Work-Life Conflict in Canada in the New Millennium

Chapter Three

Role Overload: A Primer

This Chapter provides a primer for interested readers on one of the four forms of work-life conflict examined in the 2001 Balancing Work, Family and Lifestyle National Study - role overload. The chapter begins by defining role overload and quantifying its prevalence in Canada at this time. The chapter then goes on to identify the demographic and organizational factors that place employees at risk with respect to role overload, articulate the consequences of high levels of role overload on employers, employees, families and Canadian society and look at how this form of work-life conflict can best be reduced.

Definition

Role overload can be defined quite simply as having too much to do and not enough time in which to do it. It is feeling rushed and time-crunched, feeling physically and emotionally exhausted and drained, and not having enough time for oneself. Academically, role overload is defined as the perceptual aspect of feeling overwhelmed, overloaded or stressed by the pressures of multiple roles.

Prevalence

A majority of the Canadians working at larger firms are overloaded

High levels of role overload have become systemic within the population of employees working for Canada's largest employers. In our 2001 survey of over 30,000 Canadians, we found that the majority of survey respondents (58%) reported high levels of role overload. Another 30% reported moderate levels while only 12% reported low levels.

The percentage of the workforce with high role overload has increased over time

Fifty-eight percent of the respondents to the 2001 survey report high levels of role overload - an increase of 11% compared to what was observed in the 1991 sample. This increase in role overload is consistent with the fact that employees in the 2001 sample spent more time in workrelated activities per week than their counterparts in the 1991 sample. Other data from the 2001 survey suggest that much of this increase in role overload can be linked to new information and communication technology, organizational norms that still reward long hours at the office rather than performance, and organizational anorexia (downsizing has meant there are too few employees to do the work).

Who is at risk with respect to role overload?

The following key conclusions about the occurrence of role overload can be drawn from this study.

Work culture is the key determinant of role overload for both men and women

Work culture is a powerful predictor of role. In fact, the unwritten rules, norms and expectations placed on an employee by the organization in which he or she works (i.e. organizational culture) is a better predictor of role overload than objective circumstances at work (i.e. job type, position), circumstances at home (i.e. family type, life-cycle stage) or the actual amount of time spent in work or family roles. For both men and women, the single most important aspect of work culture with respect to the prediction of role overload was the extent to which the employee believed the organization promoted a culture that was supportive of work-life balance (supportive cultures serve a protective function, as the more supportive the environment, the lower the levels of role overload reported). Two other types of cultures prove to be predictive of role overload: a culture of hours and a culture of work or family. With respect to the culture of hours, employees who perceive that it is not acceptable for them to say no to more work, and that an inability to work long hours would limit their career advancement, are more likely to report higher levels of role overload regardless of their gender. Working for an organization that promotes a culture of work or family (i.e. one in which employees feel they have to choose between their family and career advancement, and that family responsibilities and taking family leave limit advancement) is also linked to higher role overload, perhaps because employees in such circumstances try to do it all. There are no gender differences in these findings. Organizational cultures that are non-supportive of balance, that emphasize hours and being present, and link career advancement to putting work first, are linked to increased role overload for both men and women.

Role overload goes 'hand in hand' with increased work demands

Work demands are strongly associated with role overload. Our analysis determined that the most important determinants of role overload for both men and women include the amount of time spent in unpaid overtime a month (the most important predictor of role overload for both men and women) and the total number of hours spent in work per week (second most important predictor of overload for men, fourth most important predictor for women). For the men in the sample, other key predictors of role overload included whether or not they had to supervise the work of others, and the number of hours per week spent in supplemental work at home. For the women in the sample, on the other hand, role overload increased dramatically with the amount of time spent in job-related travel (i.e. hours per week spent commuting to and from work, weekend nights away from home per month on business, week nights away from home per month on business). Taken together, these findings indicate that the relationship between role overload and work demands has a slightly different root cause for men than women.

Role overload is more about work demands than non-work demands

Role overload is more about demands generated from the work domain than from the non-work domain. The relationship between non-work demands and role overload, while statistically significant, is not substantial and is overshadowed by the relationship observed between work demands and role overload.

