Today’s graduates enter the workforce in the midst of a tremendous famine—not a famine of bread and water—but a famine of time for what makes life worth living. The realities of a global
economy, extensive downsizing by large corporations, new work-facilitating technologies, and the advent of e-commerce have combined to significantly lengthen the time we spend at work.
A recent survey documents that in just five years the average U.S. workweek increased from forty-three to forty-seven hours, equivalent to nearly an extra hour of work each day.1 A United Nations International Labor Organization study revealed that the United States just passed Japan as the developed country with the most work time.2
Not only have the number of hours increased, but employees are working in ways that are more intrusive to family life. Time density is greater than before—people are doing more things at the same time. Employees are often provided with cell phones, pagers, fax machines, and lap-top computers to enable instant communication anywhere in the world. These portable communications devices can interrupt the flow of family activities at any time, on any day, and in any place. It’s tougher than ever to successfully navigate work and family roles.
Graduates of the Marriott School, with their additional church responsibilities, may feel this time crunch more acutely. To find out how alumni simultaneously manage demanding business careers with substantial family, church, and community responsibilities, the Marriott School teamed up with the BYU School of Family Life to conduct a work and family survey of Marriott School master-level alumni. We mailed our survey to a random sample of 1,453 alumni and their spouses in the United States and stratified the sample by gender. We received completed surveys from 574 Marriott School graduates for a nearly 40 percent participation rate.
[See methodology, p. 9]
FINDINGS—WORK LIFE
In general, we found that many Marriott School graduates feel the struggle to balance work and family. They are dedicated, hard workers who are also very committed to their families and church. Yet in spite of the many demands on their time, they appear to be discovering ways to find harmony in their lives.
WORK HOURS
Like the rest of workers in America, Marriott School alumni are working long hours. Of those employed full time, men report working about fifty hours per week, and women report working about forty-six hours per week. [See chart A] Virtually all of the male alumni are employed full time. About half of female alumnae are employed full time, about one-fifth work part time, and about one-fourth are not employed. Those who have scaled back have done so primarily to devote more time to effectively raise their children. However, working less than full time does not appear to create a financial hardship for these single-earner families. Their average annual household income exceeds $90,000.
COMMITMENT TO EMPLOYERS
Most Marriott School alumni report strong motivation to excel in their profession. They report a willingness to work extra hard to see their organization succeed, feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company, are proud of who they work for, and indicate high job satisfaction. However, only about half expect to stay with their current employer until retirement, and about one in five is actively looking for another job. [See chart B] When asked why they might leave their current employer, both men and women cite the inability to balance work and personal/family life more frequently than any other reason, including inadequate compensation.
FINDINGS—CHURCH LIFE
Work is only one of the domains calling for time and energy from Marriott School alumni. Virtually all respondents report they are active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spend an average of eleven hours per week in church-related activity, including serving in time-intensive callings. More than half of female alumnae have served in Relief Society, Young Women, or Primary presidencies, and nearly one-third have served as president of one of these organizations. More than three-fourths of male alumni have served in priesthood leadership capacities, and more than one-third have served as a bishop, stake president, or mission president. Extrapolating survey results reveal that more than 1,700 LDS bishops (+/- 6 percent) have completed Marriott School graduate programs.
FINDINGS—PERSONAL/FAMILY LIFE
One way alumni may be compensating for the dual demands of occupation and religion is by cutting back on personal and family renewal time. About three of four graduates report having too little time for personal recreation, exercise, and personal spiritual development. [See chart C] Approximately two out of three desire more time for marital and family recreation. Alumni apparently try to squeeze more out of each day by sleeping fewer hours. They average about 6.7 hours of sleep per night, representing a 1.5 hour a night sleep deficit when compared to the ideal of 8.2 hours a night. Interestingly, this survey also reveals that those who report more sleep also report happier marriages.
REPORTING DISSONANCE
Unfortunately, many Marriott School alumni appear to be dissatisfied with their ability to find harmony among family, church, and occupational responsibilities. In fact, about half of them report it is either difficult or very difficult to balance these three domains, and men are even more likely than women to report this difficulty. [See chart D] A sizeable minority, particularly of men, report their job negatively impacts their relationship with spouse, children, and the quality of family recreation they enjoy. Similarly, this group reports that because of work pressures they are frequently preoccupied with stressful work thoughts while at home. It appears that the negative impact of jobs on family life is a pressing, day-to-day issue for both male and female alumni.
ARE FAMILIES SUFFERING?
Is there evidence that the pressing demands of work, church, and family are causing the families of Marriott School alumni to suffer? National and international studies have associated excessive work and work/family stress with outcomes such as delayed marriage, problematic marital and family relationships, reduced family size, family disruption through divorce, and lack of parental involvement. One purpose of this survey was to see the degree to which Marriott School alumni experience similar outcomes.
