Beyond 9-5: Work-Life Boundary Management in the Future of Work

This symposium brings together a diverse group of management scholars to provide novel answers to how employees can navigate the increasingly permeable boundary between work and nonwork aspects of their lives. Advances in technology and the proliferation of flexible work arrangements promised a better work-nonwork balance. However, increased work flexibility has ironically resulted in employees feeling overwhelmed, burned out, and unable to disconnect from work. The four papers in this symposium expand the work-nonwork literature by examining how individuals transition between work and nonwork. First, Arianna Beetz, Nancy Rothbard, and Sigal Barsade demonstrate how the affective experience of the commute to and from work has important consequences for employees’ attitudes and behaviors at work as well as for employees’ experiences after work. Second, Benjamin Rogers, Ovul Sezer, Trevor Watkins, Katherine DeCelles, Chen-Bo Zhong, Michael Norton, and Hal Hershfield show how after-work rituals help employees cope with job stressors by prioritizing self-care and recovery activities. Third, Vanessa Conzon and Ruthanne Huising reveal the importance of studying the interplay between temporal and relational boundaries across the work and nonwork domains. Finally, Laura Giurge, Stephanie Chan-Ahuja, and Gillian Ku show that employees experience greater subjective well-being, work-life balance, and task performance when they collectively consider work and nonwork activities and create temporal boundaries around them. The key takeaway of this symposium is that employees can positively shape their well-being and work outcomes by proactively crafting how they transition between work and nonwork. The Bridge Between Work and Home: The Impact of The Commute on The Work-Life Interface Presenter: Arianna M. Beetz; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Nancy Rothbard; U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Sigal Barsade; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania After-Work Rituals as a Tool to Overcome the Recovery Paradox Presenter: Benjamin Alan Rogers; UNC-Chapel Hill Presenter: Ovul Sezer; Columbia Business School Presenter: Trevor Watkins; U. of Oklahoma Presenter: Katherine Ann DeCelles; U. of Toronto Presenter: Chen-Bo Zhong; U. of Toronto Presenter: Michael Norton; Harvard U. Presenter: Hal Hershfield; UCLA Anderson School of Management How Temporal Sovereignty Shapes Connectedness at Work Presenter: Vanessa Conzon; Boston College Presenter: Ruthanne Huising; EMLYON Business School Beyond the Work-Nonwork Boundary: The Benefits of Budgeting Time Across Activities Presenter: Laura Maria Giurge; London School of Economics and Political Science Presenter: Stephanie Chan-Ahuja; London Business School Presenter: Gillian Ku; London Business School