An employee's demographic circumstances are not a good predictor of the amount of role overload they are likely to face

Analysis of the 2001 data is unequivocal: objective facts about an employee's family, community or work situation do not tell us much about the amount of role overload that person is likely to face. This finding challenges many of the assumptions made with respect to the risk factors of role overload (e.g. that mothers are more overloaded).

The key predictors of role overload hold across gender

With relatively few exceptions, the key predictors of role overload hold across gender. There are, however, two important caveats to this conclusion. First, we are able to explain slightly more of the variation in role overload levels of women by knowing about their life circumstances than we are of men. Second, for men it appears that the amount of support they receive (or do not receive) from their spouses has very little impact on the levels of role overload they will experience (i.e. fathers in traditional families and single-parent fathers have the same levels of overload as fathers in dual-income families and men in dual-income families with elderly dependents).

For women, on the other hand, having a spouse who stays at home to look after the children (women in non-traditional families) is predictive of lower levels of role overload.

What are the consequences of high levels of role overload?

Just under 60% of the respondents to the 2001 survey reported high levels of role overload. What impact do these high levels of role overload have on employers, employees, families and Canadian society? Answers to these questions are summarized below.

What is the impact of high levels of role overload on Canadian organizations?

Compared to their counterparts with low levels of role overload, employees with high role overload were:

• 5.6 times more likely to report high levels of job stress,
• 3.5 times more likely to have high levels of absenteeism due to physical, mental or emotional fatigue,
• 2.4 times more likely to miss work due to child care problems,
• 2.3 times more likely to report high intent to turnover, and
• 1.6 times more likely to have high levels of absenteeism all factors considered, and to miss three or more days of work in the past six months due to ill health.

Details on each of these key findings are given below.

Onerous work expectations reduce employees' level of job satisfaction.

As noted above, overloaded employees are half as likely as those with lower levels of overload to be satisfied with their jobs. More detailed examination of the data helps us to understand these findings. This analysis determined that, when compared to their counterparts with low levels of role overload, employees with high role overload were:

• 2.4 times more likely to be dissatisfied with their workloads,
• 1.8 times more likely to be dissatisfied with the number of hours they work,
• 1.6 times more likely to be dissatisfied with their ability to meet their career goals and their opportunities for career development, and
• 1.4 times more likely to be dissatisfied with their work schedules.

Role overload negatively impacts an organization's ability to recruit and retain employees

Employees with high levels of role overload were 2.3 times more likely to be thinking of leaving their organization. Again, closer examination of the data helps us understand why this might be the case. Compared to those with low role overload, employees with high role overload were:

• 12.5 times more likely to say they would leave because expectations were unrealistic,
• 4.7 times more likely to say they would leave because they wanted more time for their family and/or themselves,
• 3.5 times more likely to say they would leave because they were frustrated with their work environment and because their work environment was non-supportive,
• 3.0 times more likely to say they would leave because their values were not the same as their organization, and
• 2.6 times more likely to say they would leave because they perceived that they were not recognized for their efforts.

In other words, overloaded employees were more likely to say they would leave to escape unrealistic workloads, frustrations at work, and to gain more balance and time. When taken in concert, these data suggest that role overload may negatively impact an organization's ability to recruit, retain and motivate highly qualified employees - factors which will all show up on their bottom line.

Cost of absenteeism due to high role overload is almost $3 billion dollars per year

Absence from work is strongly linked to role overload. Employees with high role overload missed 8.8 days of work per year in 2001 while those with low role overload missed only 5.6 days. The direct costs of absenteeism due to high role overload were calculated to be approximately $3 billion per year. Conservative direct and indirect costs of absenteeism due to role overload were estimated to be between $4.5 to $6 billion per year (see Report Three). Other calculations indicate that employers could reduce absenteeism in their organizations by 23% if they eliminated high levels of role overload.

Overload negatively impacts the organization's bottom line

Employees who have high role overload are less committed to their organization, report higher work stress, are less satisfied with their jobs (due largely to dissatisfaction with workloads, hours worked and work schedules), are more likely to be absent from work (due largely to physical and mental health problems), are more likely to be thinking of leaving the organization (to escape frustrating and non-supportive work environments and to get more time for themselves and more recognition for their efforts), and have a less favourable view of their employer. In other words, organizations that have a higher proportion of their workforce with high levels of this form of work-life conflict are likely to have difficulties recruiting and retaining employees and to face increased costs associated with poor physical and mental health (i.e. greater absenteeism, higher prescription drug costs, increased EAP use).

