Work-family conflict among hotel housekeepers in the Balearic Islands (Spain)

PLoS One. 2023 Mar 29;18(3):e0269074. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269074. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

The massive incorporation of women to the labour market has increased academic and applied interest on work-life issues throughout the years. This article aims to describe the domestic burden and difficulties in work-life balance (WLB) and to understand the intersection of work and family spheres among hotel housekeepers (HHs). A cross-sectional study was conducted through Primary Health Care in the Balearic Islands (Spain); 1,043 HHs were enrolled. 56.7% reported difficulties in WLB. Risk factors for perceiving difficulties in WLB were: living with someone else (regardless of the number of co-habitants), having difficulties making ends meet, being the main person in charge of domestic tasks, having a dependant, having an external locus of control, presenting higher levels of stress at work, working more hours a week and being younger. Protective factors from experiencing work-family conflict (WFC) were job and wage satisfaction. WFC is strongly influenced by individual, economic, labour and domestic factors: these relationships show that labour and domestic spheres are non-separate worlds.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Family Conflict*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Job Satisfaction*
  • Spain
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research is part of a wider Project, "Hotel Housekeepers and Health" (PI: JLL), which is funded by Sustainable Tourism's Tax Fund (Balearic Islands Government), grant number ITS-17-096. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.