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Home Office – Salutary Action on Combining Work and Family?

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  • Hansen, Kerstin F.

Abstract

Working from home does not only receive attention from companies as a non-pecuniary feature to entice and keep valuable employees, but also by politicians as a mean to enhance the compatibility of labor market and family obligations for working citizens. With representative panel data, I investigate potential welfare effects of working from home in the German context using life satisfaction as a proxy measure for individual utility. I find that, on average, people working from home are more satisfied with their lives. However, it shows that the positive association between working from home and satisfaction with live is entirely explained by socio-demographic and job characteristics as well as individual heterogeneity, both in a sample representative for the German population as well as in a sample representative for the intended target group of employees with family care obligations. Generally, working from home does not seem to be beneficial nor does it appear particularly harmful. However, I find that working from home is not related to care obligation or family status but rather to authority and status in the workplace, leaving the usefulness - at least as a policy measure to enhance work-life balance - of the feature in doubt.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansen, Kerstin F., 2017. "Home Office – Salutary Action on Combining Work and Family?," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 71(4), pages 390-413.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:untern:10.5771/0042-059x-2017-4-390
    DOI: 10.5771/0042-059X-2017-4-390
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