These findings suggest that the downsizing strategies followed by many employers throughout the 80s and 90s and the concomitant increase in employee workloads (noted in Chapter Two) have backfired. The data reviewed in this study indicate that the savings in payroll costs (i.e. salary and benefit dollars) obtained through downsizing may be offset by substantial increases in dollars lost due to higher absenteeism for the 'survivors'. It would appear that employers who consistently overload their employees pay a price (whether they recognize this or not), and the costs associated with this strategy are substantial and affect their bottom line. These costs include:

• $3 to $6 billion per year in absenteeism costs alone,
• difficulties recruiting and retaining employees, and
• costs associated with poorer physical and mental health (i.e. greater absenteeism, higher prescription drug costs, greater EAP use).

What is the impact of high levels of role overload on Canadian employees?

Compared to their counterparts with low role overload, employees with high role overload were:

• 12 times more likely to report high levels of burnout,
• 3.5 times more likely to report high levels of perceived stress,
• 3.4 times more likely to report high levels of depressed mood,
• half as likely to report high levels of life satisfaction, and
• 3.1 times more likely to report that they were in poor physical health.

In other words, role overload is positively associated with high stress, high burnout, and high depressed mood and negatively associated with life satisfaction and perceived physical health.

Assuming that this is an accurate portrayal of Canadian employees' actual physical and mental health status we can anticipate that overloaded employees will be more likely to use prescription drugs, take advantage of their employer's benefit plan, be absent from work, and be more likely to seek help from Canada's health care system. In other words, high levels of work-life conflict are likely to have a negative impact on employers' bottom lines and increase demands on Canada's health care system.

The 2001 survey data indicate that the physical and mental health of employed Canadians would be significantly improved if organizations reduced the levels of role overload in their workforce. The data on the key predictors of role overload reviewed earlier suggest that employers could do this by making work demands more manageable (i.e. hire more staff, reduce travel demands, put limits on the use of technology to support after-hours work) and changing their culture to one that recognized and rewarded results rather than hours at work. The findings with respect to burnout point to the fact that the long hours that employees are devoting to paid employment (and that are expected by many employers) are not sustainable over time.

What is the impact of high levels of role overload on Canadian families?

Role overload has a negative impact on Canadian families. The 2001 survey data determined that employees with high levels of role overload were less satisfied with their family life and their ability to parent, were less likely to feel that their families were well (i.e. report lower family adaptation), were less likely to feel that their families were stable and worked together, and were more likely to be concerned about the well-being of their family. The extent to which role overload impacts family function can be appreciated by noting that employees with low role overload were 1.4 times more likely than their counterparts with high role overload to report high levels of family life and parental satisfaction and family integration, and twice as likely to perceive high levels of family adaptation. Family adaptation occurs when family members use their capabilities to reduce the demands of a situation, promote the individual development of members, and achieve a sense of congruency in family functioning. Families high in adaptation have a general sense of physical and psychological family health that is referred to as family well-being. It would appear from this research that employees who are rushed and exhausted (largely due to their heavier work demands) do not have the time to enjoy their family lives or engage in activities to enhance their family experiences.

What is the impact of high levels of role overload on Canadian society?

To answer this question we looked at the impact of role overload on the use of Canada's health care system and the decision to have children.

Overloaded employees make greater use of Canada's health care system - especially services linked to mental health care

The findings from this body of research are unequivocal: employees with high levels of role overload made greater use of Canada's health care system than those with low levels of role overload. Consider the following: compared to their counterparts with low levels of role overload, employees with high levels of role overload were:

• 2.6 times more likely to have sought care from a mental health professional,
• 2.4 times more likely to have received care on an outpatient basis three or more times,
• 1.8 times more likely to have seen a physician three or more times,
• 1.6 times more likely to have sought care from another type of medical provider four or more times,
• 1.5 times more likely to have had to spend at least one night in the hospital, and
• 1.4 times more likely to have visited a hospital emergency room.

