Home alone: work-nonwork management challenges and strategies of single child-free knowledge workers

This study integrates Boundary Theory (BT) (Nippert Ng, 1996) and Organizational Justice Theory (OJT) (Greenberg, 1987) to expand knowledge of HR scholars and practitioners on specific work-nonwork boundary management tactics of single and childfree knowledge workers, and on the role the employer and line manager in ensuring fairness of HR policies and practices. The study focuses on formal and informal provisions of work-nonwork management arrangements in the UK academia and devotes specific attention on the subjective experiences of single childfree individuals, a population that has been relatively under-researched in the work-nonwork literature, yet initial studies show they face specific work-nonwork management challenges. Data is collected through 26 semi-structured interviews aided by photo-elicitation and underpinned by an interpretivist stance. Evidence shows a widespread perception of unfairness in work-nonwork arrangements provision in the UK academia, where single and childfree employees often find themselves trapped in a spiral of overwork, due to difficulties in setting — legitimate and legitimized — boundaries between work and non-work. Consequently, they rely on self-discipline to craft some time-off work, often engaging in self-initiated spatial and temporal strategies. The study suggests the need to revise policies and practices to cover for, and legitimize, the variegated nonwork activities, and roles of an increasingly diverse workforce, whose nonwork domain includes roles and activities beyond ‘family’ and parenting duties.