Ironic Flexibility: When Normative Role Blurring Undermines the Benefits of Schedule Control

Schedule control is touted as a potent work-related resource that helps workers minimize work–family conflict and enhance their own well-being. We ask: Does normative role blurring undermine those benefits? Normative role blurring involves the perceived expectation in the workplace culture that workers should take work home during nonwork hours and/or days. Analyses of the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) demonstrates that normative role blurring undermines the benefits of schedule control for work–family conflict and multiple indicators of worker well-being: job satisfaction, turnover intentions, anxiety, and life satisfaction. Moreover, to varying degrees, work–family conflict contributes to those conditional effects on well-being. Our observations offer new insights about the challenges of normative role blurring in workplace cultures and their implications for the benefits of schedule control.