Employees with lower levels of role overload, on the other hand, were 1.3 times less likely to visit their physician in the past six months, and made the lowest use of all of the dimensions of health care examined in this report.

Taken together, these data support our contention that the health of Canadians (especially their mental health) would improve if overload could be reduced. These data also provide a further incentive for governments and policy-makers to focus on reducing role overload in our population: lowering demands on Canada's health care system. Such a reduction would require both organizations and governments to address the issue of workloads and the use of office technology, and to support employees with child care and elder care demands.

One way to reduce demands on family physicians is to tackle role overload

Employees with high role overload made an average of 1.74 visits to a physician in a six-month period, while those with low role overload made only 1.11 visits. In other words, the relative risk of physician visits associated with high role overload is 1.58. The direct cost of physician visits due to high role overload was calculated in Report Three to be approximately $1.8 billion per year. These calculations also determined that visits per year to the family physician could be reduced by approximately 25% if the percentage of the population experiencing high levels of role overload could be reduced. In other words, strategies to reduce role overload should help Canada deal with its current physician shortage.

High role overload increases the costs associated with inpatient hospital care by close to $4 billion per year

As noted previously, there is a strong positive association between role overload and the need for inpatient hospital care. In Report Three we calculated that the number of days spent in the hospital that can be attributed to high role overload cost Canadian tax payers just under $4 billion per year. Furthermore, the data indicate that the number of days spent in hospital could be reduced by approximately 17% if role overload could be reduced. Such a strategy would likely reduce the problems many hospitals have with respect to non-availability of beds.

Emergency department visits could be reduced by 23% if high levels of role overload could be dropped

Employees with high levels of role overload are 1.5 times more likely to seek care at a hospital's emergency department than their counterparts with low role overload. This increased use of the hospital's emergency department costs the health care system approximately $250 million per year. Emergency department visits could be reduced by 23% if high levels of role overload could be reduced. Such actions could substantially reduce wait times at hospitals and demands on health care personnel.

Overloaded employees spend more on prescription drugs

Employees with high levels of role overload spend an average of $93 every six months (or $186 per year) on prescription drugs. This is significantly higher than the $75 in six months ($150 per year) spent by those with moderate levels of role overload and the $69 in six months ($138 per year) spent by those with low role overload. Extrapolation of these data suggest that companies who pay for 100% of their employees' prescription drug expenditures (80% of the companies in the 2001 sample) could save an average of $36 per employee per year if they reduced role overload levels from high to moderate levels, and they could save almost $50 per employee per year if they could further reduce levels from moderate to low level.

The relative risk data can be used to make a similar case. Employees with low levels of role overload were 1.3 times more likely to have spent nothing on prescription drugs in the six months prior to the study being done than were employees with high levels of role overload. Employees with high levels of role overload, on the other hand, were almost twice as likely as those with low role overload to have spent $150 or more in a six-month period on medications. These data reinforce our conclusion that there are significant bottom line costs to overworking employees - increased benefit expenditures.

Strategies to reduce role overload will also alleviate demands on Canada's health care system

What is the link between high work-life conflict and demands on the health care system? Could we reduce system demands if we could reduce role overload? The data reviewed in this study support a resounding yes! By implementing workplace and population health strategies targeted at reducing role overload, Canada would likely reduce the problems many hospitals have with respect to available beds, substantially reduce wait times at hospitals and demands on health care personnel.

These data also indicate that employers who overwork their employees (i.e. place a high reliance on unpaid overtime) will pay a price - increased benefit expenditures. Companies who focus on reducing role overload would reap a number of benefits to their bottom line including reduced absenteeism and lower benefit costs.

These findings support our contention that the downsizing strategies implemented by many employers throughout the 80s and 90s and the concomitant increase in employee workloads have backfired. The data reviewed in this study indicate that the savings in payroll (i.e. salary and benefit dollars) realized by corporations and public sector employers through downsizing may be offset by substantial increases in costs to the heath care system. It would appear that work-life conflict is not only a moral issue - it is a productivity and economic issue, a workplace issue and a social issue, and it needs to be addressed as such.

