Managing menopause transition in the workplace: The double‐edged sword of flexible work.
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| Title: | Managing menopause transition in the workplace: The double‐edged sword of flexible work. |
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| Authors: | Potočnik, Kristina, Steffan, Belinda, Zheng, Shumin |
| Source: | Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology. Jun2025, Vol. 98 Issue 2, p1-26. 26p. |
| Subjects: | Therapeutics, Psychological burnout, Qualitative research, Research funding, Work environment, Postmenopause, Severity of illness index, Flextime, Longitudinal method, Job performance |
| Abstract: | Despite a growing body of literature around menopause at work, our understanding of how menopause symptoms may impact employees over time is limited. Using a longitudinal sample of 679 cis‐women, we predicted that the changes in the severity of psychological and physical menopause symptoms would lead to changes in burnout and perceived job performance over a period of 6 months. Drawing from resource theories, we further explored whether the usefulness of flexible work may moderate these relationships. Our findings showed that women who experienced greater intensification of menopause symptoms experienced an increase in burnout, and women whose symptoms became less intense experienced a decrease in burnout. We also found that those who found flexible work more useful experienced a positive change in their perceived job performance, despite suffering from the intensified physical symptoms. Those who perceived such flexible work to be less useful, however, did not exhibit a significant change in their performance over time. In‐depth qualitative findings on a sub‐sample of 53 women provided nuanced explanations for these results, including exposing a double‐edged sword of working flexibly to manage menopause symptoms and potentially detrimental unintended consequences of flexible work during menopause transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Despite a growing body of literature around menopause at work, our understanding of how menopause symptoms may impact employees over time is limited. Using a longitudinal sample of 679 cis‐women, we predicted that the changes in the severity of psychological and physical menopause symptoms would lead to changes in burnout and perceived job performance over a period of 6 months. Drawing from resource theories, we further explored whether the usefulness of flexible work may moderate these relationships. Our findings showed that women who experienced greater intensification of menopause symptoms experienced an increase in burnout, and women whose symptoms became less intense experienced a decrease in burnout. We also found that those who found flexible work more useful experienced a positive change in their perceived job performance, despite suffering from the intensified physical symptoms. Those who perceived such flexible work to be less useful, however, did not exhibit a significant change in their performance over time. In‐depth qualitative findings on a sub‐sample of 53 women provided nuanced explanations for these results, including exposing a double‐edged sword of working flexibly to manage menopause symptoms and potentially detrimental unintended consequences of flexible work during menopause transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 09631798 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/joop.70032 |
