Not Able to Lead a Healthy Life When You Need It the Most: Dual Role of Lifestyle Behaviors in the Association of Blurred Work-Life Boundaries With Well-Being

Abstract

As there is a growing trend for people to work from home, precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines the impact of blurred work-life boundaries on lifestyle and subjective well-being. Our cross-sectional study in the Netherlands demonstrates that heightened levels of blurred work-life boundaries predict negative changes in happiness through enhanced emotional exhaustion. In addition, the findings point to a dual role of lifestyle in this process. On the one hand, we observed that healthy overall lifestyle patterns buffered employees against the detrimental effects of blurred work-life boundaries and emotional exhaustion on happiness. On the other hand, employees who experienced increases in blurring of work-life boundaries reported a deterioration in healthy lifestyle behaviors, which in turn was related to reduced happiness. Paradoxically, it seems that those who would benefit the most from a healthy lifestyle are less able to sustain health-promoting behaviors. A case for shared responsibility between employers and employees is built as we discuss the practical implications of the current research.

Keywords: COVID-19; blurred work-life boundaries; emotional exhaustion; happiness; lifestyle; well-being.

FIGURE 1

Conceptual model and overview of hypotheses.

FIGURE 2

Moderating effect of healthy lifestyle index on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and happiness. Simple slopes are presented for conditional values of the moderator at ±1 SD.

FIGURE 3

Results of moderated mediation analyses for the various lifestyle behaviors using PROCESS model 58. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.

FIGURE 4

Results of serial mediation analyses for the various lifestyle behaviors using PROCESS model 6. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.