Impact of Job Insecurity on Work–Life Balance during COVID-19 in India

Abstract

The ongoing health crisis has impacted businesses worldwide, drastically reducing production, consumption and distribution of goods and services, leading to an economic downturn. An increasing unemployment rate has led to a surge in the sense of job insecurity among employees. Lack of job security has a direct impact on an employee’s health and work–life balance. This article focusses on the relationship between and impact of job insecurity on work–life balance, that is, to understand the impact of perceived job insecurity on working hours, employee’s health and reduced family time. Using a self-completed questionnaire, data was collected from 413 employees from different sectors like construction, banks, hospitals, hotels, schools, FMCG, telecommunication, etc., in India, which assisted in testing five hypotheses. The study found a positive relationship between job insecurity and health issues and work–life conflict. Additionally, job insecurity was negatively linked with job performance. Regression analysis showed mediating effects of work demand, work time, family time and family demand on the relationship of job insecurity with health issues, job performance and work–life conflict. However, the article also discusses various effective mechanisms to reduce job insecurity and ways to curb its negative impacts on various organizational and personal outcomes.

Teleworkers' job performance: a study examining the role of age as an important diversity component of companies' workforce

“…Literature demonstrated that work organization conditions can influence job performance (Simard and Parent-Lamarche, 2021;Rawashdeh et al, 2022). They encompassed five work-related variables, which can affect job performance: workload (Bruggen, 2015;Parent-Lamarche and Boulet, 2021b); skill utilization and decision authority (Simard and Parent-Lamarche, 2021;Hackman and Oldham, 1980), as well as recognition Oldham, 1976, 1980;Ahmad et al, 2017;Bradler et al, 2016;Parent-Lamarche and Laforce, 2022), and job insecurity (Sverke et al, 2002;Kalia and Bhardwaj, 2019;Begum et al, 2022).…”

“…, 2016; Parent-Lamarche and Laforce, 2022), and job insecurity (Sverke et al. , 2002; Kalia and Bhardwaj, 2019; Begum et al. , 2022).…”

Work, life and COVID‐19: a rapid review and practical recommendations for the post‐pandemic workplace

“…downsizing, restructuring and redundancy) led to loss of job control and security, which in turn exacerbated employees' psychological strain and emotional exhaustion (del Rio‐Chanona et al. 2020 ) and increased their work‐life conflict (Begum, Shafaghi and Adeel 2022 ). In April 2020, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated global unemployment to be 190 million, primarily driven by job losses in the food and accommodation, retail and wholesale and business services and administration sectors (Clarke 2020 ).…”

Understanding the impact of pandemics on society with a special focus on COVID‐19

“…Ganson et al ( 2021 ) surveyed 4852 young adult workers in the United States and reported job loss for 2862 (59%) at the start of the pandemic in June 2020. Mckinsey's report on global diversity, equity, and inclusion claims that job insecurity increased to 78% in India owing to COVID‐19 (Begum et al, 2022 ). Employees experiencing a fall in their income levels would curtail their consumption expenditure.…”