DELAYED MARRIAGE?
Marriott School alumni do not appear to be delaying marriage. They are more likely to be married than other groups with advanced degrees: 97 percent of the men and 81 percent of the women have been married. [See chart E] Once married, alumni tend to stay married. Of those who married, 93 percent of the men and 88 percent of the women are still married to their first spouse.
PROBLEMATIC MARRIAGE AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS?
Marriott School husbands and wives both report high levels of marital satisfaction, though they would like more marital recreation. More than seven in eight of both married men and married women report being satisfied or very satisfied with love, conflict resolution, gender equity, communication, and their marriage overall. Though still a majority, fewer say they are satisfied with household division of labor, amount of fun, and intimacy in marriage. Alumni report going on two to three dates a month with their spouse. However, about six in ten report too little time for marital recreation.
REDUCED FAMILY SIZE?
There is no evidence the time pressure of having a demanding occupation is limiting the number of children for our survey respondents. On the contrary, Marriott School alumni average about four children per family, more than twice the national norm. [See chart F] One factor that may contribute to the larger family size is that 64 percent of men report having a spouse who stays at home with children and is not employed.
DIVORCE AND FAMILY DISRUPTION?
There is also little evidence of family disruption. Children of Marriott School alumni are being raised in a stable family environment by their two parents. More than nine in ten children are living with both of their original parents in a first marriage. [See chart G] This is much more stable than national norms, which show 58 percent of children living with both parents in a first marriage. In addition, during working hours, the vast majority of children of Marriott School alumni are cared for by a parent or relative.
LACK OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT?
Marriott School men are involved in the lives of their children, though to a lesser degree than Marriott School women. [See chart H] Mothers report reading, working on household tasks, and doing homework with their children more frequently than fathers. The biggest gender difference appears to be in the kitchen. Women alumnae most often prepare family dinner. About six in ten of both men and women report too little time for recreation with their children.
FINDING HARMONY
Despite the challenges, Marriott School alumni seem to manage most aspects of their lives very well. One important question is, if Marriott School graduates experience the same demanding work stress endemic as the rest of society, engage in ten-plus service hours a week, and have extremely demanding family responsibilities—why don’t they report the same problematic outcomes as others?
One factor may be that Marriott School alumni participate in several daily and weekly religious rituals. On average, Marriott School alumni report having family prayer five to six times per week, studying the scriptures together as a family three days a week, and attending church together as a family four to five times a month.
PROTECTIVE POWER OF SCRIPTURE STUDY AND PRAYER
Frequent family scripture study appears to be a strong protective factor against problematic family relationships. Those who report holding family scripture study at least six days per week are only one-fourth as likely to report having troubled relationships with their spouse and children. Interestingly enough, family scripture reading is also correlated with greater work success and more success in balancing work and family life. Most Marriott School alumni also report that they specifically pray for guidance in occupational, marital, child-rearing, and church responsibilities; this may help ameliorate the negative outcomes of stress.
FOCUSED FAMILY TIME
Most Marriott School alumni make family dinner a priority. [See chart I] They report sitting down to dinner with their spouse and children about five times per week. They also engage in other family activities such as watching TV with family about three days a week and doing a family recreational activity about two days a week. These activities don’t have to take a great deal of additional time but are significantly correlated with greater perceived work-family balance and successful family relationships.
LIVING PROCLAMATION PRINCIPLES
The charter for the School of Family Life at BYU is The Family: A Proclamation to the World. One purpose of this survey was to look at the relationship of principles from the proclamation to work and family outcomes. The proclamation states, “Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”
For this survey, we developed a proclamation scale that assesses how well alumni believe they have been able to incorporate these principles into their lives. We found that those who score low on this scale are almost five times as likely to report they are not successful in their relationship with their spouse, almost twice as likely to report they are not successful in their relationships with their children, and about two and one-half times as likely to report that work and family life are not balanced. [See chart J]
In regression analyses, the Proclamation scale predicts work/family balance more strongly than other factors we might expect to be more influential, such as work hours, presence of children, management support, or organizational culture.
STRATEGIES FOR FINDING HARMONY IN A BUSY LIFE
Finding harmony can be a daunting task, yet Marriott School graduates appear to have found some strategies that work. Here are a few:
1. Be flexible
Recent research indicates that those with flexibility and control over when and where they do their work are much better able to find harmony between work and family life.3, 4 Given the same work hours, flexible workers report both higher productivity and greater harmony in their family lives. Options like flextime, telecommuting, and part-time schedules can make it much easier to meet competing demands of work and family. Flextime can enable employees to work longer hours part of the week in order to be home an extra day or to start work early and leave in time for a soccer game, school play, or to pick children up from school.
