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Improving Work-Life Fit in Hourly Jobs
The Center for WorkLife Law
Train supervisors and managers
Many studies document the importance of
supervisor support in helping employees balance
work and family. (Hammer, Kossek, Yragui, Bodner
& Hanson 2009) The sociological literature shows
that employers can engender tremendous loyalty
when employees feel their supervisor is supportive
of their need to balance family responsibilities with
work responsibilities. Kim, a cocktail waitress and
mother of two young children, described why she
stayed at a job with no benefits that paid just $7/
hour plus tips, because of her supervisor:
I couldn't ask for anybody better as far as,
I mean, that's why I'm still there. I have no
medical benefits, I have no paid vacations,
I have no sick days or anything like that.
But there's not too many jobs out there
that are so lenient, either...I could call him
up and say, "John, I'm just exhausted, I'm
tired. I didn't sleep very well last night. I'm
going to be an hour late." "OK, well just
don't crash on your way here"...he's great.
And he's done the kid thing you know,
and he's older. I mean, he understands.
(Weigt 2008, p. 636)
Another woman, Maria, described how grateful she
was to a supervisor who let her switch her hours to
daytime from evenings, so she could pick up her son
from day care at 5:30 p.m.: "My manager, she's real
cool about everything. You know, you just have to
tell her what you need and whatever...she respects
a lot of us, you know?... But she's always like, `You
know your family comes first. You have to take care
of them first.'" (Henly, Shaefer & Waxman 2006,
p. 626). A supervisor explained her employees
were flexible with her because she was flexible with
them. "They are the best. They would do anything
I ask within reason. They've proven it, people need
time off for family matters and they can get it,
no questions," said a 33-year-old shop supervisor.
(Perry-Jenkins, Bourne & Meteyer 2007b)
In this context, it is surprising that only 36% of
employers offer work-life training to managers of
hourly workers, according to one study. (Litchfield,
Swanberg & Sigworth 2004) More recent work
has identified the specific types of supervisor
behaviors that help the most. Creative work-family
management is pro-active, and involves redesigning
jobs to improve work-life fit. Instrumental support
is reactive, and concerns a supervisor's routine
reactions in handling employees' day-to-day work-
family conflicts. Emotional support involves having
supervisors make sure their reports feel comfortable
talking to them about work-family conflicts, taking
the time to find out their reports' family and
personal commitments, talking with one's reports,
and responding with sympathy and understanding
when work-family conflicts arise. (Hammer, Yragui,
Bodner & Hanson 2008; Hammer, Kossek, Yragui,
Bodner & Hanson 2009)
Leslie Hammer and Ellen Kossek developed a
supervisor training based on this model, and ran
small sessions in grocery stores on how to plan
coverage and cope with employees' scheduling
conflicts. (Hammer 2010) One study found that
employees of the trained supervisors were less likely
to state their intention to seek a job elsewhere, and
were more willing to comply with safety programs.
(Kossek & Hammer 2008)
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Employees with high
levels of work-family conflict felt less stress and had
better physical health. (Hammer, Kossek, Anger,
Bodner & Zimmerman in press)
The training program offered that produced these
results consisted of a one-time self-paced 30 to 40-
minute computer training followed by a 75-minute
"My managers are going to call
me or send me an email or instant
message me. Why do I need to be
in the office? It doesn't matter if I'm
here or at home."