certain degree of work flexibility.
In Jel’s dissertation, some single professionals prefer integrating their professional and personal domains. Pam, one of the study’s respondents, appreciates the flexibility of working from home. “Sometimes, in the afternoon, when it’s my downtime,” she said, “I do some chores like buying groceries that we need at home.” Erin, who also works from home, does her laundry while attending online meetings.
For other single professionals, however, the absence of clear boundaries can be dysfunctional. Jim, for example, reported how he always thinks about work-related matters, even during dinner break and or even when taking a bath. Angela, on other hand, shared that “sometimes, I dream of my problem tickets.”
Other respondents, however, prefer to clearly segment their professional and personal domains. Pam, for example, refrains from divulging excessive information about her personal life to her work colleagues. “For example, a fight that I had with my mom is not something that I would share with them.” Dwight, on the other hand, does not discuss work-related stuff with his family. “My father does not need to know that I’m struggling with a project, right?” In the case of Meredith, she can focus on the current role or task at hand. “When I am in the company, I think about my work. When I am in school, I think about school. When I am travelling, I think about my travel.”
At this point, it is left to the individual to weigh the costs and benefits of having less rigid and permeable work borders. Might you be one of those who prefer the traditional set-up where work and non-work boundaries are clear? Or do you prefer flexible work arrangements that enable you to work and play hard at the same time?
Raymund B. Habaradas is a full professor at the Department of Management and Organization of De La Salle University (DLSU). He can be reached at rbhabaradas@yahoo.com
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The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
