Higher Education Institutions' (HEI) workers were highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which magnified gender differences in terms of management of work and personal life. Most studies published so far have primarily focused on a group of HEI workers' (i.e., teachers and researchers), but not on staff members, despite their crucial role for HEI functioning. Following the Job Demands-Resources theory, we aimed to: (i) characterize work-life conflict (WLC) among men and women workers from an HEI (staff and teachers/researchers) during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (ii) explore the major predictors of WLC for both staff and teachers/researchers. This study includes a sample of 262 workers from one Portuguese HEI (n = 128 staff members; n = 134 teachers/researchers) who answered an online survey. An Independent Samples T-Test showed that the reported current WLC was significantly higher for teachers/researchers compared to staff. Moreover, women teachers/researchers showed higher WLC than men. Additionally, using a Repeated Measures ANOVA, we found that the increase in the reported levels of WLC (before the pandemic and currently) was significantly more prominent among teachers/researchers than in the staff group. Regarding the predictors of WLC for both groups separately, a Multiple Hierarchical Linear Regression showed that role overload, conceptualized as a demand, was a predictor for both staff and teachers/researchers. As for potential resources, work dedication negatively predicted WLC for staff, whereas family-friendly organization perceptions predicted less WLC for teachers/researchers. These results highlight the importance of understanding HEIs holistically, by considering workers' individual characteristics such as gender, but also distinct careers inside the institutions. As most European HEIs are currently making active efforts to promote gender-equal academic workplaces, these findings may help them design tailored and effective measures to address employees' work-life balance issues, not only considering gender, but also the different types of demands associated with each group of workers within HEIs.

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Dual-earner couples with adolescent children face increased challenges to manage work and family roles. This study aims to analyse the effect of two types of organisational support (supervisor's support and organisational culture) on work-family conflict (WFC) and psychological detachment from work, according to a couple-dyadic model. More specifically, we propose a model in which WFC acts as a mediator for the relationship between organisational support and psychological detachment. A sample of 198 dual-earner couples with at least one adolescent child (aged 13-18 years) participated. We analysed actor, partner and gender effects using the Actor–partner interdependence mediation modeling and found that the association between supervisor support and WFC is stronger for women, while the association between supportive organisational culture and WFC manifests with the same intensity for men and women. In the case of men, it is the supportive organisational culture that is associated with psychological detachment through WFC, while in the case of women, it is the supervisor's support that is associated with psychological detachment, also through WFC. No partner effects were found. Our results highlight the need for organisations to implement work-family balance measures that take dyadic interactions and gender differences into account.

This study aimed to explore the differences in perceptions of a single-friendly work culture (SFWC) and work-life balance (WLB) among single employees in four European countries: Croatia, Denmark, Italy, and Portugal. It also aimed to consider single employees’ experiences unique to the events of COVID-19. A total of 722 single, childless employees, of which 191 from Italy, 182 Portugal, 180 Croatia, and 160 Denmark, completed an online set of self-report instruments. The results were mostly in line with the expectation that singlehood acceptance and WLB is higher, and work cultures are more single-friendly in more egalitarian countries: from Denmark, to Croatia, Portugal, and Italy. In all countries, social acceptance of singlehood variables was weakly to moderately positively correlated to WLB, while these variables’ correlations with the SFWC factors were mostly non-significant for Denmark. The participants’ open-ended responses indicated that they felt employers and colleagues expected them to pick up extra shifts or be more flexible in planning, e.g. vacation schedules, during the pandemic and in general. Another prominent theme across countries was financial differentiation amongst employees according to relationship status. These results might heighten awareness of nations and organizations to the need to consider singles’ issues in forming policies.

Working time arrangements may be a source of strain and entail negative consequences for workers, one of which can be exhaustion. Based on the Job Demands-Resources and the Conservation of Resources theories, this study explores recovery experiences from work and satisfaction with the work schedule as possible resources that may prevent or minimize such negative consequences. With a sample of 386 workers (n = 287 women; 99 men) and using a Cluster analysis, we identified five working time arrangements: Fixed Standardized, Part-Time, Irregular Standardized, Flexible Standardized, and Nonstandard Work Schedule (NWS). A One-Way ANOVA found that workers in the Irregular Standardized schedule report higher exhaustion compared to the Fixed Standardized and the Part-Time. Exhaustion of workers in NWS is higher compared to the Part-Time workers. A Multiple Linear Regression analysis found that the link between recovery experiences and exhaustion varies according to the working time arrangement. Lastly, an interaction analysis confirmed the moderator effect of satisfaction with the work schedule in the relationship between recovery experiences and exhaustion for the whole sample. When this analysis was performed separately for each cluster, this effect was only significant for NWS and by disentangling this finding by recovery dimensions, only relaxation had a significant interaction effect. This study clarifies the links between different recovery experiences and exhaustion, and points to the importance of satisfaction with the work schedule in facilitating recovery under demanding working time arrangements. Results are discussed considering the complex nature of the work-family interface.

Working time arrangements may be a source of strain and entail negative consequences for workers, one of which can be exhaustion. Based on the job demands‐resources and the conservation of resources theories, this study explores recovery experiences from work and satisfaction with the work schedule as possible resources that may prevent or minimize such negative consequences. With a sample of 386 workers (n = 287 women; 99 men) and using a cluster analysis, we identified five working time arrangements: fixed standardized, part‐time, irregular standardized, flexible standardized, and nonstandard work schedule (NWS). A one‐way ANOVA found that workers in the irregular standardized schedule report higher exhaustion compared to the fixed standardized and the part‐time. Exhaustion of workers in NWS is higher compared to the part‐time workers. A multiple linear regression analysis found that the link between recovery experiences and exhaustion varies according to the working time arrangement. Lastly, an interaction analysis confirmed the moderator effect of satisfaction with the work schedule in the relationship between recovery experiences and exhaustion for the whole sample. When this analysis was performed separately for each cluster, this effect was only significant for NWS and by disentangling this finding by recovery dimensions, only relaxation had a significant interaction effect. This study clarifies the links between different recovery experiences and exhaustion, and points to the importance of satisfaction with the work schedule in facilitating recovery under demanding working time arrangements. Results are discussed considering the complex nature of the work‐family interface.