Fertility decreases as overload increases

This study implies that some of the decline in Canada's birth rate may be attributed to the increases in role overload and workloads that we have seen over the course of the past several decades. We found a very strong, positive association between role overload and the decision to have fewer children because of work demands, and the decision to delay having children or not to have children because of career demands and role overload. This makes intuitive sense - why would overloaded individuals decide to add another set of demands to their already full plates? Children, as we all know, and as the data confirm, increase the number of role demands on their parents.

The female managers and professionals in the sample who were overloaded were more likely than other groups of employees to agree that they had decided to have fewer children, delay starting a family and/or to forgo motherhood altogether. These findings suggest that one way for Canada to address declining fertility levels is to reduce role overload. This can be done by decreasing expectations at the work end, and/or by providing supports within the community that reduce demands at the parenting end. It is important to note that employees who are overloaded by elder care demands are also more likely to elect not to have children. This indicates that it is not just support for parenting that is required to alleviate role overload and increase Canada's birth rate. Employees also need support in the community to help them with elder care demands.

What can we do to reduce role overload?

What can employers, employees and their families do to help reduce the percent of the population at risk of high role overload? Answers to these questions are summarized below. Things that can be done by employers are addressed first. This is followed by strategies that can be employed by employees and their families.

Employers who want to reduce role overload need to increase perceived flexibility

What can organizations do to help employees cope with role overload? The answer from this study is quite clear - increase the amount of flexibility and control that employees perceive that they have over their work hours. The data from the 2001 study show that two forms of flexibility in particular seem to be fundamental to the ability to cope with role overload: the ability to arrange one's work schedule to meet personal or family commitments, and the ability to interrupt one's workday to deal with a personal or family matter and then return to work.

What makes these forms of flexibility so effective? While it is impossible to say for certain from the survey data collected in this study, it can be observed that both of these forms of flexibility increase an employee's ability to deal with family or personal issues (both scheduled and unanticipated) during work hours. In other words, they give employees more control over their work-life balance. Researchers such as Karasek (1979) have shown that increased levels of control are important to helping employees deal with high demands.

The importance of increasing perceived flexibility within the organization, as a strategy to reduce role overload, is further illustrated by the fact that all employees, regardless of their gender, their job type or their dependent care status, experience a reduction in role overload when they have higher levels of perceived flexibility. Analysis done in Report Five allows us to rank order various forms of flexibility with respect to their expected ability to reduce role overload. To reduce role overload, therefore, organizations need to undertake the following actions (rank ordered from most to least effective at reducing role overload):

• increase employees' ability to take their holidays when they want.
• increase employees' ability to get home from work in time to have meals with their family.
• provide paid days off for employees who need to care for elderly dependents.
• provide paid days off for employees who need to care for a sick child.
• give more flexibility with respect to work hours.
• make it possible for parents to be home when their children get home from school.

There is a strong association between role overload and opportunities for career development

Higher levels of one other form of perceived flexibility, taking time off to attend a course or a conference, is also strongly associated with lower levels of role overload. This result is a little more difficult to interpret. It could be that people with lower levels of role overload are more able to find the time for career development activities. Alternatively, it may be that employees who attend such courses learn ways to work more effectively or efficiently, which, in turn, reduces role overload. In either case, the strong association between the ability to participate in career development opportunities and overload is worthy of note, given the importance of such activities to professional workers and younger employees. These findings give organizations another incentive to deal with the issue of role overload: an increased ability to recruit and retain talent.

Employers who want to reduce role overload need to reduce non-supportive management

Our analysis demonstrates that a focus on management behaviour in general, and on reducing non-supportive management in particular, should yield substantial reductions in employee role overload. Examination of the 2001 data indicates that all employees, regardless of their gender, their job type or their dependent care status experience an increase in role overload at higher levels of non-supportive management. The data point to one management behaviour, in particular, that is strongly associated with increased role overload: having a manager who has unrealistic expectations with respect to work. Decreasing the extent to which such behaviour occurs within the organization should, therefore, be a high priority in organizations who wish to address role overload.

The importance of developing strategies to reduce non-supportive management behaviours within the organization can be further illustrated by noting the association between increased role overload and working for a manager who puts in long hours and expects their employees to do the same, makes the employee feel guilty about time off work for personal or family reasons, and focuses on hours of work instead of output.

