Buffering Work and Family Conflict
Cyndi Willis

Author note: This assignment was made by Cyndi Willis on July 25, 2014 for Kathryn Chiplis’ Work and Family course at Rasmussen College.
Buffering Work and Family Conflict
There are many things that create conflict when one is trying to balance their work life and their family life. Sometimes it becomes increasingly overwhelming trying to keep a job and move up the ranks to a higher paying position while still pleasing your spouse, kids, and just being there for your entire family. Both work and family come with obligations and it is often difficult to prioritize between the two as both are very important and rely on each other.
There are certain buffers that help dissipate work and family conflict. One of them is family composition. There is a lot covered under a family’s composition. Having close family and friends nearby can help a single working mother or father or even dual working parents juggle their work and family lives. Extra hands on deck are always a plus with busy families. Depending on the ages of the children of a family, younger children tend to provide more stressors while older children who need less are more stable and can do a lot for themselves which relieves potential stress off the parents. If both parents work, having set chores for each of them is a good way to even the playing field making sure neither parent is more overloaded than the other. A housekeeper would also be a great option to take some of that stress of their shoulders.
The traditional gender roles are where the husbands work the long hours and the wives stay at home and take care of the children and do the housework. Sometimes conflict is created because of the work stress that the husband goes through where the wife does not. A good buffer for this is for the wife to enter the workforce as well, even if it’s simply part-time. This will allow the husband to see that he is not the only one bringing home the money and alleviates some stress for him. (Voydanoff, P. 1988).
Social support is a great buffer that can relieve stress in almost any topic. Having a close group of friends or a meet up group for support can really give perspective on your particular situation. It’s a great way to meet new people as well as see that there are others going through similar situations. Stressors at work that can be discussed with coworkers will help from leaking the stress into the family life, and stressors at home that can be discussed in social settings will help from leaking the stress into work life.
Other buffers that are getting more common are work policies and programs that are family-friendly such as telecommuting, schedule flexibility, maternity/paternity leaves, sick leaves, on-site child care or other child care connections, and health care insurance. Telecommuting is something that is a lot easier with today’s rise in information technology. The total amount of both contract and regular employee teleworkers has more than doubled since 2001. (Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Casy, J., Shulkin, S., Weber, J., Curlew, M. 2009). Many companies offer one day telecommuting, while there are some positions that do it full-time. This benefits the work-family balance and buffers conflict for many reasons. It’s convenient, saves money on fuel expenses, accommodates health conditions or disabilities, and is a flexible system for dependent care responsibilities such as following through with appointments and tending to children or elderly family members. (Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Casy, J., Shulkin, S., Weber, J., Curlew, M. 2009).
With an employer that offers such family-friendly programs, this shows an employee that they are being supported by the company. Simply having that extra support to lean on when certain conflicts arise can make it so much easier to deal with and an employer can reach out to individuals and show them options they can take advantage of. This is the most important factor in reducing work-family conflict. It all comes down to having a great support system at home or at work, and the right tools to balance both lives in harmonious manner. All of the buffers listed stem back to the support system that is needed for individuals to handle work-family conflict in the best way.

References
Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Casy, J., Shulkin, S., Weber, J., Curlew, M. (2009). Telework and Telecommuting: Policy Briefing Series. Retrieved on July 25, 2014 from: https://workfamily.sas.upenn.edu/sites/workfamily.sas.upenn.edu/files/imported/pdfs/policy_makers3.pdf
Voydanoff, P. Journal of Marriage and Family. 1988. Retrieved on July 25, 2014 from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/352644?uid=3739736&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104391318517