Telecommuting is also a popular option for our survey takers, with one of every eight women alumni reporting that they telecommute at least one day per week, and another one in three indicating they’d like their employer to allow them to telecommute. As one alumna noted, “Working from my home allows me to work when the children are at school and the baby takes a nap.” One-fifth of female respondents also report working part time.
2. Simplify your life
Another suggestion—which may be easier said than done—is to seek greater simplicity. Deliberately choosing to accumulate fewer possessions and engage in fewer activities can be a key to finding harmony in a busy life. We live in a materialistic society where it seems crucial to acquire many gadgets, toys, and experiences. These things have a high cost in time as well as money. Sometimes the best answer is to scale back. One alumnus wrote, “I got out of the rat race and took a $20,000 cut in pay to have a lifestyle. This change allowed me to cut down from sixty-plus hours to forty-five hours and allows time for me to coach my children in sports.”
3. Set priorities as a family
Communicating regularly with spouse and children about work and family demands can help create time for family priorities. Many hold weekly family meetings to discuss activities for the coming week, including work responsibilities, school assignments, extracurricular activities, and church activities. At these meetings they also “discuss family issues, weigh alternatives, and jointly make decisions.” They prioritize individual and family demands—making sure to include time together as a family. Weekly events and schedules of family members often get placed on a family calendar. One alumnus expressed, “Put first things first—God, family, career.”
For some alumni, prioritizing means making a commitment to always have dinner together as a family, to not work on weekends, to be home with children more often, or to carry a planner so priorities and schedules are not forgotten.
4. Seek family-friendly companies
Marriott School alumni often volunteer that they like to work for companies with cultures that encourage employees to have lives outside of work. One alumnus responded, “Employers need to understand that happy employees are productive employees. Happy employees have employers who allow and encourage a balanced life.”
Conclusion
Finding harmony in a busy life is not a new challenge. In fact, Brigham Young taught, “Life is best enjoyed when time periods are evenly divided between labour, sleep, and recreation . . . ” He defined recreation as “rebuilding, voluntary activity—never idleness.”5
Alumni appear to be anything but idle. They are finding ways to successfully manage many competing demands. This is true even though they face additional church and family commitments. Remarkably, alumni efforts to do more to live gospel principles seem to have the strongest positive effect on success in all areas of their lives. In seeking that elusive goal of harmony, they appear to be putting George Bernard Shaw’s advice to good use: “The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”6
EndNotes
- Bond, J. T., Galinksy, E., and Swanberg, J. E. (1998). The National Study of the Changing Workforce. New York: Families and Work Institute.
- Fortune (2000). “The New Company Town,” 10 January.
- Hill, E. J., Hawkins, A. J., Ferris, M., and Weitzman, M. (2001). “Finding an Extra Day a Week: The Positive Effect of Job Flexibility on Work and Family Life Balance.” Family Relations, 50(1), 49–58.
- Hill, E. J., Miller, B. C., Weiner, S. P., and Colihan, J. (1998). “Influences of the Virtual Office on Aspects of Work and Work/Life Balance.” Personnel Psychology, 51(3), 667–683.
- Gates, S. Y. (1930), The Life Story of Brigham Young. New York: Macmillan. 251.
- Shaw, G. B. (1956) Mrs. Warren’s Profession, in Six Great Modern Plays. New York: Dell Publishing Co. 215.
Methodology
The Marriott School Alumni Work and Family Survey consisted of a self-administered questionnaire mailed in January 2001 to a random sample of Marriott School alumni with graduate degrees, stratified by gender. A total 719 of 899 female alumni (80 percent) and 734 of 8,757 male alumni (8 percent) were invited to participate. Spouses of alumni were asked to complete a spouse survey.
Two reminder postcards and two reminder email messages were sent in February and March. A total of 278 women and 283 men returned completed questionnaires, representing a participation rate of 40 percent. The margin of error was +/- 5 percent for women and +/- 6 percent for men.
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Article written by E. Jeffrey Hill, Robin Zenger Baker, and Jennifer Anderson
Illustrated by Dave Black
Results of the Marriott School Alumni Work and Family Survey
About the authors
E. Jeffrey Hill is an associate professor in the BYU School of Family Life and a senior HR professional at IBM, where he is a subject-matter expert in work and family issues. He received an MOB from BYU in 1984 and a PhD in family and human development from Utah State University in 1995. He and his wife, Juanita, are the parents of nine children.
Robin Zenger Baker is a lecturer at the Boston University School of Management. She received an MOB from BYU in 1984 and a PhD in organization studies from UCLA in 1990. She and her husband, Rich Baker, have four children.
Jennifer Anderson is a Marriott School MBA student emphasizing in organizational behavior. Before attending BYU she worked in Sandy, Utah as a management analyst in the Human Resource Department. She graduated with a BS in business from the Marriott School in 1996.