Employers who want to reduce role overload need to increase supportive management

Organizations who wish to reduce role overload could also achieve their goals by increasing the number of supportive managers within their organization. Specifically, they need to increase the extent to which managers in their organization are effective at planning the work to be done, make themselves available to answer their employee's questions, make expectations clear, listen to their employees concerns, and give recognition for a job well done.

Flexible work arrangements do little to help employees cope with role overload

Most organizations implement flexible work arrangements as a way to help employees balance work and family. Unfortunately, the 2001 data show that, with one exception, flexible work arrangements by themselves have little impact on employee role overload. That being said, employers who do wish to tackle the issue of employee role overload may consider offering part-time work arrangements to employees with dependent care responsibilities. This work arrangement seems to be particularly effective at reducing role overload for men (rather than women) which is interesting given the fact that women are more likely than men to work part-time.

Family-friendly benefits do little to help employees cope with role overload

This study showed that supportive benefits, by themselves, have little impact on employee role overload. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the association between the use of family-friendly benefits (such as on-site day care, elder care referral services, flexible work arrangements, telework, supportive relocation policies, emergency days off, unpaid LOA, paid personal days off work, time off in lieu of overtime, and short-term personal leave) and the incidence of role overload was not significant.

Many of the strategies individuals use to cope with role overload do little to help

Unfortunately, the findings from this study support the idea that the majority of the individual coping strategies used by Canadian employees do little to help employees cope with role overload. Specifically, our analyses support the following conclusions: social support does not help individuals deal with role overload. Nor does trying to find another activity to take one's mind off things, scheduling, planning, and organizing, having an alcoholic drink, or off-shifting work with a partner. Finally, when job type is taken into account, there is no relationship between role overload and attempts to cope by prioritizing, delegating, just trying to forget about things, and using prescription medicine.

Employees with higher levels of role overload cope by working harder

Just under half (43%) of the sample copes with stress by just working harder. Unfortunately, the results from this study attest to the futility of such an approach as levels of role overload increase concomitant with the use of this strategy. The relationship between working harder and role overload is very strong and does not depend on the gender, job type or dependent care status of the individual. The cross-sectional nature of the data makes it difficult to determine the direction of causality of these findings. The results may reflect the fact that people who are overloaded cope by working harder to get things done. Alternatively, they may mean that people who attempt to cope by working harder experience diminishing returns in productivity at higher hours of work (i.e. make more mistakes, work less effectively and efficiently). This then increases rather than decreases their levels of overload - resulting in the need to continue to work harder. In either case, working harder is associated with higher, rather than lower, levels of role overload - suggesting that this strategy does not alleviate overload.

Employees with higher levels of role overload cope by reducing the quality of their work

A little more than one in four (28%) of employees in the 2001 sample say they cope with stress by reducing the quality of the things that they do. The fact that the association is, with one exception, positive indicates that employees increase their use of this strategy in response to higher levels of role overload. While the causality of this finding is difficult to ascertain (i.e. people who are overloaded may reduce quality in an attempt to cope, and/or people who cope by reducing quality experience an increase in role overload because they have to re-do some tasks) the conclusion one arrives at in either case is the same: this strategy does not help employees deal with role overload. It also implies that organizations who overload their employees in an attempt to 'do more with less' will not realize significant productivity gains.

Reducing the quality of the things they do helps employees with dependent care cope with role overload

Employees with dependent care responsibilities, who cope by reducing the quality of the things they do, experience a moderate decline in role overload. Unfortunately, this finding is not entirely positive as examination of the data determined that employees with child and/or elder care responsibilities reduce their overload by lowering their standards (and hence how much they do) at home. This interpretation is consistent with the fact that employed Canadians are more likely to let work interfere with family than vice versa

Prioritizing helps women with dependent care responsibilities cope with role overload

The incidence of role overload was significantly associated with the use of three other individual coping strategies examined in this study: forgetting about it, prioritizing/delegating, and using prescription medicine. The following conclusions can be drawn regarding the effectiveness of these different strategies at reducing role overload.

First, the relationship between role overload and the use of escapist coping strategies such as just trying to forget about one's problems is substantive and positive (i.e. employees with higher role overload are more likely to use this strategy than those with lower levels ) suggesting that this strategy is not particularly effective at alleviating overload.

Second, prioritizing and delegating appears to be a very effective way for women with child and/or elder care responsibilities, and men with dependent care responsibilities, to cope with role overload. Further examination of the data indicates that those with dependent care responsibilities reduce role overload by delegating family tasks rather than work tasks.

Finally, the data show that moderate use of prescription medicine is associated with a reduction of role overload. Those who make daily use of prescription medicine do, however, experience significantly higher levels of role overload.

Many of the strategies that individuals use to cope with role overload do little to help

Generally speaking, there is no relationship between role overload and attempting to cope by strengthening/restructuring family roles or by seeking social support. Other family coping strategies, not associated with role overload in either the job type or dependent care analysis, include hiring help to care for elderly dependents, identifying one partner as responsible for household chores, and limiting one's job involvement. Two additional family coping strategies have no relationship with role overload when job type is taken into account: cover household responsibilities for each other and plan work-related changes around the family.

How do Canadian families cope with role overload? Generally speaking, they use three sets of strategies: sacrifice their personal needs (i.e. get by on less sleep, leave things undone around the house, cut down on outside activities, buy more goods and services), put their family first (i.e. leave work problems at work, modify their work schedules) and procure help from outside the family (i.e. hire help to care for the children). They also cover family responsibilities for each other. The good news is that two of these strategies (put family first, and cover family responsibilities for each other) appear to help employees cope with role overload. A third, hiring help to care for children, also helps employees cope when used in moderation.

Unfortunately, the challenge is that employees who attempt to cope with role overload by sacrificing their personal needs, experience higher rather than lower levels of role overload. Also of cause for concern is the fact that twice as many Canadians cope by sacrificing their personal needs rather than coping by putting family first. Details on these findings are provided below.

Employees who cope by sacrificing their personal needs report higher levels of role overload.

The relationship between two of the strategies included in the grouping of sacrificing personal needs (getting by on less sleep, and cutting down on outside activities and role overload) is very straightforward: the greater the use, the higher the overload, regardless of the employees' gender, job type or dependent care responsibilities. The relationship between the third strategy in this grouping (leaving things undone around the house) and role overload depends on both the gender and the dependent care status of the employee. For men and women without dependent care responsibilities, higher use of the strategy is associated with increased role overload. This strategy does, however, help men and women with dependent care to cope with role overload when used in moderation.

Employees who put family first are better able to cope with role overload

The data indicate that role overload decreases as the use of the two strategies associated with coping by 'putting family first' (i.e. leave work related problems at work and modifying work schedule) increase. Who benefits the most from using these strategies? From the data we can conclude the following:

• leaving work problems at work is a more effective coping strategy for men than for women.
• modifying one's work schedule is a more effective coping strategy for male managers and professionals than for men in other positions who do not experience any decline in role overload when using this strategy.
• modifying one's work schedule also helps females, employees, regardless of their job type, cope with role overload. The benefit is not, however, as great as that observed for male managers and professionals.

Moderate use of hired help to care for children helps employees cope with role overload

The findings with respect to the relationship between the use of hired help to care for one's children and role overload are very interesting as, they suggest that this strategy helps employees (regardless of gender or job type) cope with role overload, but only when used in moderation. Employees who do not use hired help to care for their children, as well as employees who use help on a daily basis, both report higher levels of overload while those who employ help once or twice a week report significantly lower levels of overload. These findings raise the question: Why is daily use of child care associated with higher levels of role overload? While our data cannot answer this question specifically, we can suggest a number of reasons for these findings. One possibility is that employees with a high reliance on daycare are overloaded by the tasks associated with delivering and picking up children, and that employees with a moderate reliance on daycare tend to either work part-time or off-shift care with their spouses.

Employees with a partner who covers family chores for them are more able to cope with role overload

Men and women with dependent care responsibilities, who live in families where partners or spouses are willing to cover family responsibilities for each other (i.e. egalitarian families), are more able to cope with role overload than their counterparts who are not able to count on such assistance. These findings make sense and suggest that one can meet heavy expectations at work when someone is available to help out at home. Unfortunately, many families are time-crunched today - and such assistance may come at a cost to the obliging partner.